AstroGrid/ University of Cardiff/Bristol Workshop 17-18 Jan 2007

AstroGrid and the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Cardiff are holding a two day workshop to introduce the Cardiff and Bristol astronomy research communities to the potential of emerging Virtual Observatory capabilities in supporting scientific research.

Agenda

Workshop Location

Conference room WX/3.07 in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Cardiff

Workshop dinner

Dinner on Wed 17th is at Las Iguanas at 7.30pm, cocktail happy hour from 6.30pm: see http://www.iguanas.co.uk/locations-cardiff.asp for a location map and further details.

The dinner will be provided by AstroGrid for registered participants.

Accomodation

The Guest House, 160 Richmond Rd, 029 20483619

The Big Sleep, Bute Terrace, 029 20636363

The Thistle Hotel, Park Place, 029 20383471

Holland House Hotel, 24-26 Newport Rd, 08708304817

Ibis Hotel, Churchill Way, 029 20649250

Science Projects

We will divide into e.g. 3 groups to work on projects based on science goals. These should be specific problems which can be tackled using AstroGrid. The idea is that each group will decide on a science problem that they would like to work on, and they will be assisted by AstroGrid scientists and developers during the first day afternoon and second day morning. The afternoon sessions of the last day will then give each workgroup a chance to demonstrate what they have achieved and provide feedback regarding ease of use, functionality and future aims!

Group A -

Group B -

Group C -

Pre-Workshop checklist & Registration

Astrogrid requires the Java Runtime Environment to be installed on your computer (version 5.0). If you do not have it already, please download it here and install it.

AstroGrid software will work with Linux, Windows XP or Mac OSX.

To access AstroGrid services we will use the Workbench. It would be useful to check that you can run it on your computer. Go to the Workbench page, and either click on the 'Launch' link (this installs and launches Workbench with one click using Java Webstart - answer Yes or Install at security warnings) or install the standalone version (click on installer.jar and follow the instructions).

Having installed java and downloaded the workbench installer, to actually install workbench from command line you need to do:

java -jar /path/toworkbench-2006.4.rc1-installer.jar

If you click on the webstart link, you need to specify that the program to use to run it is javaws, which will be:

/path/to/your_java_instal/javaws/javaws

We'll be giving all attendees an astrogrid user account - details via email. Also, we'll be setting up a wiki username account for all attendees before the meeting, please use http://wiki.astrogrid.org/bin/view/TWiki/TWikiRegistration to set your password. If you need help please email Jonathan Tedds (jat at star.le.ac.uk).

Links to Helper Applications

Helper applications are launched using Java Webstart (which is part of Java). Click on the links below to launch the applications - answer yes at security warnings.

• Topcat
• Aladin

Astrogrid Help Pages

Help pages for using AstroGrid are at http://www2.astrogrid.org/science/.

Quick links to main help docs and guide to getting started at http://www2.astrogrid.org/science/documentation

Examples:

• AstroScope
• HelioScope
• Redshift Maker
• Colour cutter
• Solar Movie Maker
• Task Launcher

Introduction to data access and data analysis

• Data access
• Data analysis

Glossary:

A few buzzwords you might hear during the workshop ...

• VOQL: Virtual Observatory Query Language
• VOTable: a tabular data exchange standard
• DAL: Data Access Layer
• SIA: Simple Image Access
• SSA: Simple Spectral Access
• UCD: Uniform Content Descriptor

Find lots more at http://www.ivoa.net !

Attendance

-- JonathanTedds - 15 Jan 2007