I am still working on writing a paper. My hope is to have another draft out to my collaborators by the end of the week. Over the last two days, one of the major time investments has been making figures. They are deceptively difficult to do well (and I am sure I haven’t yet mastered that). Figures are generally the best way of showcasing data, whether it be showing images, the amount of energy emitted by an object as a function of wavelength, or showing trends in properties of objects. (“A picture is worth a thousand words”).
One of the difficulties is making a figure which conveys a lot of information in the most clear, eloquent way possible. And, it has to be legible. That last part is what I am struggling with now. I have a format for images of each galaxy in my sample which fairly clearly shows what I want (how the source looks on the sky and how the gas is moving in the galaxy). The difficulty is compressing all that information into a figure which doesn’t take up a whole page, but still allows the reader to see the labels on the graphs. It is a fine balancing act.. too small a font and it can’t be read, too large a font, and everything overlaps and it can’t be read.
But, after a few more hours of time investment into them, I think the figures will be ready to do. Which is good, because I want to have a poster draft done by Thursday morning too….
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