Hot-wiring the Transient Universe: A Joint VOEvent & HTN Workshop
June 4-7 2007 • University of Arizona in Tucson

Home > Participants > Travel > Proceedings > Agenda > Organizing Committee > Links > Photos > About VOEvent > About HTN
Workshop Agenda

The workshop will be held on the campus of the University of Arizona, Tucson, in the Meinel Optical Sciences Building Room 307. (Maps and directions are on the Travel page).

Presentation files are in Adobe PDF format, unless otherwise noted.

Sunday, June 3
7:00-9:00PM Reception - Gentle Ben's (adjoining Marriott)


Monday, June 4 (AM chair: Roy Williams, PM chair: George Djorgovski)
8:30 Welcoming Remarks - Rob Seaman
8:40
 Session 1 The Science from Rapid Response
Energy input and response from prompt and early optical afterglow emission in GRBs - Tom Vestrand (LANL)
Science requiring follow-up of large surveys - Kem Cook (IGPP at LLNL)
Thread safe astronomy - Rob Seaman (NOAO Data Products Program)
9:55 Coffee  
10:25 Session 2 Quickstart Guide for Autonomous Astronomy
RTML + VOEvent < HTN: a system that is more than the sum of its parts - Robert White (LANL)
Simulation of the HTN in operation (12MB QT movie)
How to build and how to read a VOEvent packet - Roy Williams (Caltech)
Remote Telescope Markup Language - Rick Hessman (University of Goettingen)
Transport for the HTN and VOEvent Networks - Alasdair Allan (eSTAR)
12:05 Lunch (on your own)
1:35 Session 3 Long Range Vision for Transient Astronomy
Integrating VOEvent into the OIR System, an NOAO operations case study - Chris Smith (NOAO DPP)
Science driven architectures for networked astronomy - Tim Naylor (University of Exeter)
2:25 Break  
2:45 Session 4 Solar System Objects
The Pan-STARRS Moving Object Processing System - Larry Denneau (Pan-STARRS)
The Moving Object Processing System and LSST - Francesco Pierfederici (LSST)
The LSST transient database for community science and E/PO - Kirk Borne (George Mason University)
4:00 Adjourn  
4:15 Tour Leave for PAIRITEL & MMT
Limited to 20 attendees; box dinner provided.


Tuesday, June 5 (AM chair: Chris Smith, PM chair: Tom Vestrand)
8:30
 Session  5 Surveys & Event Publishing
A Tale of Three Surveys - Steve Howell (NOAO)
A systematic search for supernovae in low redshift galaxy clusters - David Sand (Steward Observatory)
Some experiences from the Palomar-Quest survey - George Djorgovski (Caltech)
9:45 Coffee  
10:15 Session 6 Observatory Operations
Autonomous software, myth or magic? - Alasdair Allan (eSTAR)
The Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network - Marton Hidas (LCOGT / UCSB)
Lessons learned from RoboScope: a long-term automated monitoring program - Kent Honeycutt (Indiana University)
RTS2 - Lessons learned from a widely distributed telescope network - Petr Kubanek (IAA-CSIC, Granada & University of Valencia)
TAROT: A robotic observatory for gamma-ray bursts and other sources - Alain Klotz (OHP-CESR)
12:20 Lunch (on your own)
1:50 Session 7 Event Classification
Transient object detection and classification - Andy Becker (University of Washington)
Building a classification engine for the Palomar Transients Finder - Josh Bloom (UC Berkeley)
On probabilistic determination of type of an object based on previously known variable objects - Ashish Mahabal (Caltech)
Event classification in the Nearby Supernova Factory Search - Stephen Bailey (LBL)
3:30 Photo

(click for large version)
3:40 Break  
3:50 Session 8 Web Services for Real Time Data Reduction and Analysis
Data reduction services for heterogenous telescopes - Iain Steele (Liverpool JMU)
ORAC-DR data reduction pipeline - Brad Cavanagh (JAC)
Your PLASTIC pal, helping you pull VOEvent onto the desktop - Alasdair Allan (eSTAR)
Group discussion facilitated by Mike Fitzpatrick
5:30 Adjourn  
6:30 Conference Dinner

Arizona Inn



Wednesday June 6 (AM chair: Rob Seaman, PM chair: Robert White)
8:20
 Session 9 VOEvent Unbound
VOEvent packet authentication via XML digital signatures - Steve Allen (UCO/Lick)
Transporting the astronomical meaning of an event/observation - Rick Hessman (University of Goettingen)
Integrating and deploying a VOEvent service at your institution - Phillip Warner (NOAO DPP)
9:35 Coffee View SOML DVD
10:05 Session 10 Registries and Databases - Federation for Dummies
Resource discovery with the VO Registry - Matthew Graham (Caltech)
Querying VOEvents Through Astrogrid - Elizabeth Auden (MSSL)
Group discussion facilitated by Matthew Graham
11:20 Lunch

Tours of Steward Observatory Mirror Lab

  • Group A: 11:30 Tour, 12:15 Box lunch
  • Group B: 11:30 Box lunch, 12:15 Tour
1:00 Session 11 HTN Infrastructure
RTML - The State of the Union, revised RTML 3.2 schema for brain-dead software IDEs - Georg Tuparev (Tuparev Technologies)
EUDOXOS and HTN infrastructure - Nikolaos Solomos & Giannis Dimitracopoulos (EUDOXOS National Astronomy Centre)
RTML SOAP endpoint implementation on the Liverpool Telescope - Neil Clay (Liverpool JMU)
Robonet-1.0 - Chris Mottram (Liverpool JMU)
2:40 Break  
3:00 Session 12 Distributed Scheduling
Adaptive distributed scheduling, putting the 'work' into network - Eric Saunders (LCOGT)
Group discussion facilitated by Robert White
3:50 Session 13 Things That Go Bump in the Night

The Texas Supernova Search, Robert Quimby (University of Texas)
MPEG Movies:
ROTSE-III observations of SN 2006bp
Cartoon of a Type Ia supernova deflagration
Cartoon of the photosphere receeding through a supernova's envelope (to max light)
Cartoon of the photosphere receding through a supernova's envelope (starting at max light)
Fast slew of ROTSE-III
ROTSE-III observations of SN 2006X
Zoom to SN 2006bp in the Ursa Major Cluster
[reverse of above]
Real time optical transients from thinking telescopes - Przemek Wozniak (LANL)
4:40 Open Discussions, demos, etc.
5:30 Adjourn  


Thursday, June 7 (Chair: Matthew Graham)
8:30
 Session 14 Outer Limits: Space-based, Radio and non-EM Transients
Does your Robot need a Flamethrower? Astrophysics from Antarctica - Nick Tothill (University of Exeter)

Radio transients at long wavelengths and emerging instrumentation - Joseph Lazio (NRL)
Movies:
X-ray sky acquired by the RXTE satellite (QT)
24 hr sequence of all sky images acquired from the Long Wavelength Demonstrator Array (GIF)
GRB satellite triggers for neutrino telescopes - Mieke Bouwhuis (NIKHEF)
The Supernova Early Warning System - Kate Scholberg (Duke University)
The future of the Gamma-ray bursts Coordinates Network: VOEvent and customer requirements - Scott Barthelmy (NASA-GSFC)
10:35 Coffee  
11:05 Session 15 Grid Markets
JMU Grid market prototype - Iain Steele (Liverpool JMU)
Grid-integration of robotic telescopes - Frank Breitling (Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam)
Group discussion facilitated by Iain Steele
12:20   Closing Remarks
12:30 Adjourn  


Posters
  • eSTAR: An overview of the current network - Alasdair Allan (eSTAR)
  • MONET: State of the Union - Dary Mihova (Tuparev Technologies)
  • Using Distributed Sensor Network Architecture to Link Heterogeneous Astronomical Assets - Robert White (LANL)
  • ARTEMIS: A possible expert-system based co-operative effort to hunt for planets of Earth mass and below - Martin Dominik et al. (University of St. Andrews)