Bad Data (Words & Music by A. Marscher ©1996)
1. At the telescope the sky was so clear, my blazar had risen, observing time was near
Opened up the dome, got the object in sight, but I forgot to do a flat field during the whole night
So I got
Chorus:
Bad data! I got bad, bad data. . . bad, bad data, and bad data's worse than no data at all!
2. Got some VLA time at 43 GHz, prepare the OBSERVE file, then the program starts
Slew to the first source, but it's starting to rain, attempts to calibrate will all be in vain,
and I'll have [chorus] [guitar interlude with interjections: Outlier! Clouds! Computer glitch! Interference!
3. VLBI is a marvelous technique, but very difficult if your sources are weak
I observed a full day, got my data on tape, fringes were too weak no matter how long I'd integrate
and I had [chorus]
4. So, young astronomers, you'd better understand, you need to calibrate just as often as you can
Or you'll spend all your time in the processing phase, and you'll never get an image though you work night and day
And you'll have [chorus to end]
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