Transcript A Target of Opportunity Observing System for NOAO Rob Seaman

A Target of Opportunity
Observing System for NOAO
Rob Seaman
Data Products Program
29 April 2008
Astronomy is many disciplines
From Solar System to Galaxy to Cosmos
From Big Bang to current epoch
From gigayear stasis to explosive detonation
Physics in extreme regimes
Earth’s broadest context
Civilization’s ultimate master
Diverse Observing modes
Classical observing
Queue scheduled
Survey campaigns
Service staffing
Remote staffing
Kibitzing modes
Robotic observing
All share autonomous trends (power tools)
Experimental design
Observations serve empirical purpose(s)
Archival science is not different
Philosophical issues can’t be ducked:
What is a detection?
What is an object?
What is a process?
Software can help or hinder
Astronomical lifecycle
Ask question
Design experiment
Submit observing proposal
Scheduling constraints
Observing run preparation
Pick an observing mode
Transport data (or VO equivalent)
Astronomical lifecycle 2
Reduce data
Analyze results in context
Deduce science
Publish to the community
Publish to the public
Ask new questions…
Time domain
Can’t afford the cycle overhead
Must speed up by several orders of mag.
but also…
Schedule is no longer a free parameter
Preparation must be complete & explicit
Context is everything (sample selection)
Competition is fierce
Thus need new observing mode
Celestial Transient Events
Aitoff projection
VOEvent protocol
IVOA standard
Describe celestial transient events
XML message format
Transport neutral
In coordination with Heterogeneous
Telescope Network (HTN)
<VOEvent>
<Who> - provenance
<What> - observations
<WhereWhen> - space/time localization
<How> - instrument configuration
<Why> - semantic characterization
<Citations> - empirical threads
Many VOEvent projects
VO-GCN (Phil, Mike, Caltech, Cal, GSFC)
VOEventNet (Caltech, NOAO, LANL, Cal)
HTN (LCOGT, eSTAR, etc.)
CBAT/MPC/AAVSO/ATEL
GCN/SNEWS/…
NOAO Surveys
NOAO ToO
SIE 554/654 project
System Engineering Process
Use Case driven
SysML
SIE grad student team:
Victor Tenorio (mining)
Ana Catalina Kottman
Anabel Rodriguez
Shahzad Patel (Fall ‘07)
System Engineering Plan
Trade-off studies