Dutch VO day



27 April 2010
Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Groningen



Introduction

Euro-VO AIDA project and OmegaCEN/Kapteyn Astronomical Institute are organizing the Dutch VO day on Tuesday April 27 2010 at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in Groningen.
The Dutch VO Day is a one-day hands-on workshop dedicated to the use of the Virtual Observatory in scientific research. The Dutch VO day is intended for staff, postdocs, gradstudents and master students.
Participants will gain hands-on experience with the Virtual Observatory infrastructure and applications by working on science use cases. The programme can be found below.
If you are interested in attending, please send an email to Gijs Verdoes Kleijn verdoes@astro.rug.nl. For master students travel-funding is available if needed.
The workshop will be led by Evanthia Hatziminaoglou (EURO-VO Facility Centre Astronomer, ESO-Garching).

What is the Virtual Observatory?

The Virtual Observatory is an international astronomical community-based initiative.
It aims to allow global electronic access to the available astronomical data archives of space and ground-based observatories, sky survey databases.
It also aims to enable data analysis techniques through a coordinating entity that will provide common standards, wide-network bandwidth, and state-of-the-art analysis tools.

VO Reality

It is now possible to have powerful and expensive new observing facilities at wavelengths from the radio to the X-ray and gamma-ray regions.
Together with advanced instrumentation techniques, a vast new array of astronomical data sets will soon be forthcoming at all wavelengths.
These very large databases must be archived and made accessible in a systematic and uniform manner to realise the full potential of the new observing facilities.
The Virtual Observatory aims to provide the framework for global access to the various data archives by facilitating the standardisation of archiving and data-mining protocols, while taking advantage of state-of-the-art advances in data-handling software in astronomy and in other fields.
The Virtual Observatory initiative is currently aiming at a global collaboration of the astronomical communities in Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Australia under the auspices of the recently formed International Virtual Observatory Alliance.

Programme


Programme Dutch VO Day, 27 April 2010
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee
11:00 - 11:30 Introduction
11:30 - 12:30 Science Use Case I: Confirmation of a supernova candidate and a subsequent study of the surrounding field
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch break
13:30 - 15:00 Science Use Case II: Quasar candidate selection in given redshift ranges
15:00 - 15:15 Tea Break
15:15 - 16:30 Ask the tutor
16:30 - 17:00 Feedback / Discussion

Summary

Goal:

The Dutch VO day will provide hands-on experience with the Virtual Observatory infrastructure and applications by working on science use cases.

Participants:

The Dutch VO day is intended for staff, postdocs, gradstudents and master students.

Place:

The workshop will take place in the Kapteyn Institute, in the Virgo Computer room (room 142, first floor). How to get here.

Time:

April 27, 2010 (Tuesday), starting at 10:30 with coffee

Tutor:

The workshop will be led by Evanthia Hatziminaoglou (EURO-VO Facility Centre Astronomer, ESO-Garching).

Required software:

The software will be available at your place, if you are using a laptop, please install these packages in advance:

Registration and technical questions:

If you are interested in attending, please send an email to Gijs Verdoes Kleijn verdoes@astro.rug.nl.
For any questions concerning the actual workshop topics, please contact Andrey Belikov.