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20th October 2004 Hoyle meeting room 10.00 - 12:30
Present: JRL, PSB, MJI, DWE, WJS, STH, EGS
Apologies: RGM
Agenda
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1. Actions from last meeting
2. Comments on WFAU minutes
3. VDMT quarterly meeting
4. JAC telecon updates
5. Survey Definition Tool document
6. VST telecon report
7. Status RIX responses and FDR preparation
8. Updated ETC document
9. APM building work update
10. AOB
Minutes
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1. Actions from last meeting
MJI has made no progress in comparing the FIRES project reduced data
catalogues with ours. It is important that this gets done before
the UKIRT Board Meeting (11/12 November) - ongoing <<<<
STH has made no progress investigating MSBs. This also should be done by the
UKIRT Board Meeting. STH said that he was surprised that no further
MSB designs had been submitted especially considering that First Light
was going to occur within 48 hours - ongoing <<<<
STH did not allocate a WP number to a subtask for sorting out the documents
needed for the UK VDFS review due the remit of this being changed
JRL has finished the ADASS poster and showed it off so that we could all
marvel at it
JRL has started thinking about the ZPN WCS problem in IRAF. The crux of the
problem is how to pass the information from the FITS header. This is
deeply buried within IRAF. He said that he has a few ideas and will
work on this during the ADASS trip - ongoing <<<<
MJI forgot to prod NAW regarding Rice compression. He will do so the next
time they are in the same part of the universe - ongoing <<<<
PSB Have looked into UKLight networking. This is an experimental 10 Gbit
STH backbone. Projects which needed large bandwidth were supposed to apply
to use the project. We would also need to acquire some infrastructure to
connect to this network. The idea is that the experience of UKLight
(funded to 2005) would be passed on to SuperJanet5. It was generally
thought that we should wait for SuperJanet5 anyway since we missed the
deadline.
STH obtained an example ETC document (VIRMOS) that sort of "conforms" to
V2 of 1618. It has proven a useful level reference.
STH has added saturation to the ETC document
JRL has written an example programme to assess CPL functionality. He added
that Version 2 of CPL has not been released yet and that the current
version was not compatible with the current QFITS version. Also the
correct recipe template was not compatible with either! He has managed
a workaround to these problems.
JMI has managed to recover most of the data from the RAID array failure of
apm3. An email has been sent around to inform people of what they should
do. It looks like STH is the only one who has lost significant amounts of
data. MJI asked that this be sorted out quickly so that the system
dumps can be deleted. <<<<
MJI contacted Peter Weeks about the junk that needed removing from the APM
building and removed it.
PSB have liaised with the electrician regarding the security camera
MJI and fibre optic cabling routed through the APM building. This has
now been labelled and protected.
MJI reported that the first APM buildings meeting was held (today - see
item 9). The next one will be on 17th November.
ALL had sent in Q3m3 reports and Q4 plans to STH
ALL JRL reported that he and PSB had carried out extensive field trials and
have chosen the Blue Lion in Hardwick for the CASU Christmas Lunch. This
will be held on 17th December, target number is ~30 people. Jeannette
will help organise it.
2. Comments on WFAU minutes
No comments.
3. VDMT quarterly meeting
This was held on 6 October. MJI reported on a couple of points from this
meeting. The schedule for FDR is now 15 December for the delivery of
documents, with the FDR itself to be arranged at the end of January in
Garching. The dates have still to be confirmed by ESO. It was also pointed
out that the new version of 1618 has meant a number of changes to the
documents that are intended to be delivered.
A compromise has been reached regarding the UK PDR. Only the new (extra)
requirements from the UK VDFS URD not covered by the existing pipeline
will require extra documentation for reviewing at the UK PDR. This PDR is
likely to be held around Spring 2005.
At this meeting it was also noted that there was an action on STH to invite
Simon Dye to Cambridge to discuss various aspects of the pipelines, to
demonstrate some of the pipeline functionality, and to discuss the FIRES
data comparison. <<<<
4. JAC telecon updates
The last JAC telecon (11 October) was a no-show from JAC! The next one is
tonight. Various issues for discussion were aired.
STH said that sky brightness variations/monitoring needed to be discussed.
The current plan is only to monitor sky brightness in J, since H and K sky
are supposedly well correlated with it. However, it was pointed out that
this relationship may be somewhat variable.
It is intended that the calibration for narrow-band photometry would be
carried out in a similar fashion to that for broad-band photometry ie.
Vega-based with the usual colour terms. STH said he would investigate
what spectrophotometry was available in the NIR. <<<<
JRL said that he would be in Hawaii from 17 November to 1 December. He also
reported that he has written some 20 observing recipes for the commissioning
run. There was some discussion as to appropriate "recipe" names for these.
5. Survey Definition Tool document
There have been several iterations of comments recently concerning Martin
Folger's Survey Definition Tool (SDT) document. This discussion was carried
on further at the meeting and the salient points are summarised below.
PSB noted that the coordinate system to be used should be based on the ICRS
(as the available astrometric standards catalogues are), in which case
the equinox issue is simple. The ICRS requires no equinox and to a good
approximation, from the targetting point-of-view, is equivalent to J2000
(FK5). Support for B1950 seems redundant and a hostage to fortune.
Surprise was expressed that no proper motion could be input for a guide star.
When a guide star position is given it must be pre-entered as a fixed
position including an estimated proper motion correction. This explains the
rather odd comment in the document re: 2010.
There was also concern that it seemed that the SDT could not generate
more closely packed pointings within a tile. However, WJS pointed out that
you could do this yourself using the upload function and a file containing
your pointings. Related to this was the suggestion that a default grid might
be useful to have. WJS said that he would contact Martin Folger regarding
this and would also collate all the other extra comments received and
forward them too. <<<<
There was a request for WJS to provide us with an up-to-date version of the
SDT document shortly before the next CASU meeting. <<<<
STH said that he would ask Martin Folger/Paul Hirst if the WFCAM SDT would
also be capable of uploading a file of pointings. <<<<
There was then some discussion regarding the limitation of only using one
guide star. While the VLT software only supports using one guide star, VISTA
has the hardware capability for using two. By cloning the VLT telescope
control software VISTA will only be able to make use one of these at any one
time. WJS has in the past suggested to the VISTA project that monitoring
two guide stars would be good, since there are three potential variables
(x,y, theta). PSB asked if the positions of the two guide stars could be
combined and a single x,y correction issued. WJS said he would inquire. <<<<
6. VST telecon report
WJS reported on the VST telecon that was held on 6th October. An email has
been circulated summarizing the meeting.
Various projects were mentioned ranging from deep surveys (the Cosmos and
SWIRE fields) to the shallow (KiDS and a survey in I and/or Z covering about
1000 square degrees led by Steve Warren), Galactic plane Halpha,r,i surveys
and so on.
Statements of Intent have been sent and the formal bids will be sent in
January. The end result is that there will undoubtedly be some UK VST data
processing requirement. CASU will tender for this in our next grant bid.
WJS also mentioned the SkyMapper project at Siding Springs (son-of-MACHO
1.3m 5 sq deg fov target Southern sky atlas) which has received funding.
7. Status RIX responses and FDR preparation
PSB said that he has received the latest Camera Document from Steven Beard
which has a simplified template structure (a RIX request). This had
implications for our Calibration Plan which haven't all been followed
through yet.
PSB then described the Data Reduction Library Design document and went
through each section of the current version. The main comments noted were:
S2: This is where the flat-fielding and fringing equations need to go. MJI
said that he would condense what is in the "paper" and place it here.
There was also a need for a brief mathematical desciption of the image
detection and basic catalogue generation parameters relevant for
generating QC information. MJI will also supply this. <<<<
S3: Modified versions of STH's diagrams go here. <<<<
S5: It was unclear what needed to go into this section. JRL said that he
would inquire of ESO attendees at ADASS. <<<<
There was a request to find out the latest schedule. MJI said that he
would investigate. <<<<
We were all encouraged to read through the document by the next meeting. <<<<
8. Updated ETC document
After an initial discussion on PDF files from Macs having problems being
printed on the Suns, STH said that the overall structure of the ETC document
was fine. There was some discussion on sky brightness input requirements
and it was suggested that we adopt something similar to WFCAM ie.
the ETC tool offers three suggested levels: average, high, and low.
It was suggested that STH look at some other ETCs that are similar to those
of ESO to get an idea regarding design. It was noted that supplying an ETC
as close as possible to the standard ESO format/style would minimise
secondary interface issues and would lead to a cleaner interface between
the CASU supplied software modules and the ESO visualisation backend.
The next version of the ETC document will be out early next week. Comments
on this version are requested asap. <<<<
9. APM building work update
MJI reported on the liaison meeting that was held this morning. The APM
building has been cleared out (gutted). There have been a few slight
delays due to various things (eg. tree pruning -v- scaffolding) but nothing
major. The carpenters and brickies arrive tomorrow and begin
(re)construction.
There has also been a slight delay due to subtleties required for the design
of the new (non-flat!!) roof. Since preservation order trees overhang the
whole building non-standard schemes for constructing the roof are required.
Other items of note are that the existing emergency exit will be part
glazed and the new window surrounds will be quoined probably using existing
bricks. The majority of power distribution sockets will be at skirting
board level and the kitchen area will (actually) get some power sockets.
PSB noted that the overall power distribution to the racks will come from
underfloor commando sockets which will drive (smart) power distribution units
(24 or 32 power outlets) within each rack. These enable programmable power
startup sequencing so that the whole power network is not overloaded on
startup in the event of power failures. Also servers and comms systems
equipment can be set to come back up first as needed. This seems like a
neat solution to the rack power supply distribution problem.
10. AOB
EGS said that he had revamped the INT Wide Field Camera web pages and
described some of the changes. He will email the location of the new pages
to the rest of the group so that we can provide comments before they are
released to the Universe. <<<<
There was a discussion regarding the Sybase disks on cass38. MJI said that
he would like to retire the old failing disks now that replacements are in
situ. He will sort this out with JRL (who had left early).
PSB raised the issue of ESO workstations. These are systems that are loaded
with ESO software and have a specific operating system on them. This
guarantees that the software will work (sic!) and various components will
be compatible with each other. This used to be restricted to expensive HP
machines only, but now includes inexpensive Linux systems running Red Hat 9!
A system like this will be required in order to test out various bits of
software. PSB volunteered to draw up a specification so that we can plan
for acquiring one in the near future. <<<<
Continuing Actions
------------------
MJI compare FIRES project reduced data catalogues with ours. It would be
good to finish this before the UKIRT Board Meeting (11/12 November)
STH investigate GPS MSBs (and any others obtained via Simon Dye).
This also should be done by the UKIRT Board Meeting.
JRL solve ZPN WCS problem in IRAF
MJI remind NAW about the benefits of Rice compression for the VO
STH sort out which bits of his data are missing from apm3 RAID array
New Actions
-----------
STH invite Simon Dye to Cambridge to discuss FIRES manual comparison
and to discuss pipeline functionality.
STH investigate what spectrophotometry is available in the NIR to nail
the narrowband filter calibration issue
WJS collate the extra comments received about the VISTA SDT document and
forward them to Martin Folger
WJS provide an up-to-date version of the VISTA SDT document before the
next CASU meeting
STH ask Martin Folger/Paul Hirst if the WFCAM SDT can upload a file of
pointings
MJI provide an instrumental signature removal section, and a catalogue
section for section 2 of the DRLD document
STH provide diagrams for section 3 of DRLD document
JRL inquire of ESO personnel at ADASS what should go in section 5 of the
DRLD document
MJI investigate the latest VISTA deliverables schedule
ALL read through the DRLD document and provide comments by next meeting
ALL read through ETC document and provide comments by next meeting
EGS distribute location of revamped INT Wide Field Camera web pages
ALL comment on revamped ING Wide Field Camera web pages
PSB draw up a specification for an ESO workstation
