CASB Report for June, 2000

Highlights for Division Meeting

· Released the "automated" version of the Bright Object checker to the STIS group.

Community Affairs and Communications

· McLean, as a member of the SOC, participated in the June NVO workshop and presented a review of current ground-based wide-area surveys.

· Laidler attended the AAS meeting in Rochester, NY.

· Conducted tours for attendees of the Space Astrophysics Detector Conference.

Project Management and Technical Infrastructure

· Volpicelli (OATo) visited STScI and delivered a new version of the CIQA software.

MISSION SUPPORT

HST Operations

· Reviewed four Guide Star Problem Reports (GSPRs). Of these, three were due to fine-lock failures caused by close doubles and one was a search failure. The search failure was a blended object in the outer region of a globular cluster. Bad GS Alerts were filed for all four GSPRs.

· Investigated a GSC-I problem for an HST target, HD 48279, which is a triple system. The GSC-I entries, derived from INCA data, have serious errors that might affect alerts for bright objects or spoilers. Recommended that PSD correct the operations version of GSC-I.

· Released the "automated" version of the Bright Object checker to the STIS group. Claus Leitherer, Instrument Scientist for STIS, has requested that his colleagues in STIS begin using the program and report any problems. Feedback has been positive.

· Working with Ron Downes, STIS Instrument Scientist, and Tony Krueger, head of APT/VTT development, to further develop and finalize the requirements for integrating the Bright Object checking into the Visual Target Tuner (VTT). Meeting this week with the developers of the Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT) and the VTT to establish a timeline for integrating the Bright Object checker into the VTT by the end of the year.

NGST Development Studies

· Spagna is finalizing report on Guide Star availability for submission to NGST division.

· McLean and Morrison attended meeting on requirements for target selection for NEXUS and NGST optical alignment.

· Morrison was assigned to participate in NGST operations concept and proposal teams.

DIGITIZED SKY SURVEY

Plate Scanning

· Completed scanning the ROE plate shipment of the SERC I/SR Atlas of the Milky Way.

· Returned this shipment to ROE and requested that ROE resume sending us only UKST-IR plates until we complete all those that are available.

· Resumed scanning the POSSI-O plates.

· Shipment of POSS-II plates arrived from USNO, Flagstaff, at the end of the period.

GAMMA Microdensitometer Systems

· Both GAMMA systems are running well.

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. Meanwhile, compression of POSS-II N continues.

Archive Maintenance

· Reorganizing the storage cabinets for the 8-mm tape archive.

· Received a return shipment of 8-mm scan tapes from ECF.

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

· Continued processing of the POSSI-E (red) survey for GSC2. Processing efficiency for the past month has been very high. Altered the detection threshold slightly for these plates to inhibit detections of false objects caused by higher grain noise in the older emulsions. Tests have shown very little impact on faint object detections when using the slightly higher detection thresholds.

· Tests are continuing on the astrometry problems seen on a small number of these plates. It is estimated that the POSSI-E survey will be completely processed within the next month to six weeks at current rates.

COMPASS Database

· Object Matching has been running and is almost complete for plates previously loaded in the database. Hardware failures have significantly slowed operations.

· Replaced a failed drive in the RAID array.

CALIBRATIONS: Astrometry

· Developed a routine, the filter method, to remove small-scale systematics on individual plates. The intention is to use this method after the global systematics common to a set of plates are removed by the mask method or distortion equations.

· Essentially a small circle is drawn around every measured object. For all reference stars within the circle, differences between the reference stars' standard coordinates and those obtained from GSC-II pipeline calibration are determined. A weighted average, based on distance to the central star, of delta xi and delta eta is found for all these differences. The central star's standard coordinates are then corrected by this average value.

· Results from initial testing using this method look "good" with remaining residuals of the order of 0.1 to 0.15 arc-sec. Because this method is somewhat time-consuming a short cut method, called a filter-mask, has also been developed.

· In the filter-mask method a closely spaced grid of points (hopefully smaller than the scale of the systematics we are trying to remove) is created. These grid points are then treated as artificial measured objects, a circle is drawn around each object, and the delta xi and delta eta determined as before. This filter-mask is applied just like an astrometric mask. Initial testing using the filter-mask and longer filter method shows little difference.

· In addition, testing using the distortion equations to remove the global systematics common to a set of plates in combination with the filter method does as good or better at removing the systematics than the mask/filter combination.

· More testing on how to chose the reference stars, the weighting method and size of the circle is needed.

CALIBRATIONS: Classification

· Reviewing of the non-astronomical literature on classification and decision trees in progress.

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

· (OATo) Submitted a proposal to the Dutch time allocation panel in collaboration with R. Le Poole to the use 90cm Dutch telescope at La Silla for 20 nights with the goal of completing the southern GSPC-II sequences, and re-observing some high-galactic-latitude fields.

· (OATo) Extracted all the ESO reduced data (excluding the CCD images) from the single CD-Roms and put them together in a unique CD-Rom for easy access.

· (OATo) Continuing global statistics and QA of the 850 GSPC-II fields selected for publication.

· Archived all GSPC-II data in two DLT copy sets to be stored at OATo and STScI.

· The routine procedure to fix GSPC-II data reported from the GSC-II processing pipeline is running.

· Provided Gemini Telescope Operations with a procedure for extrapolating GSC-II magnitudes to 2Mass magnitudes.

· Running several tests to use 2Mass data when GSPC-II is not available. A quick extraction procedure was created to read this catalog from the net.

CALIBRATIONS: Apply_Calibs:

·

GSC-II General Software Development

· A report describing the two-plate quality assurance software developed at OATo is available via web. http://astroserver.to.astro.it/papers/IntRep/00_53_qa_reports.doc.

· In particular, implemented a new routine concerning the star counts of matched objects. The QA_2plates procedure has been checked on a sample of about 40 pairs of matched plates loaded in the local COMPASS database.

· Created a new routine that collects all the most important data to have a comparison of the results produced by QA_2plates on the whole sample of processed plates.

GSC-II Science

· Three datasets were consigned to the CRA researchers: two consisting of plate based reductions at the NGP and one an all sky extraction from the export catalogue.

· Received two new data requests for research proposals from Mignani-ESO and Fresneau-Strasbourg; these will be discussed presently.

· The search for high proper motion objects in the regions 443 and 444 towards the North Galactic Pole has provided eight candidates of which two have been followed up spectroscopically. A new field (137), which is suitable for summer follow-up, has been selected and processing started.

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		606	0	606	100	S4	1
PPARC-ER	288		270	0	270	94		1
AAO-SR	118		118	0	118	100	S2	-
UKST-SR	112		0	50	50	45	S5	3
UKST-IR	894		449	13	462	52		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		141	0	141	16		3
Rescans			18	0	18

• S1. Low priority program to rescan crowded fields (|b|<30) originally done with 25 mu scans. The total number of S scans includes the 2 for the LMC and SMC plus 4 others with |b|>30 performed for research or STIS BOP support. Another 30 plates have been added to replace those that were repaired before inclusion in DSS-I.
• S2. This survey is an on-going low level-of-effort collaboration between the STScI and the AAO. About 25-50 plates have been added in each of the past few years.
• S3. Low priority scans of the POSS-I -24 deg and -30 deg zones.
• S4. Includes recent scans of better grade plates.
• S5. Low priority scans of the moderately-short exposure R plates from the SERC I/SR Atlas of the Milky Way.

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	211	16	227	25		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	205	20	225	25		4
AAO-SES	606	587	0	587	97		3
PPARC-ER	288	250	0	250	87		3
AAO-SR	109	73	0	73	67		4
UKST-IR	894	0	60	60	7		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-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	362	316	678	77	G1	3
POSS-QV	613	2	0	2	0		3
POSS-II J	897	887	0	887	99		1
POSS-II F	897	897	0	897	100		1
POSS-II N	897	44	0	44	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

· G1. POSS-I E totals include 66 plates processed before 2000 which will be reprocessed.

GSC-II COMPASS DATABASE LOAD (total number entries = 1,089,000,000)

Survey	Goal	Previous Month	Current Month	Current Total	% done	Notes	Priority
POSS-I E	880	5	0	5	1		3
POSS-QV	613	2	0	2	0		3
POSS-II J	897	511	0	511	57		1
POSS-II F	897	743	0	743	83		1
POSS-II N	897	4	0	4	0		4
SERC-J	894	128	0	128	14		1
South-F	894	473	0	473	53		1
UKST-IR	894	0	0	0	0		4
South-SR	109	13	0	13	12		2
South-QV	94	57	0	57	61		2

GSC-II Dataset for V2.1.n delivery (1791 Fields, 3438 plates) (P1)

Item	Count	% done	Notes
Plates available	3417	99
Plates processed	3355	98
DB Load	1907	55
Current Calibration or Recalibration	1887	55

• P1. Defined as all 897 POSS-II fields with 1794 plates, plus the 894 southern

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	559	0	559	96	P1	1
POSS-II	314	169	0	169	54		1
SERC	894	868	0	868	97		1

GSPC-II REDUCTIONS

Survey	Goal	Previous Month	Current Month	Current Total	% done	Notes	Priority
POSS-I	584	559	0	559	99	P1	1
POSS-II	314	169	0	169	54		1
SERC	894	868	0	868	97		1

• P1. The current totals have been revised from earlier ones.