[Astronomy] Thesis update

Just a quick update today on how my thesis is going. I'm now starting to really get into the writing process, and although I'm trying to do some other work at the same time, I've been able to get a lot done this week. I say I'm trying to do other work as well, but that's going rather poorly to be honest!

Since the last time I mentioned my thesis (which was quite a while ago actually), I've modified my plan somewhat. I'm now planning on having eight chapters, having split a couple of them up for brevity. Of those eight, after this week I have 3 that are drafted, and that I'm relatively happy with. I spent most of the week working on my introduction chapter, which is reasonably well sorted now. I took the decision to split off some of the more specialised theory and literature review into the relevant chapters, letting my keep my first chapter more general. I then did some work at the weekend (that wasn't making up for a day off) for the first time many months, and spent a few hours yesterday sorting out the introduction section for the first of my spin-orbit alignment chapters. It needs proofreading one more time, but I'm reasonably happy.

Of the other five chapters, one just needs the introduction section sorting out, and one is drafted but needs some reworking following feedback from my supervisor. The other three I haven't really started yet, but one is theoretical so I should be able to get that done fairly soon, and one is the summary chapter! Then there's the chapter which I'm still trying to get some work done for, but the less said about that one the better. It may even end up being cut.

Current page count is 146, with a further 36 pages of appendices (all tables) and 14 pages of references.  It's going to be a long one, and easily the biggest piece of writing I've ever done.