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28 January 2004 Observatory meeting room 10.00 - 12.30
Present: MJI, JRL, PSB, DWE, STH, RGM (until 11am)
Agenda
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1. Actions from last meeting
2. Comments on WFAU minutes
3. Report from the last VDMT meeting
4. STH's report on meeting with SJW and MMC
5. Update on JAC telecons; items for tonight's one
6. PPRP meeting on the 4th February
7. Progress with ISAAC reductions
8. Items for inclusion/discussion for monthly report
9. AOB
Minutes
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1. Actions from last meeting
STH is continuing to check the photometric standards list for contamination
by bright stars - ongoing <<<<
STH the numbering of documents has been transfered to DWE.
[This item was discussed outside of the main meeting]
JRL has finished the reduction of the UFTI service data
(http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/vdfs/docs/reports/ufti_service/)
STH has checked to see if more UFTI service data was available (none). JRL
was of the opinion that not much more could be gained from the service
data. [MJI and JRL confirmed with JAC that no more UFTI service data
for these tests was planned and agreed to sign this one off]
STH checking the spatial systematics in the UFTI standards data and new
test data is an ongoing task. <<<<
MJI raised the issue of the VDFS Science and User Requirements document at
the VDMT meeting. WJS is currently working on this with PSB.
JRL has finished the report on the results of comparisons between UFTI data
processed using Cambridge pipelines and using the normal JAC pipeline
(http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/vdfs/docs/reports/pipeline_tests/)
JRL a draft of WFCAM FITS header and dummy data will be ready by the end of
MJI the week in order to send to Benoit and Adam. JRL said that the delay
was in producing the explanation of the FITS header terms. MJI suggested
sending the current example(s) and then asking if futher information
was required <<<<
MJI the WFAU external network tests took place and gave satisfactory results
so no action needed
MJI enquired via JAC whether the WFCAM camera team have dummy data files
with all the SDF/FITS headers packets in place to enable full end-to-end
tests of the VDFS. Malcolm Stewart volunteered, at the VDMT, to try and
get suitable test data direct from the ATC. To cut a long story short,
CASU are getting this data via the JAC and MJI will remind AA about
this during tonight's telecon. <<<<
MJI raised concerns about commissioning plans for VISTA and VDFS at upcoming
VDMT meeting. However, further discussion of this was postponed due to
more pressing matters and flagged for later consideration.
MJI together with JAC have finished the draft of the MSB design guidelines
JRL document and forwarded it to SJW, NCH (and AA, PH) on 8th January for
comments
JRL supplied further deliverables information to STH
DWE clarified deliverables of Section 16 with STH
MJI finished the quarterly report along with next quarter's deliverables and
STH summary for the quarter, in time for the VDMT meeting.
JRL are in the middle of writing a short document setting out the
PSB pros and cons of CPL/QFITS compared to using CASU software
modules + CFITSIO - ongoing <<<<
2. Comments on WFAU minutes
It was noted that 10 Mbytes/s transfer rate had been reported and that all
was quiet in the Hobbyar House.
3. Report from the last VDMT meeting
The meeting held on the 9th January discussed the reports presented on the
previous quarter mainly foccussing on the issue of V1 deliverables. The
afternoon part of the meeting included NAW and was used to discuss the
preparation of the budget and content for submission of the next VEGA bid.
The main change in the VDFS part of the VEGA bid was that VDFS operations
have been taken out of the budget and will have to be bid for separately.
3 years of development money was asked for - ~3 posts in Cambridge and ~3
in Edinburgh, with ~2 additional posts for GAIA development. There is a
natural ramping element for VDFS within this funding, since it covers the
period October 2004 to September 2007, ie. almost to one year after VISTA
commissioning is due to begin and when most pipeline (and science archive)
development should have finished. This funding envelope overlaps our current
grant timeline of October 2003 to September 2006. RGM noted that the
actions from the January VDMT meeting hadn't been posted at the time of
writing - there are no minutes of these meetings.
4. STH's report on meeting with SJW and MMC
STH reported on the short meeting held at Imperial on 20th January with
Steve Warren and Mark Casali. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the
current status of the engineering tests, in particular the proposed
pre-commissioning (hardware) lab tests, and to also discuss the
provisional commissioning plan.
MJI asked if the tests (thermal cycling) carried out around Christmas had
been successful, STH was unsure. It was also unclear whether the real
cryostat had been used for the thermal cycling tests or a test cryostat.
MJI will ask AA at tonight's telecon. <<<<
MMC is looking into the best way of getting any test data to us. Via FTP,
or the web (better), would be fine. The plan for the lab tests is available on
our internal web pages "Final_Detector_Testing.pdf", the commissioning plan
is "Commisioning_on_telescope_draft.pdf" and there is also the earlier
report (Dec 2002) "Science_array_tests.pdf".
The WFCAM team will also look into the possibility of carrying out some
sort of flat-field tests in the lab. It was pointed out that the purpose
of these would be mainly to look into effects due to persistence, reset
anomaly, dark stability etc... MJI noted that these would be equivalent
to daytime flats and could additionally be used for the same sort of checks,
eg. bad pixels, linearity, pixel-to-pixel sensitivity.
STH reported there was also some discussion regarding the trade-off between
microstepping and dithering since I/O, bad pixel propagation and timing
issues exist.
There was then some general discussion regarding the laboratory and
commissioning tests.
MJI said that he would clarify with MMC that the data from the lab tests
do not need to have the full header packets on them. He would also confirm
that they would be FITS and not SDF files. <<<<
For the astrometric fields needed for the commissioning tests MJI pointed
out that there was no need for special fields. Anywhere close to the
Galactic plane would have enough stars, and 2MASS or the photographic
astrometric surveys, could be used as astrometric standard catalogues.
The current plan seems to be that the camera will be delivered on 1st June
which will be followed by 8 weeks of instrument commissioning. Thus the
earliest that the science data commissioning can be done is August.
RGM asked if there had been any response from SJW regarding JRL's UFTI
reductions. JRL said that there had been none and that he had sent the
web location of his reports to him on 21st January.
RGM also asked if there had been any response from SJW regarding the MSB
document that MJI/JRL had sent on 8th January. There had been none so far.
RGM noted that The HAWK-I project was a "data processing opportunity" (see
http://www.eso.org/~amoor/HAWK-Iscience.pdf). This is an 4 detector IR
mosaic that will go on the VLT and has a 2-3 year timescale.
5. Update on JAC telecons; items for tonight's one
The last telecon (6th January) mainly dealt with MSB design and was
reported in the previous minutes.
After some discussion a shortlist of questions/topics to be discussed
at tonight's telecon was arrived at, including:
* getting an sdf file complete with ALL header packets for end-to-end tests
* news update about the progress of the latest detector engineering tests
* clarify the issues and requirements for dome flats
* find out if any more UFTI service data is forthcoming, JRL reiterated
that there was probably not much more that could be done. A possible
exception might be acquiring series of sunrise flats, particularly in J.
* discuss provisional timescales and CASU personnel needed to be at JAC
during commissioning
* ask about progress in filling CSV job and procedure for next stage
6. PPRP meeting on the 4th February
MJI said that this meeting will review the 2nd round VEGA bid (along with 2
other bids, ATLAS and SDO). This will be on the 4th February at the IoA and
last all day. It will be a mixture of interleaved public presentations
followed by closed panel sessions. The VEGA presentation has been allocated
1 hour - 15 min for general overview inc. GAIA, 5 min management overview,
15 min pipeline, 15 min archive, 10 min questions.
The bid submitted can be found under the internal web pages in
management/pprp_feb2004/VEGA-jan04-double.pdf
MJI/STH proposed that the next VDMT meeting be also held on the 4th in the
afternoon. Most of the needed persons would be here and not needed for the
closed sessions. This was agreed while the meeting was in progress (the
wonders of a wireless connection! and STH got all the credit!).
STH needs to finalise 1) an overview GANTT chart
2) a detailed GANTT chart
3) a work-package spreadsheet <<<<
These have to be finished by Friday and copies made for handing out at the
PPRP meeting. JRL needs to produce copies of his UFTI reports also for
handing out at the PPRP meeting. <<<<
7. Progress with ISAAC reductions
JRL said that this has been done. Reduced frames and catalogues are
available. A small number of frames are however still missing. He will
inform STH which ones are missing and STH will acquire the data. <<<<
The individual dither stacks from the OBs show interesting low level
horizontal defects due to bright field stars, along with what appear
to be features arising from reflections within the telescope/dome.
Labbe et al. did row-by-row filtering to remove the first type of
artefacts, and 2D spline surface fitting on individual frames in OBs
to remove the second type of problem, this post-hoc processing does produce
"good looking" images but also removes any real features on several scales.
MJI is investigating stacking the whole lot and will report on this at
the next meeting. <<<<
STH said that he will get FIRES reduced data in order to compare. <<<<
STH was also asked to calibrate our data (probably using NICMOS)
or the Labbe et al. published photometry if all else fails <<<<
It was generally felt that a report by JRL/MJI on this work was needed
(even possibly a paper). <<<<
MJI asked about what sort of results are obtained if the order of sky
subtraction and flat-fielding are swapped around (to enable better
object masking/rejection). JRL said that he would do some tests on
this using a subset of the data. <<<<
8. Items for inclusion/discussion for monthly report
PSB reported on progress of the VDFS ESO deliverables.
PSB (and MJI) noted that WJS has started to look at and contribute to the
VDFS science/user requirements document and that he has also been looking
into interpolation techniques. It was felt that WJS should be
(re)invited to these meetings. <<<<
PSB now has a personal account on the HP ESO WorkStation at ATC. The
immediate advantage is that the environment is set up to use the
tools such as ctooTxt2Dic for building DIDs and to get access to ESO's
CMM (kind of CVS) system (although so far few rights have been granted).
Thanks to Malcolm Stewart and John Barrow.
PSB has been reading up on the P2PP users' manual and has got a copy of
P2PP with a `tutorial' account to create test OBs to help figure out
the features of the interface between templates and OBs.
A slightly updated version of the VDFS users requirement document is at
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/vdfs/internal/WP2/VDF-SPE-IOA-20000-0001.pdf
including a paragraph 4.3 on OBs in Surveys and a few minor fixes.
PSB has been in contact with Steven Beard and Nirmal Bissonauth re DID.
Nirmal is designing the HOWFS software, and PSB has generated a first-pass
DID for the HOWFS from his design document. The pipeline will probably
not see HOWFS data, but its parameters will be part of the overall DID.
Malcolm Stewart has procured paper copies of UVES and VLTI DFS design
documents, as further examples of what other groups did.
Following PSBs exemplary report everyone else is encouraged to
send information to STH for the end of month report by Friday. <<<<
There was some discussion as to the membership of VDUC. We have been
invited to suggest some names. Steve Maddox, Phil James and Steve
Phillipps were put forward. STH will email JPE with our suggestions. <<<<
9. AOB
MJI and PSB should raise the issue of VISTA dome flats with WJS. <<<<
MJI said that there was no further APM building news.
Continuing Actions
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STH finish the bright star checking of the photometric standard fields
STH look at the spatial systematics in the UFTI standards data and new
test data
JRL send WFCAM example FITS headers and files to Adam and Benoit
MJI raise various items at telecon in particular acquiring sdf test file
PSB finish the short document highlighting missing functionality from
JRL CPL/QFITS and set out advantages/disadvantages compared to using our
own modules + CFITSIO.
New Actions
-----------
MJI clarify with MMC that the data from the lab tests don't need to have
the full header packets on them. Also confirm that they would be FITS
and not SDF files.
STH prepare an overview GANTT chart, a detailed GANTT chart and a
work-package spreadsheet for PPRP meeting (and copies for the
meeting).
JRL provide copies of UFTI reports for PPRP meeting
MJI stack all of J,H,K FIRES data and report on findings for next meeting
JRL inform STH which ISAAC frames are missing
STH acquire missing ISAAC data
STH acquire FIRES reduced data in order to compare with JRL's reduced ISAAC
data
STH calibrate FIRES data using NICMOS or the published FIRES work
JRL write a report on ISAAC reductions
MJI
JRL using subset of ISAAC data do tests on swapping sky subtraction and
flat-fielding around
MJI invite WJS to these meetings
ALL (except PSB) send end-of-month reports to STH by Friday
STH email JPE with our suggestions for the VDUC
MJI raise issue of dome flats with WJS
PSB
