CASB Report October, 2001

 

Highlights for Division Meeting

·         Held a productive annual GSC-II meeting, October 22-23, at OATo.

 

Community Affairs and Communications

·         The GSC-II and CASB web services have been under heavy pressure from a particular IP address.  The heavy traffic on our web server became so overloaded that the site became unavailable many times in the past several weeks to legitimate GSC2 users.  In response, we implemented a block to that IP address as investigation showed an almost "denial of service" style attack on our server.  

·         We continue to monitor the server’s performance closely.  Since the linking of the GSC-II pages to the new STScI home page we have experienced very heavy web traffic.

 

Project Management and Technical Infrastructure

·         Greene, Loomis, McLean, and Rosenberg participated in the 7th annual GSC-II meeting, October 22-23, at OATo. 

·         Presentations can be found in the CASB pages under publications.  These included:

o        Viewing the movie: “The making of the GSC2”;

o        Overviews of the database and GSC2.2 catalog;

o        GSC2 astrometry;

o        Photometry calibrations and accuracy plus GSPC-II status;

o        Classification performance;

o        Telescope operations;

o        Science projects involving GSC2;

o        GSC2.2 maintenance and quality assurance.

·         Meeting highlights included some GSC-II results in photometry and astrometry that exceeded expectations when compared to accurate external catalogs, and a wonderful time at the Vineyard Marchesi di Barolo.

·         CASB staff members thank our hosts at Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino for a very successful meeting.  

·         McLean and Greene continued supporting SDSS planning activities.

 

MISSION SUPPORT

HST Operations

·         Reviewed 28 new Guide Star Problem Reports (GSPRs) this period.  Of these, 24 were fine lock failures, some extending back nearly a year. Two were search failures that were due to misclassifications in GSC-I.   Another was a false lock in a region of nebulosity and the remaining GS had frequent loss of lock due a faint companion.  Filed a Bad GS Alert for each of the GSs.

·         Continued planning to port the GetImage software to the Windows NT server.

·         HUGS2 working group (Hst Using Guide Stars 2) preparing overview of impacts for using GSC-II in HST operations as soon as cycle 12.

 

NGST Development Studies

·         Began reviewing details of NGST FGS study being carried out by the CAS, particularly the apparent discrepancy between predicted stellar number counts compared to Spagna report.

 

                                      DIGITIZED SKY SURVEY

 

Plate Scanning

·         Continued scanning POSSI-O plates until the next ROE plate shipment arrives.  ROE staff members are preparing that shipment now.

 

GAMMA Microdensitometer Systems

·         GAMMA1 continues to perform well.

·         No work was performed on GAMMA2 during this period.

 

Data Compression/CD Production

·         Continued compressing scans of the POSSII-N and the POSSI-O surveys.

 

Archive Maintenance

·         Problems with remaining data migration continue.  A possible solution is for CISD staff to MAP/NFS mount the CASB CDROM jukebox on the NT node NYARA to PIXELA and restart the data migration after that is done.

·         Worked on catalog distribution via DLT archive tapes.  Implementing a more streamlined, robust and improved method for writing the tapes for distribution.  A test is planned in the next week to transfer this task to a Linux server within the guide star sub net.  This should improve throughput, reduce Institute network traffic and end competition for the public drives on the science net.

·         Collaborated with OATo staff members to provide them with data necessary for high priority science projects.

·         Worked on five archive help desk requests for help/information.

 

GSC-II

 

Plate Processing and COMPASS Database

·         Continued identifying and correcting errors in the GSC-II.

·         Rebuilt the fdb access utility, returning more functionality to the COMPASS database and allowing execution of the matching and loading tasks.

 

CALIBRATIONS: General

 

CALIBRATIONS: Astrometry

 
CALIBRATIONS: Classification

·         Prepared slides on the GSC2.2 classification for presentation at the GSC-II annual meeting.

·         Also prepared slides presenting the benefits of implementing improvements in GSC2.3.

 

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

 

GSC-II Science

-          See presentations from Annual Meeting 


 

Appendix – CASB Statistical Summary

 

SCANNING                                                                                                                                                                         

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

%

done

Notes

Priority

POSS-II J

897

902

0

902

   100 

         S4

1

POSS-II F

897

910

0

910

100

         S4

1

POSS-II N

897

880

0

880

98

         S4

1

AAO-SES

606

614

0

614

100

         S4

1

PPARC-ER

288

288

0

288

100

 

1

AAO-SR

118

118

0

118

100

S2

-

UKST-SR

112

50

0

50

45

S5

3

UKST-IR

894

768

28

796

89

         S6

2

SERC-J/EJ

447

443

0

443

99

      S1

           2

POSS-I E

106

106

0

106

     100

         S3

           3

POSS-I O

936

359

15

374

40

 

3

Rescans

 

34

0

34

 

 

 

 

COMPRESSION

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

% done

Notes

Priority

POSS-II J

897

895

0

897

100

 

           2

POSS-II F

897

897

0

897

100

 

1

POSS-II N

897

748

16

764

85

 

3

AAO SES

606

606

0

606

100

 

1

PPARC ER

288

288

0

288

100

 

1

AAO-SR

118

118

0

118

100

 

3

UKST-IR

894

697

0

697

78

 

3

POSS-I O

936

94

7

101

11

 

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

900

0

900

100

 

3

POSS-II N

897

833

0

833

93

 

           4

AAO-SES

606

613

0

613

100

 

3

PPARC-ER

288

288

0

288

100

 

3

AAO-SR

109

116

0

116

100

 

4

UKST-IR

894

697

0

697

78

 

5

SERC-J/EJ

894

892

0

892

100

 

 

SERC-J/REPAIR

48

48

0

48

100

 

 

SERC-J/15mu

449

449

0

449

100

 

5

POSS-I E

933

928

0

928

99

 

2

POSS-I REPAIR

198

198

0

198

100

 

2

POSS-I O

936

100

20

120

13

 

5

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

936

931

0

931

99

 

3

POSS-QV

613

2

0

2

0

 

3

POSS-II J

897

897

0

897

100

 

1

POSS-II F

897

897

0

897

100

 

1

POSS-II N

897

308

19

         327

36

 

4

SERC-J/EJ 

     894

829

0

829

93

 

1

South-F

894

894

0

894

100

 

1

UKST-IR

894

392

0

392

44

 

4

South-SR

116

116

0

116

100

 

2

South-QV

94

94

0

94

100

 

2

POSS-I O

936

15

0

15

2

 

5

 

 

GSC-II COMPASS DATABASE LOAD (no.objects = 998,402,801)

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

% done

Notes

Priority

POSS-I E

936

23

0

23

2

 

3

POSS-QV

613

2

0

2

0

 

3

POSS-II J

897

897

0

897

100

 

1

POSS-II F

897

899

0

899

100

 

1

POSS-II N

897

27

0

27

3

 

4

SERC-J

894

709

0

709

79

 

1

South-F

894

742

0

742

83

 

1

UKST-IR

894

2

0

2

0

 

4

South-SR

116

116

0

116

100

 

2

South-QV

94

90

0

90

96

 

2

 


 

 

 

 

GSC-II Dataset for V2.2.n delivery (1791 Fields, 3438 plates)   (P1)

Item

Count

% done

Notes

Plates available

3438

100

 

Plates processed

3438

100

 

DB Load

3438

100

 

Fields, minus the 72 southern equatorial fields, with 1644 plates.

 

GSPC-II OBSERVATIONS

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

% done

Notes

Priority

POSS-I

584

603

0

603

100

P1

1

POSS-II

314

271

0

271

86

 

1

SERC

894

889

0

889

99

 

1

 

GSPC-II REDUCTIONS

Survey

Goal

Previous Month

Current Month

Current Total

% done

Notes

Priority

POSS-I

584

603

0

603

100

P1

1

POSS-II

314

271

0

271

86

 

1

SERC

894

905

0

905

100

 

1