AstroCat A Webbased interactive astronomical catalog

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AstroCat A Web-based interactive astronomical
catalog
Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo

• Stefan Dreizler
• Institute for Astrophysics
• Georg-August-University, Göttingen
• Ralf Stockmann
• Niedersächsiches Staats- und Universitätsbibliothe
  k, Göttingen
• CNI Spring 2006 Task Force Meeting

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Astronomical Catalogs - History
Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo

• First catalog by Hipparchos (180-125 b.Chr.)
  1022 stars (position and brightness)
• Continued by Ptolomäus and numerous astronomers
  into modern times
• Argelander (1799-1875)
  all (northern) by eye visible stars
  a survey using a 10
  cm telescope (22000 objects)
  variable
  stars
• Catalog by Messier (1730-1817)
  nebulous objects not to be confused
  with comets (107 objects)

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Astronomical Catalogs - Present
Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo

• Today 6453 catalogs listed e.g. _at_ Strasbourg
  Astronomical Data Center
• Bibliographic data base with 4.6 M entries _at_
  Smithsonian/NASA Astronomical Data Center
• Several Virtual Telescope Projects, e.g. MAST
  (Multi Mission Archive at Space Telescope)

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Motivation for interactive catalogs
Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo

• From data to paper
• Raw data Data Archive
• Reduced data Data Archive ?
• Derived quantities
• Publication Bibliographic Archive

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Motivation for interactive catalogs
Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo

• From paper to (meta-)data
• Statistical analysis of available data
• Planning of observations
• Data base query of derived quantities

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Requirements
Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo

• Complete
• Error free
• Up to date
• citable
• Catalog from the community for the community
• ? Web based
• ? Interactive
• AstroCat provides a platform for the
  implementation of such catalogs

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Technical details
Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo

• Linux
• PostgreSQL
• PHP5
• XML (AstroCatML)

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The Team

• Original Idea Boris Gänsicke, Jens Kube
  (Institute for Astrophysics, Göttingen)
• Movement towards a more general project in
  library context Klaus Beuermann (IAG), Elmar
  Mittler (Univ. Library Göttingen)
• Design and definition Fabian Euchner, Alexander
  Pollmer
• Extended phase Stefan Dreizler, Ralf Stockmann
• Implementation CVcat Fabian Euchner, Alexander
  Pollmer, Boris Gänsicke (now Univ. of Warwick)

Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo
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Input Whats known
Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo

• Astronomical coordinates
• Object name(s)
• Brightness
• Classification
• Stellar parameters
• System parameters

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Output CVcat provides
Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo

• Query by
• Name
• Coordinates
• Classification
• Object properties
• Returns
• List of objects (in user definable formats)
• Overview of properties for all objects

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Community involvement in CVcat
Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo

• Unregistered user
• Query the data base
• Registered user about 200
• Add properties and new objects
• Add comments
• Editors a few
• Guarantee correctness
• Massive data input

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Addresses
Interactive Catalog Introduction Motivation AstroC
at CVcat Demo

• AstroCat.org
• CVcat-demo
• CVcat.net
• info_at_astrocat.org

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Query by object name
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Result
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Result
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Result
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Query by classification
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Result
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Query by properties
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Query by propoerties
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Query by properties
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Result
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Query by properties
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Result
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Output list
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Add Object
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Result
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Add propoerty
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Add propoerty
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Result
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Result