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21st February 2007 Hoyle Committee Room 10:00 - 13:00
Present: DWE, STH, JRL, PSB, MR, WJS, MJI, EGS
Late arrivals: RGM, NAW
Agenda
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1. Actions from last meeting
2. Comments on WFAU minutes - UKLight saga update
3. Data archives update - AAT, ING, WFCAM, UKIRT
4. Optical processing update- VST news
5. WFCAM news - raw data issues
- processing status
- news from AJA and GD visit
- sky brightness properties
- photometric calibration
6. VISTA news - comments on SMPs
(VVV, VIDEO, UltraV, Viking, VMC, VHS)
- delivery v0.5 pipeline
- change to cats keywords
- miscellaneous (too numerous to list)
7. ADASS 2007 - update
8. AOB - NAM (Preston, April 16-20)
- EURO-VO
- Kavli update
- CPL workshop
Minutes
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1. Actions from last meeting
STH has not investigated the effects of stacking on the 2MASS/WFCAM
non-linearity comparison. However, this has now been included in the
photometric calibration tasks for DR3 and has thus been removed as a
separate action.
JRL is still awaiting a reply to his emails regarding the PostgreSQL
problems with the AAT archive - ongoing <<<<
RGM has not finished working on the classification aspect of cross-talk
weeding. This work will be rekindled when the DR2 data becomes
available - ongoing <<<<
DWE has set up an automatic synching of the VIRCAM documentation from
cvs to HTML. The transfer to Plone just requires a small scp issue to
be sorted - ongoing <<<<
MJI discussed data transfer issues for WFCAM with Andy Adamson (see item 5)
JRL tried to check the OMP database to see what WFCAM data has been observed.
However, the database link is broken. JRL said that be would get in
touch with UKIRT to sort this out. <<<<
RGM updated the SMP guidelines and organized a meeting
EGS are working on the ADASS 2007 registration web page - ongoing <<<<
MR
MR has contacted various people regarding credit card payments for ADASS
2007. ADB is now looking into this - ongoing <<<<
JRL organized an ADASS 2007 LOC meeting which was held yesterday (see item 7)
PSB contacted BT regarding wireless provision for ADASS 2007 (see item 7)
- ongoing <<<<
2. Comments on WFAU minutes
PSB updated us on the latest news of his offspring's offspring.
PSB was grateful for having his attention drawn to the LTO4 tape drives (800
GB native per tape). We haven't needed to get any tape drives recently, but
it's good to know about these.
PSB gave an update on the UKLight saga. Yesterday he received an email from
David Salmon. Apparently an implementation timescale will be drawn up in
the next couple of days. It is possible that things might move in April
and pigs might fly - well not so much fly, as plummet.
RGM said that he had been in touch with Steve Percival of UKERNA, who had
told him that he should send in an official complaint. RGM has drafted this
and will send it off soon. <<<<
It was noted that DR2 will be out next week, sans GPS.
3. Data archives update
AAT: all DVDs have been read and the data is now on disk. We are now
waiting for AAT to sort out the PostgreSQL problem.
ING: JRL said that the search engine problems in the archive have been fixed.
All the software has been migrated to apm20 and Sybase has been updated. JRL
was asked to sort out the cvs server on cass38 so that it can be retired. <<<<
The schedule for retiring cass38 will commence early next week beginning
with unmounting the disks.
MJI noted that extra checks for the Internet transfer of data from La Palma
had recently been introduced to cover the situation where no nightly logs
had been generated by the observers. [A comparison against night log is one
of the transfer checks.]
WFCAM: see item 5
UKIRT: JRL pointed out that the last data we have in the archive is from
2.5 years ago. The proprietary period is 18 months, so there is 1 year of
data that needs to be acquired.
4. Optical processing update
MJI said that much processing of INT, Megacam and Subaru data has occured
recently mainly for Local Group surveys and to finish off outstanding IPHAS
GP processing.
The PIs of the UK-lead VST Public Surveys have received comments regarding
the (re)submitted SMPs and got the green light.
5. WFCAM news
Raw data issues:
MR reported that although the semester started on 26th October, the first
complete datasets we have received are still only for the period 19th December
to 3rd January. There are still many problems with missing files and also the
pre-19th December NDR data. The last batch of tapes had the missing data
grouped by detector but not for all detectors. We have not had any tapes
for over a month.
Processing status:
All the data that has been received and is complete has now been processed.
It is now waiting to be checked by MJI (approximately by end of next week)
and it will then by flagged as appropriate.
To give a better overview of status MR was asked to mark appropriate nights
(mainly in November 2006) on the data processing page as "pending"
or similar. <<<<
An extra column on the status web page has also been added that records
the date of the most recent "header updated" flag (UPDATED) in each date
directory.
MR pointed out that none of 06B had been added to the DQC database because
of its problematic nature.
A new intermittent fault has occured on detector#3. This is a bright edge
channel fault which is noticeable in the flats as both channel boundaries and
enhanced noise. It is not clear if, or how, this will affect the science
data. This will be examined at the detailed checking stage. <<<<
MR also noted that not enough darks were being taken per night for some of
the science observing combinations used this semester. This issue has been
raised with Andy Adamson. For now, darks are being cannibalised from other
nearby nights to make up the defecit.
It was also noted that WFCAM has a new narrow-band J filter (and apparently
a narrow-band H-band filter may be coming shortly). Some NBJ science frames
in 06B have already been spotted.
News from AJA and GD visit: several items covered are noted already.
MJI reported on further news from the meeting he, JRL, and MR had with
Andy Adamson and Gary Davis.
JAC have come up with a way of uniquely identifying MSBs that are repeated.
This will allow the data in the OMP database to be linked to an MSB
observation (see also minutes_060718.txt). This is not retrospective and
will only apply to new data from early this year (exact date TBFO).
Sky brightness properties:
MR gave a presentation of his investigation into the correlations between
sky brightness and various parameters (Moon presence, temperature, time
after twilight,...). One of the problems of this investigation is that the
observations have not been planned with this in mind and so he has had to
make the best use of the data that is available. The sky value used comes
from the "SKYLEVEL" measure in the FITS headers of the observations.
There was much discussion during the presentation. The main conclusions were:
* there is no significant difference in sky brightness between bright and
dark time for YJHK, a 0.5 mag effect is seen in Z (brighter in bright time);
* there is no significant Moon effect in YJHK when at a reasonable (>20 deg)
distance, a safe distance for Z is >30 deg;
* sky brightness reduces as a function of time after twilight for J and K;
* there was a correlation with temperature for K as expected using a simple
Black Body model.
Photometric calibration:
STH said that he had a list of tasks agreed by the photometric calibration
working group to be carried out before DR3. This implies a deadline of
around mid-April. STH will email this list to everyone for comments. <<<<
This will be a precursor to an MNRAS paper built around the available
information from web-based reports. STH pointed out that calibration of
narrow-band photometry has not been considered yet in any detail. MJI
noted that the current default is simply to use the same ce's as for the
closest broadband equivalent.
6. VISTA news
Comments on SMPs (VVV, VIDEO, UltraV, Viking, VMC, VHS):
MJI noted that much time had been spent interacting with the PIs on their
SMPs. The most up-to-date versions of these are available on the internal
parts of our web and Plone pages. There will be feedback from ESO to the PIs
on 7th March and the SMPs will then have to be resubmitted by 2nd April.
WJS reported on progress with VISTA and presented a brief slide show.
Delivery of v0.5 pipeline:
JRL said that this was originally scheduled for the end of February, but
this deadline will be slipped by a few weeks to allow for extra checks
to be made. On a positive note he reported that recent critical comments
from ESO ("tickets") have been getting even pickier and are mainly related
to previously undisclosed DFS interface standards.
Some software testing procedures (eg. valgrind) have been obtained from
Sandra Castro which JRL is in the process of using for various extra checks.
STH and JRL are updating the relevant DRLD figures to reflect the latest
version of the actual software.
Concerns about dependency of flatfields and possibly associated illumination
corrections on the rotation angle have been raised. This arose because of
problems seen with FORS data shown at the ESO calibration workshop.
Although this problem is expected to be negligible for VISTA WJS has been
asked to get this included in the list of integration tests. <<<<
Change to catalogue keywords:
There are different WCS standards for image and table data. The current
method we use was devised before the standard for tables was agreed and
is simply to copy the relevant keyword information from the image headers
to the catalogue headers - mais fitsverify ne l'aime pas. Since the same
catalogue generation software is being delivered to ESO as will be run
in Cambridge it was felt timely to update how the WCS information is
stored in the catalogues. Conditional upon WFAU agreement, at some future
point it would be prudent to upgrade the WFCAM software in the same way
(eg. ready for the start of 07B processing).
Jitter patterns:
There was much discussion regarding standard templates for jitter patterns
and scaling factors for these. PSB asked whether there was a specification
for how a PI would input a scaling factor into OBs. WJS assured that
because a scaling factor was present in the VIRCAM instrument definition
there would automatically be a parameter available to P2PP.
Will there be a jitter pattern recommendation and who will do this?
WJS was reminded that for VISTA, darks will be needed for each observing
mode including exposure time, number of co-additions etc.
7. ADASS 2007
JRL reported that there was a meeting of the ADASS 2007 LOC. It was
unanimously decided that various problems associated with holding the
conference dinner at the Globe Theatre had necessitated a rethink. The
current front runner is the conference location, Kensington Town Hall.
PSB said that BT did not advertize a temporary wireless service on their
web site. Eventually, he managed to get in touch with the relevant person
(conferences section) and is waiting for further information. PSB is also
in touch with a local network provider who is researching possible options
for ADASS networking.
JRL recollected that BT had previously provided wireless services in
Kensington Town Hall. He will investigate further to see if he can get a
better contact. <<<<
MJI said that he would find out who is our secretarial support for
ADASS 2007 <<<<
There is a university account for ADASS 2007 which will help with accepting
credit card payments.
8. AOB
MJI asked if all the windows in the APM building have been fixed. This was
the case.
MJI also asked if there was any interest in attending NAM (Preston, April
16-20). JRL and PSB said that they would be at the CPL workshop. MJI will
also be away in Strasbourg.
MJI noted the following extract from an email he had received:
"If you are interested in applying to a EURO-VO supported research initiative,
please see the details of a call for proposals to carry out astronomical
projects using VO tools at: http://www.euro-vo.org/pub/fc/call.html
Deadline is April 1, 2007."
JRL said that there was a CPL workshop at ESO on 18 and 19 April. This was
for second generation instruments. JRL and PSB have been asked to attend
because they have experience in developing software using CPL. JRL suggested
that he would like to broaden the scope of his contribution to include
interaction with ESO in general.
STH said that he needs reports covering January and February for the next
VDMT meeting. RGM noted that this will be on 9 March 2pm. <<<<
MJI said that a VDUC meeting is being planned. Originally this was aimed
at the end of March, but due to availability constraints from himself and
NCH this needs a rethink.
PSB reported that various meetings have been held concerning the Kavli
building and consequent demolition of his office (and quite a lot of the
building around him). PSB will probably be relocated in the APM building.
Other consequence of this are that our out-of-APM building secure tape
store will also need relocating. MJI will investigate alternatives and
make sure that the tapes are rationialized prior to moving. <<<<
Plates in the SPO will also have to be found new homes. RWA is contacting
Elizabeth Griffin about moving them to the Royal Observatory, Bruxelles.
PSB added that the network cables will also have to be rerouted. There will
be some network disruption (makes a change!).
Continuing Actions
------------------
JRL repair AAT archive mirroring (PostgreSQL problems)
RGM report back on classification aspect of cross-talk weeding
DWE finish off synching of VIRCAM documentation to Plone site
EGS prepare ADASS 2007 registration web page
MR
MR sort out how ADASS 2007 credit card payments are to be made
PSB sort out BT wireless provision for ADASS 2007
New Actions
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JRL get UKIRT to fix the OMP database
RGM send off official complaint to UKERNA
JRL sort out cvs server on cass38
MR mark appropriate nights on data processing page as "pending"
MJI investigate effect of bright edge channel problem in processed data
STH distribute DR3 photometric calibration task list to all
ALL send comments on above to STH
WJS add field rotation flat field tests to integration tests
JRL find out more about previous providers of wireless services at
Kensington Town Hall
MJI find out who is our secretarial support for ADASS 2007
ALL send in January/February reports to STH
MJI contact Paul Aslin about CASU out-of-APM tape store
