eStar Combining Telescopes and Databases

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eStar Combining Telescopes and Databases

• Tim Naylor - University of Exeter
• Iain Steele Liverpool John Moores University
• Dave Carter - Liverpool John Moores University

Chris Motram Liverpool John Moores
University Jason Etherton - Liverpool John Moores
University Alasdair Allan - University of Exeter
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In a galaxy
a long time away
astronomers had built a virtual observatory
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In a galaxy
a long time away
astronomers had built a virtual observatory
But a small, determined rebel group
continued to make new observations!
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In a galaxy
a long time away
astronomers had built a virtual observatory
But a small, determined rebel group
Continued to observe the real universe
"What has the mighty federation
of databases ever done for us?" they cried.
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Imagine a system which

• Has unified access to observational data,
• and to telescopes,
• and to the scientific literature.
• And has intelligent software to interpret the
  results (IAs).

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Scenario 1 The space density of dwarf novae.

• Interacting binary stars important for
  evolution.
• Every CCD field taken in the world is compared
  with SuperCosmos.
• Objects which brighten above fixed magnitude (say
  16th ? MV) compared with SIMBAD.
• Known dwarf novae noted other variables
  rejected.
• Historical data searched for new objects, used to
  identify lightcurve type.

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Space density of dwarf novae.

• If cannot be classified, further observations
  requested.
• As lightcurve builds up, future observations
  placed optimally.
• Object type finally determined.
• HST parallax requested to confirm distance.
• Astronomer comes back from long lunch break and
  writes paper.

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Scenario 2 What was that?

• 021103UT shutter closes on a WASP image of
  Centaurus.
• 021230UT the data have been processed and a
  list of positions and magnitudes is available.
• 021245UT An astronomers intelligent agent
  discovers a new, bright object is in the data.
• 021300UT In response to the IAs request for
  confirmation a small telescope slews to acquire
  another image.

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• Whilst waiting the IA queries SIMBAD and
  discovers there is no known variable at this
  point.
• 021506UT The new image confirms the object, so
  the IA requests a spectrum from the Liverpool
  Telescope.
• Whilst waiting, the IA pulls all the other
  available data and papers.
• 022234UT The spectrum is odd, there hasnt
  been ?-ray burst but VISTA shows a very faint red
  object, mentioned in a paper last year
• 022250UT An astronomer is woken up.

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How close are we to this?

• eScience Telescopes for Astronomical Research.
• Funded as an e-Science demonstrator project by UK
  DTI.
• Uses Meade LX200 ETX telescopes SBIG or
  Apogee cameras.
• Functions across network, with telescopes sending
  data we made earlier.
• Test on sky later this year.

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Design Issues.

• No overall supervisor (scalability).
• Many telescopes each with own scheduler, which
  talk to
• intelligent agents, written mainly in Perl,
• via RTML and Globus.
• Intelligent agents also talk to SIMBAD/ADS/USNO
  A-2/DSS web services.
• Many intelligent agents and discovery nodes.
• An IA is intended to do one science job, and
  probably resides on the astronomers computer.

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Typical Sequence

• IA opens up with a Globus resource discovery
  (LDAP), finding each telescope.
• Asks which nodes can carry out a particular
  observation (scoring).
• Requests an observation, which telescope places
  in queue (scheduling).
• Data (raw and reduced) made available to IA.

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What sort of variable?

• Mines SIMBAD to find variable stars at this
  location.

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How much is known?

• Mines Astrophysical Data system for papers, and
  for other data.

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What Next?

• See the demo and http//www.estar.org.uk/
• Scheduling system needs refining.
• More intelligent IAs.
• Looking for industrial partners for transfer in
  both directions (DTI funded).
• Looking for astronomy partners telescopes
  willing to become part of a network.
• But none of this will work well if VOs and ROs
  talk different languages.