CASB Report for January, 2000

 

Highlights for Division Meeting

·         GSC 2.1.0 with ~250 million objects was delivered to GEMINI and ESO/VLT for preliminary operational testing.

 

Community Affairs and Communications

·         GSC 2.1.0 release sent to GEMINI, ESO/VLT and OATo

·         Morrison wrote the first draft of the GSC 1.2 paper.

 

Project Management and Technical Infrastructure

·         Fabrizia Guglielmetti transferred to an AURA position and is now being trained to perform plate scanning.

 

 

MISSION SUPPORT

HST Operations

·         Received one new GSPR  (Guide Star Problem Report) this period.  The GSPR documents a Fine Lock Walk Down failure due to a close double star.

 

STIS-BOP

·         Continued discussions with Contact/Instrument Scientists. Prepared a requirements document for the STIS BOP GUI that will be available for STIS, ACS and COS, in cycle 10.

·         Supported Contact Scientists’ requests for consultation on BOP analysis for Jupiter targets.

 

NGST Guiding Studies

·         Planning consultant visit to STScI next month to continue work on this activity.

 

DIGITIZED SKY SURVEY

Plate Scanning

·         Completed scanning the sixth shipment of UKST-IR plates. 

·         Completed scanning the southern F plates in the latest shipment and started scanning the UKST-IR plates also contained in that shipment.

·         Production rate was low due to continuing GAMMA2 problems.

 

GAMMA Microdensitometer Systems

·         Determined that the laser on the lower shelf of GAMMA2 was malfunctioning, and replaced it.  The lower shelf was removed from GAMMA2 for this procedure, and the new laser was aligned primarily in the Instrument Lab, and briefly tested.  Re-installed the shelf on GAMMA2 and performed alignment checks.

·         After replacement of the GAMMA2 laser, performed an extensive sequence of ruling scans to redetermine the proper y pixel step size and forward/reverse pass synchronization. Determined that parameters established prior to the laser failure were now unacceptable.  Empirically found new optimum configurations and started a test image data scan.  After a quick-look analysis was performed it was noticed that shading coefficients (used to normalize the laser across the 5 channels) were not as effective as they had been prior to the laser replacement.  Tests are now underway to determine the nature of the problem.  Clipping of the beam is a prime suspect.

 

Data Compression/CD Production

·         Awaiting the receipt, scanning, and compressing of the final plate from Palomar before the last four J plates can be archived.

 

Archive Maintenance

·         Recycled old redundant 9-track tapes of early GSCP-II data and their storage racks.

·         With Facilities support, found and installed used cabinets for growing collection of MODs.

·         Remade three CDROMs for the Japanese collaborators.

·         Found a new problem with header production for the CDROMs - problem not yet resolved.

·         Inventoried data collection and forecast media usage for the remainder of the project.

 

Software Development

·         No progress reported in investigation of a GETIMAGE failure with the DSS-I, first reported by the NAOJ Astronomical Data Analysis Center.

 

GSC-II

 

Plate Processing

·         Recalibration of the database plates continues and should be completed soon.  Over 1400 plates have been recalibrated in the last few months.

 

COMPASS Database

·         (OATo) Development and testing of multi-plate QA routines interfaced to COMPASS are under way.

·         Completed QA of GSC 2.1.0 data export and sent DLT tapes to collaborators.

·         Updated GSC2Query code to handle situation where the primary magnitude (F band) was unavailable.

·         Held meetings with Alan Ezust (Objectivity consultant) about database design issues and known problems. Developed strategy for concurrent update processes.

·         Upgraded to Objectivity release 5.2 to solve a number of outstanding known problems.

 

CALIBRATIONS: Astrometry

 

CALIBRATIONS: Classification

·         Developed classification QA tools to compare the pipeline classifications for GSPC-II stars and a subset of GSC-I objects. Although these catalogs are not optimal for classification QA, they do contain classified objects over the entire sky. Thus, this level of QA can be performed on all plates, not only those for which a specially processed CCD dataset exists. Since these tools operate on MCO files, they can also be used on any catalog accessible to XSPAM or the FINDCAT task.

·         Developed IDL tools to read in both old and new production format decision tree files. We can now analyze the actual files being used in the pipeline in the same way that we can analyze trees in the “tree-building” stage.

·         (OATo) Automating the routines used to compare classification results with the NED, NPM/SPM Catalogs so that they can be used as secondary QA. The code is being run on the NGP zone to compare the classification changes made by V. Laidler last month.

 

CALIBRATIONS: Photometry (GSPC-II and DSS-I and -II)

·          Added the utility to identify the GSPC-II sequence, formerly done by ANALYZE_GP2_SEQUENCE, and in the process fixed a bug in writing the sequence information to the GSH header file.

·         Installed the PC prototype running Linux. It runs several image processing packages and utilities. Successfully performed several tests and debugging.

·         Developed the capability to display the GSPC-II catalog on the Skycat interface; it is accessible to everyone.

·          The KPNO observing run, currently in progress to investigate the vignetting function, is at risk due to bad weather.

·         (OATO)  Fixed the astrometry of about 50 remaining ESO fields with wrong astrometry code from IRAF. These objects are being re-named and a new version of the GSCP-II pipeline catalog is being built.

·         Selected a sub-set of 163 equatorial fields with multiple observations and good astrometry for QA. Of these fields, those that pass the QA tests will be made publicly available via FTP. 

·          In response to a call for a window of opportunity at the JKT telescope of La Palma in mid-February, submitted a request for four nights of gray time.

 

GSC-II General Software Development

·         Identified and corrected a bug in the CLASSIFY task that corrupted the values of the decision tree.

·         Delivered a bugfix build of CLASSIFY and APPLY_CALIBS at STScI and OATo.

·         Discovered a discrepancy between the decision tree file being used in production, and the latest “best” decision tree file in develop. Replaced the production version with the develop version.

·         Ported the improved APPLY_CALIB on VMS to NT.

·         Started work to integrate the Mendez Star count code into COMPASS QA.

 

GSC-II Science

·         (OATo) Support of the VMS archive of CRA scan images on DLTs is progressing and should be concluded in few weeks.

·         In collaboration with the Naples Observatory, OATo is determining membership of classical and weak-lined T-Tauri associations from proper motions towards the Chameleon SFR.

·         Submitted proposal to Apache Point Observatory to perform spectroscopic observations on a number of NGP field stars that may be a co-moving stream.

 


 

Appendix – CASB Statistical Summary

 

SCANNING                                                                                                                                                                         

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

%

done

Notes

Priority

POSS-II J

897

898

0

898

   100 

 

1

POSS-II F

897

907

0

907

100

         S4

1

POSS-II N

897

787

0

787

88

 

1

AAO-SES

606

602

4

606

100

         S4

1

PPARC-ER

288

252

18

270

94

 

1

AAO-SR

118

118

0

118

100

S2

-

UKST-IR

894

272

13

285

32

 

2

SERC-J/EJ

447

443

0

443

99

      S1

           2

POSS-I E

106

106

0

106

     100

        S3

           3

POSS-I O

880

30

0

30

3

 

3

Rescans

 

18

0

18

 

 

 

 

COMPRESSION

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

% done

Notes

Priority

POSS-II J

897

893

0

893

99

 

           2

POSS-II F

897

877

0

877

98

 

1

POSS-II N

897

25

17

42

5

 

3

AAO SES

606

572

0

572

94

 

1

PPARC ER

288

245

0

245

85

 

1

UKST-IR

894

0

0

0

0

 

3

 

MO DISK ARCHIVING    

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

% done

Notes

Priority

POSS-II J

897

902

0

902

100

 

4

POSS-II F

897

878

0

878

98

 

3

POSS-II N

897

60

6

66

7

 

           4

AAO-SES

606

576

0

576

95

 

3

PPARC-ER

288

157

82

239

83

 

3

AAO-SR

109

0

0

0

0

 

4

UKST-IR

894

0

0

0

0

 

5

SERC-J/EJ

894

892

0

892

100

 

 

SERC-J/REPAIR

48

48

0

48

100

 

 

POSS-I E

933

928

0

928

99

 

2

POSS-I REPAIR

198

198

0

198

100

 

2

POSS-QV

613

613

0

613

100

 

-

SERC-QV

94

94

0

94

100

 

 

-

GPO/BB

88

88

0

88

100

 

-

 

GSC-II PLATE PROCESSING

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

% done

Notes

Priority

POSS-I E

880

66

0

66

2

 

3

POSS-QV

613

0

0

0

0

 

3

POSS-II J

897

887

0

887

99

G1

1

POSS-II F

897

897

0

897

100

 

1

POSS-II N

897

41

0

41

5

 

4

SERC-J/EJ 

     894

822

0

822

92

 

1

South-F

894

815

0

815

91

 

1

UKST-IR

894

2

0

2

0

 

4

South-SR

118

110

0

110

93

 

2

South-QV

94

94

0

94

100

 

2

 

GSC-II COMPASS DATABASE LOAD (total number entries = 954731259)

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

% done

Notes

Priority

POSS-I E

880

0

0

0

0

 

3

POSS-QV

613

0

0

0

0

 

3

POSS-II J

897

441

0

441

49

 

1

POSS-II F

897

728

0

728

81

 

1

POSS-II N

897

0

0

0

0

 

4

SERC-J

894

120

3

123

14

 

1

South-F

894

461

0

461

51

 

1

UKST-IR

894

0

0

0

0

 

4

South-SR

109

13

0

     13

    12

 

2

South-QV

94

13

0

13

14

 

2

 

GSC-II Dataset for V2.1.1 delivery (1791 Fields, 3438 plates)   (P1)

Item

Count

% done

Notes

Plates available

3417

99

 

Plates processed

3355

98

 

DB Load

1787

52

 

Recalibration

1482

43

 

 

GSPC-II OBSERVATIONS

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

% done

Notes

Priority

POSS-I

584

578

0

578

99

 

1

POSS-II

295

144

0

144

49

 

1

SERC

894

873

0

873

98

 

1

 

GSPC-II REDUCTIONS

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

% done

Notes

Priority

POSS-I

584

578

0

578

99

P1

1

POSS-II

295

144

0

144

49

 

1

SERC

894

873

0

873

98

 

1