CASU meeting Wednesday 23rd January 11:30-13:00 APM Present: MJI, AKY, STH, EGS, JRL, RGM, NAW, JPE Apologies: MR, SC Agenda: 1. Actions from last meeting 2. Comments on WFAU minutes 3. Hardware update 4. Meetings and telecons 5. Data archives update 6. WFCAM update 7. VISTA update 8. VST update 9. AOB/news 1. Actions from last meeting ----------------------------- STH - has the information ready to impart re: "radial" extent of diffraction spikes, imparting to web world is ongoing <<<< JRL - are using PPMXL for tests with HAWKI and VIMOS data MJI EGS - awaiting feedback from VPHAS on format for band-merged cats <<<< SC - handover of disk+LTO4 on hold until SC returns <<<< MJI - rien ne se passe avec les random apertures to measure tile noise <<<< STH - is still working on zero-point offsets for Y and Z which just to <<<< re-emphasise will be published on the web pages and in the photometry paper rather than applied to the zero-points, and the same is true for any offsets in J,H,Ks JRL - progess aka retiring apm5 Sybase server still on hold <<<< EGS - fixed mysterious web page leftovers for 20120809 MJI - checked and indeed the Omegacam video boards covering #85-88 were replaced (October 5th), but it appears that there was no notable effect on the instabilities of chips #87,#88, nor any effect on the gain, to within 1%. MJI - the VST dome flats -v- twilight flats comparison ne marche pas <<<< JRL - notes of limitations/mods of the ESO Giraffe pipeline and ..... <<<< EGS - is working on a wfcamsp/ equivalent to vistasp/ and vstsp/ <<<< SC - successfully tested, ordered and then installed a bunch of new MJI fibre channel raids SC - rooted out a spare G-bit switch as a backup MJI - checked and nobody from ATLAS attended the Leiden VST meeting either EGS - took advantage of the VISTA cryo intervention in December to <<<< commence the v1.2 -> v1.3 tile catalogue part of the upgrade ongoing but almost finished JRL - bundled up the VST pickup removing software and released it 2. WFAU minutes --------------- MJI spotted the reference from RGM asking all WFAU staff to ensure their staff absences entries are up to date ....... then forgot to mention the same regarding CASU absences entries in ours so ....... <<<< Eckhard had asked recently about the various bits of reprocessing going on for VISTA and also WFCAM and VST. Gist of reply below since a useful summary and reminder of where we are at: VISTA - new zero-point for pawprints and tiles the rest is just catalogue updates to put the whole system on v1.3 this includes regrouting all tile catalogues up to end of 2011 VST - is going to be zero-point updates only at this stage WFCAM - we did a big update about a year ago for all zero-points and catalogue aperture corrections to end of 2011. Unfortunately a similar minor update to aperture corrections and zero-points is needed for most of 2012 data so no change to images in general other than header zpt updates 3. Hardware update ------------------- New fibre channel raid arrays were installed on apm48, and apm36. A further one is holding down the floor together with a couple more QLogic HBA cards for company. 4. Meetings and telecons ------------------------- MJI missed the VMC telecon in December but did at least read the minutes - nothing too detrimental therein. There will be another one at the end of January and he will miss that too. The VISTA celebration meeting at ROE January 17-18th came and went. STH, AKY and MJI flew the flag for CASU but even with the help of GPS the latter two had trouble finding the dinner location -> conclusion need 3D GPS in Edinburgh ! Upcoming meetings include: the 4th VVV Meeting 21st-23rd March in Viņa del Mar. Gaia-ESO survey all-hands meeting 8th-11th April in Nice VMC meeting ~8th-12th April 2013 in Potsdam suggesting a need to organise who is attending what on CASU's behalf <<<< 5. Data archives update - AAT, ING, WFCAM, UKIRT, VISTA ------------------------ The raw archives are all up to date and the off-lines backups are likewise in good shape. More UVEX/IPHAS (Oct2012) data is being processed and belated band-merging for UVEX data has begun. A question recently came in to CASUHELP about Vega - AB magnitude conversions for INT WFC. The ones of the (old) web pages here are a tad out of date but EGS published a very nice summary of INT WFC calibration in 2011, if anybody else asks. Completely out of the blue came a request for a copy of the APM HST guide star catalog conversion software (creates sorted "hstguide.sun" from the original ascii ). This is >20 years old stuff. Amazingly a copy of the code was tracked down (VAX fortran !!) and sent off with loads of health warnings. Several days later "it won't compile under linux" - yeah right ! 6. WFCAM update ---------------- There were a few recent transfer faux pas due to server FUs but otherwise transfers, ingest and processing are proceeding on track. Releases to WFAU are getting a bit behind so MJI needs to unblock the drain and shift November and December out of the sink. <<<< A request came in for flat file access given a list of specific celestial coordinates. Finding the relevant files with a script was a bit unwieldy which triggered the request for an upgraded wfcamsp/ to do the donkey work. There have been the usual fast-track delivery requests from assorted Koreans plus Niall Deacon and Steve Warren - not an obvious connection there - which were dispatched a toute vitesse. A while back WFCAM processing switched to apm47_a for processed and (the new) apm23_c for raw data. The wrong Moffat coefficient (part of the asymptotic large scale aperture correction software) for WFCAM in the pipeline classifier caused several months of slightly incorrect (~2%) zero-points and aperture corrections. As noted in the previous minutes from the point-of-view of end product magnitudes this makes no difference, but these still await correction. <<<< A bug in the astrometry updating software for WFCAM, that is only run as part of post-pipeline checking for frames with suspect astrometry, generated a few tens of stupid CD values for a 20 day period at the beginning of October. These files were picked up during WFAU ingestion due to the computed celestial coordinates of objects being in another universe. A simple test on sqrt(det[CD matrix]) = plate scale found all of these plus a few others which were all subsequently fixed. 7. VISTA update ---------------- Raw data transfers, ingest, tape backups, processing and releases are on track with October just leaving the building. November and December processing is in good shape and should be finished shortly. The 1st November warmup mentioned in the previous minutes was also picked up during post-processing checks and most of the data for that night has been junked (i.e. mv'd -> junk/). The saga of the odd blank QC status' for VISTA and mucho more for VST has progressed. Updated information supposedly the same as the grade status the PIs get (makes a change) has been supplied and is being incorporated in the headers. There are a still a few blanks remaining but this update should remove most of the earlier ones and will be added to the v1.3 set of updates. In a nutshell a more recent summary originally from ESO of the OB grades: A - all within constraints; OB completed B - mostly within constraints - some constraint ~10% violated; OB completed C - out of constraint - OB set to must repeat D - out of constraint, BUT OB set to completed and will not be repeated - this may happen if some constraint is more than ~10% violated, but for some (scientifically valid) reason it is decided not to repeat the observation - this decision is typically taken by the support astronomer not by telescope operator; it happens very rarely QC grades R and Z do not exist, but (they sort of do since) these have been used for: R - aborted OB - this will be repeated later Z - unclear status/grade - automatic retrieval of the status/grade returned null value NONE and empty string are not delivered - supposedly. During the v1.3 tile regrouting a few original tile catalogues failed to turn up together with a few originals that weren't the updated orginals - capice ? These are being (re)regenerated accordingly. No news is good news regarding Phase3 so nada to report here. Next up, the leaky NB118 red light saga. In advance of the observations of very red stars wandering around different detectors (which took place end of December) we had a quick look at what the relevant flats and created sky frames could tell us. The first check normalising recent twilight master flats in NB118 by J turned up nothing much presumably mainly due to the relatively blue colour (J-Ks ~ 0) of the twilight sky. A l'autre main a good benchmark/null result for the next test. Aka the dark sky in the middle of the night has J-Ks ~ 2.5, much redder than virtually all objects. Therefore if you take a dark sky NB118 processed in the usual way you should directly see the effect of any red light leaks - and indeed you do. Detectors #2,#3 (and #13) have twice the sky level of the others suggesting something is going on (red leak -> quite likely; subtle difference in filter bandpass + sky emission line moving inband -> tad unlikely unless smart filters) since interestingly detectors #2,#3 are from a different batch and have significantly lower QEs than the rest. However, es ist noch nicht klar and we await the red star test results with something approaching interest. 8. VST update -------------- All the VST November and December processing is finished. The illumination corrections are computed and the standard fixed catalogues are all done and dusted and available through the usual route. Raw ingest and processing for January data is on track and even the raw data backups are too thanks to JRL. There are still occasional occurrences of the VST pickup noise despite several supposed ESO fixes. Releasing the VST pickup correction software should curtail future queries in this regard. A new set of VST list-driven u-band fixed catalogues were generated over the Christmas period and released to the ATLAS PI in time for an AAO 2df run. This revealed the usual cockup of unavailable data due to project ID changes (Chilean u-band equivalent survey) due to the new semester. Fortunately this only results in 3 nights of extra data being missing and will be patched shortly. <<<< Phase3 VST deliverables demands finally raised their head above the parapet. As usual it is not completely clear what the PIs are expected, or indeed want, to deliver so MJI will double check with them. <<<< [NB. spectroscopy et al. items skipped for this meeting] 9. AOB ------ Another Gaia first - the launch date moved from November 2013 to October 2013 and then to Sep2013 !! Sign card for SC <<<< Continuing actions ------------------ STH - impart information regarding the radial extent of VISTA diffraction spikes -> web pages EGS - liaise with VPHAS PI on band-merged products contents SC - when you get back expedite the handover of the spare LTO4 library unit plus associated 30 TB disk system MJI - plonk down randomly placed apertures to estimate VISTA tile noise STH - update the ZP offsets for the VISTA calibration paper for next meeting JRL - report on progess with retiring our apm5 Sybase server MJI - are the VST dome flats that stable and how do they cf. to twilights JRL - write up notes of limitations/mods needed for the ESO Giraffe pipeline EGS - produce a WFCAM equivalent to vistasp and vstsp as a troubleshooting aid EGS - finish off the fixes for v1.3 for all the VISTA tile catalogues New Actions ----------- All - fill in absences web page with more religious vigour All - decide which April meetings are relevant for attendance MJI - shift WFCAM November and December data out of the door MJI - do the Moffat-related corrections for leftover WFCAM data MJI - patch in the missing bits of 3 nights of VST Chilean data MJI - check what the PIs think the ESO Phase3 deliverables will be for VST All - sign card for SC, JRL will deliver