Sky End | No - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Sky End
Jbis-journal of The British Interplanetary Society, 1993
The End-to-End System (EES) is a unique collection of software modules created for use at the Cen... more The End-to-End System (EES) is a unique collection of software modules created for use at the Center for EUV Astrophysics. The "pipeline" is a shell script which executes selected EES modules and creates initial data products: skymaps, data sets for individual sources (called "pigeonholes") and catalogues of sources. This article emphasizes the data from the all-sky survey, conducted between July 22, 1992 and January 21, 1993. A description of each of the major data products will be given and, as an example of how the pipeline works, the reader will follow a photon's path through the software pipeline into a pigeonhole.
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2005
Studia Geophysica Et Geodaetica, 1964
Abstract The advent of inexpensive, hand-held light meters allows science students the opportunit... more Abstract The advent of inexpensive, hand-held light meters allows science students the opportunity to document night sky brightness in their local communities as a first step toward ultimately reducing local light pollution. We report our preliminary results of one college ...
In the cinema history of astronomy, we are currently at the stage of the Lumiere brothers with co... more In the cinema history of astronomy, we are currently at the stage of the Lumiere brothers with contemporary surveys providing short monochromatic time sequences of the sky. By the end of the next decade, however, panchromatic blockbusters will be commonplace and science will be predominantly driven by the objects that change in successive ``frames''. Web-scale computing resources will be required just to process the torrents of data events but the key to understanding them will be contextualisation --- linking together disparate (sets of) events and relating them to archival and supplementary data in a machine-comprehensible way. Much of the data mining and analysis of such data portfolios will be performed by proxy scientists --- intelligent agent avatars that represent an individual's particular research interests in high-dimension parameter spaces. Although this view might sound like science fiction, in this paper, I will review the technologies that will make it achievable. In particular, I will cover new approaches to web services that will be required to support these massive event streams, social networking techniques that will facilitate science and semantic technologies that will underpin everything.
Low surface brightness galaxies have been shown to numerically dominate the local (z< 0.1) galaxy... more Low surface brightness galaxies have been shown to numerically dominate the local (z< 0.1) galaxy population, yet their properties remain paradoxical. Many unanswered questions currently exist, such as: What is the true opacity and dust content of LSB galaxies? Do the redder LSB galaxies appear to have more neutral hydrogen than their blue counterparts? How does star formation proceed in LSB galaxies? Does, in fact, star formation occur in the absence of giant molecular clouds in these systems? Is the IMF for LSB galaxies the same as their high surface brightness (HSB) counterparts? Answering the above questions requires a having a large and varied sample of LSB galaxies with known photometric properties, and this large sample does not currently exist. To date the majority of LSB galaxy searches have been undertaken in spiral-rich regions of the sky. As a result, although the number of entries into our catalogs of known LSB galaxies has grown significantly, we have little information as to the environmental effects on the galaxies discovered. A case in point is our discovery of red LSB galaxies - as only cluster environments have been searched for red LSB galaxies, we do not know wether red LSB galaxies are unique to cluster environments or if they, like their HSB counterparts, exist in all galaxy environments. If this, and the numerous other questions concerning the properties and evolution of LSB galaxies are to be answered, it is clear additional surveys are needed. We therefore propose to undertake a multicolor (U, B, V, I) survey of 20 degrees^2 in a galaxy-poor region of the southern sky. Towards this end we request a total of 54 hours observation time (6 nights) on the CTIO 0.6m telescope with the 2K CCD.
Aerodyne has recently developed an IRST engagement model under contract for Lockheed Aeronautical... more Aerodyne has recently developed an IRST engagement model under contract for Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company. The model's purpose is to simulate the performance of an IRST system in long-range air-to-air detection and tracking engagements. The hallmark of the model is its end-to-end first-principles modeling of all major elements which determine specific performance. The target aircraft IR signature, and atmospheric cloud and sky background, and associated atmospheric effects are modeled at high fidelity, thereby producing an input image matched to the specific IRST under study. A detailed deterministic model of the IRST accounts for optical and sensor effects, signal processing, and track association typical of first-generation IRSTs. These model elements are coupled together along with a dynamic target and observer [IRST] trajectories model so that an analyst can specify air-to-air engagements at various velocities, ranges, and viewing angles. The analyst can study the effects of varying IRST algorithms, sensor characteristics, optical bandpass, cloud background levels, atmospheric effects, and target performance characteristics as well as varying the target aircraft itself. This computer model was designed for portability and growth.
When the Second Palomar Sky Survey started two years ago, the 48 inch telescope and building were... more When the Second Palomar Sky Survey started two years ago, the 48 inch telescope and building were in almost the same shape as they were when the first Sky Survey ended, except a little older. As we wanted the plates of this Sky Survey to be (at least) as good as the Southern Hemisphere Sky Survey, we had to upgrade the general level of photography done at the telescope. Efforts were made to improve the telescope optical performance. A new plate storage freezer, bigger plate loading room, two new hypersensitisation systems, a new darkroom, new chemical mixing facility, and a new inspection room were several of the improvements made over the last two years. The paper describes all the changes, and gives some first results. The description is given in a chronological way: from plate storage when the plate is received at Palomar from Kodak, to hypersensitization, exposure, processing, inspection and finally plate shipment to Caltech.
Jbis-journal of The British Interplanetary Society, 1993
The End-to-End System (EES) is a unique collection of software modules created for use at the Cen... more The End-to-End System (EES) is a unique collection of software modules created for use at the Center for EUV Astrophysics. The "pipeline" is a shell script which executes selected EES modules and creates initial data products: skymaps, data sets for individual sources (called "pigeonholes") and catalogues of sources. This article emphasizes the data from the all-sky survey, conducted between July 22, 1992 and January 21, 1993. A description of each of the major data products will be given and, as an example of how the pipeline works, the reader will follow a photon's path through the software pipeline into a pigeonhole.
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2005
Studia Geophysica Et Geodaetica, 1964
Abstract The advent of inexpensive, hand-held light meters allows science students the opportunit... more Abstract The advent of inexpensive, hand-held light meters allows science students the opportunity to document night sky brightness in their local communities as a first step toward ultimately reducing local light pollution. We report our preliminary results of one college ...
In the cinema history of astronomy, we are currently at the stage of the Lumiere brothers with co... more In the cinema history of astronomy, we are currently at the stage of the Lumiere brothers with contemporary surveys providing short monochromatic time sequences of the sky. By the end of the next decade, however, panchromatic blockbusters will be commonplace and science will be predominantly driven by the objects that change in successive ``frames''. Web-scale computing resources will be required just to process the torrents of data events but the key to understanding them will be contextualisation --- linking together disparate (sets of) events and relating them to archival and supplementary data in a machine-comprehensible way. Much of the data mining and analysis of such data portfolios will be performed by proxy scientists --- intelligent agent avatars that represent an individual's particular research interests in high-dimension parameter spaces. Although this view might sound like science fiction, in this paper, I will review the technologies that will make it achievable. In particular, I will cover new approaches to web services that will be required to support these massive event streams, social networking techniques that will facilitate science and semantic technologies that will underpin everything.
Low surface brightness galaxies have been shown to numerically dominate the local (z< 0.1) galaxy... more Low surface brightness galaxies have been shown to numerically dominate the local (z< 0.1) galaxy population, yet their properties remain paradoxical. Many unanswered questions currently exist, such as: What is the true opacity and dust content of LSB galaxies? Do the redder LSB galaxies appear to have more neutral hydrogen than their blue counterparts? How does star formation proceed in LSB galaxies? Does, in fact, star formation occur in the absence of giant molecular clouds in these systems? Is the IMF for LSB galaxies the same as their high surface brightness (HSB) counterparts? Answering the above questions requires a having a large and varied sample of LSB galaxies with known photometric properties, and this large sample does not currently exist. To date the majority of LSB galaxy searches have been undertaken in spiral-rich regions of the sky. As a result, although the number of entries into our catalogs of known LSB galaxies has grown significantly, we have little information as to the environmental effects on the galaxies discovered. A case in point is our discovery of red LSB galaxies - as only cluster environments have been searched for red LSB galaxies, we do not know wether red LSB galaxies are unique to cluster environments or if they, like their HSB counterparts, exist in all galaxy environments. If this, and the numerous other questions concerning the properties and evolution of LSB galaxies are to be answered, it is clear additional surveys are needed. We therefore propose to undertake a multicolor (U, B, V, I) survey of 20 degrees^2 in a galaxy-poor region of the southern sky. Towards this end we request a total of 54 hours observation time (6 nights) on the CTIO 0.6m telescope with the 2K CCD.
Aerodyne has recently developed an IRST engagement model under contract for Lockheed Aeronautical... more Aerodyne has recently developed an IRST engagement model under contract for Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company. The model's purpose is to simulate the performance of an IRST system in long-range air-to-air detection and tracking engagements. The hallmark of the model is its end-to-end first-principles modeling of all major elements which determine specific performance. The target aircraft IR signature, and atmospheric cloud and sky background, and associated atmospheric effects are modeled at high fidelity, thereby producing an input image matched to the specific IRST under study. A detailed deterministic model of the IRST accounts for optical and sensor effects, signal processing, and track association typical of first-generation IRSTs. These model elements are coupled together along with a dynamic target and observer [IRST] trajectories model so that an analyst can specify air-to-air engagements at various velocities, ranges, and viewing angles. The analyst can study the effects of varying IRST algorithms, sensor characteristics, optical bandpass, cloud background levels, atmospheric effects, and target performance characteristics as well as varying the target aircraft itself. This computer model was designed for portability and growth.
When the Second Palomar Sky Survey started two years ago, the 48 inch telescope and building were... more When the Second Palomar Sky Survey started two years ago, the 48 inch telescope and building were in almost the same shape as they were when the first Sky Survey ended, except a little older. As we wanted the plates of this Sky Survey to be (at least) as good as the Southern Hemisphere Sky Survey, we had to upgrade the general level of photography done at the telescope. Efforts were made to improve the telescope optical performance. A new plate storage freezer, bigger plate loading room, two new hypersensitisation systems, a new darkroom, new chemical mixing facility, and a new inspection room were several of the improvements made over the last two years. The paper describes all the changes, and gives some first results. The description is given in a chronological way: from plate storage when the plate is received at Palomar from Kodak, to hypersensitization, exposure, processing, inspection and finally plate shipment to Caltech.