Publishing

Hello again everyone. Kelly and I have been doing all right, just having fun and working and what-not. The new exciting news for me is that the paper that I am the second author for has been accepted for publication. It is set to be published in the April issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. This is pretty exciting for me since it will be the first astronomy paper that I am an author for that is being published. When it is online I will send out the URL so that you can read it if you want. Along the same lines, I have also picked a project to do for my senior thesis. I am hopefully going to present the intial results of the research at the Spring Research Conference in March, and will hopefully be done with the thesis by the end of April. Also, if everything goes well, I will re-write it and try to get it published in the American Astrophysical Journal sometime this summer. Below I have included the abstract that I submitted for the research conference.

Analysis of the Hα and Hβ Temperature Curves of ∂ Scuti and ∂ Serpentis

In ∂ Scuti type variable stars, the two prominent spectral features are the Hα and Hβ hydrogen Balmer lines. Using a Strömgren color-index centered on one of these lines, an index can be produced that will give the temperature of the star. Both of these lines can be used for this temperature calibration. Using spectral data taken from the 1.2-m telescope at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory on two variables, ∂ Scuti and ∂ Serpentis, we applied the temperature index to each line to make a graph of temperature vs. time. Since these stars are pulsating variables, we expect to see them oscillate over time with the pulsation period of the star. Also, we expect to see the separate temperature calibrations in phase with each other. Here, we will present the preliminary results of this analysis.

The Baby

Hello again everyone! I have great news for this post. Kelly and I went to the doctor today and she had an ultrasound. The technician lady was really nice and somehow knew what everything was. She kept wanting the baby to move so that she could see different things, so she would push on Kelly's stomach to get it to move around. Kelly didn't appreciate that too much, but we were able to see the baby's hands and arms and feet. We saw the spine, the brain, the face. Our baby appears to be perfectly healthy. This makes both Kelly and I feel so much better. I think that both of us were preparing for the worst possible scenarios that we could think of. We were both worried that the baby would be crippled or not have a heart or something like that. Lucky us though, our baby is wonderful and looks healthy.

Now I am sure that you all want to know what we are going to have. I can't stop smiling as I type this. We are going to have a girl!! A perfect, healthly little girl. I really wanted a little girl and am just so excited. With all of the fret and worry that has gone into this baby in her short little life, I am just so happy she is healthy.

Wedding Pictures

One thing that I really wanted to do on this blog is to post some wedding pictures of Kelly and I. I still plan to post a few...someday. Until then, I will let you all know that I have put a lot (but not all) of our wedding pictures up on facebook.com for people to view. If any of you are not familiar with facebook, it is a networking website that started out as exclusively for college students. It has now grown large enough that anyone can join and network with their friends and family. Anyway, on my facebook profile, I have posted about 300 or so of the pictures from Kelly and my wedding. Enjoy!