8 October 2003 Present: MJI, JRL, PSB, DWE Apologies: STH Agenda ------ 1. Actions from last meeting 2. Comments on WFAU minutes 3. Report from Quarterly Review meeting 4. Report from JRL's visit to JAC 5. Q4 deliverables review 6. Progress on DID doc 7. AOB Minutes ------- 1. Actions from last meeting STH no progress with Sandy Legget's data, ongoing <<<< STH it was decided that any context intro for the simulation report would be incorporated in the next version, as the current version has already been released. STH no progress has been made with the extension of the photometric standards to the south for VISTA, ongoing <<<< DWE CASU links have now been added to the various IoA web pages JRL did not get a chance to find out from AA about the UKIDSS Survey Manager appointment on Hawaii. The delay in commissioning mitigates the need for this now. JRL photometric standards - see item 4. STH DWE's additions to the characterization plan were discussed at JAC JRL during JRL's visit - see item 4. DWE as a temporary fix, MJI replaced some of the filenames from the STH documentation web page in order to make it more readable. Work on adding the document numbers and reformatting the document is ongoing. It was noted that adding these numbers to the documents themselves requires some style templates. <<<< MJI contacted NCH for more details on the WFAU disc problems and plans for alternative Linux systems. There are no parallels with any CASU disk systems. WFAU will be using the Debian release of Linux. In parallel CASU are in the process of trying out Debian on their recently aquired data ingest server. PSB have almost completed a draft version of the Data Interface Dictionary MJI document. MJI doing the intro and PSB the dictionary and FITS header JRL parts. This needs to be completed by Friday. <<<< JRL got as far as finishing Milestone 4 by the end of his JAC trip - see item 4 and also milestones on the docs page. JRL passed on CASU additions to the characterization plan - see item 4. MJI made the minor changes requested to the astrometric distortion report and placed it on the web. DWE placed interleaving report on public access side of web. ALL sent in summaries for our Q3 report and generated the new deliverables for Q4. STH has written a document describing the document numbering scheme. Work on providing a document number for each released CASU document is ongoing. <<<< 2. Comments on WFAU minutes There were none. 3. Report from Quarterly Review meeting MJI reported on the Quarterly Review meeting recently held in Edinburgh. Before the main meeting he had a quick meeting with Mark Casali to find out the latest status of the camera. All 4 science grade chips have been delivered but not tested at the ATC yet. From the manufacturers tests the QE for the 3 later chips is significantly different. MJI said that he would try and get more details since in principle this means not only different throughput but also possibly signficantly different colour equations will be needed for each detector. <<<< The current plan is to ship in March with commissioning in April/May/June. Because of the extra delay bets were laid on whether there would now be a gap between the first two blocks of WFCAM observing. During the quarterly review MJI gave a long verbal report on the Q3 deliverables and was rewarded with several comments and criticisms of the work delivered. JPE is of the opinion that size matters, particularly with regard to the ESO deliverables, and he expressed concern that there were still several "sections" missing in the Q3/Q4 VDFS PDR documents. MJI encouraged JPE to email a list of these issues. <<<< JPE reiterated his comment that he wanted members of CASU and WFAU to visit the Astrowise group in Groningen. This will be organised for some time in November. JRL and MJI need to confirm availability. <<<< JPE wants the Version 1 software to be released by the end of Q4, even though there will have been no real data to tune and test it on. MJI reminded the group that on Friday there would be an Astrogrid Oversight Committee (AGOC) meeting in Cambridge to discuss VDFS progress. Feedback from this meeting will bear on the ongoing VEGA application to fund VDFS part II. 4. Report from JRL's visit to JAC JRL reported on his recent one week visit to JAC. The main point of the visit was to overcome various communication problems, install software, give demos and otherwise progress several outstanding Q3/Q4 deliverables. These were all achieved: the pipeline now runs under ORAC-DR; an UFTI pipeline was setup and successfully compared with the default JAC version; a version processing dummy WFCAM data was tried out; mirroring the OMP database was sorted out; and useful discussions on several other issues were held. The UFTI pipeline was set up with 4 recipes up and running. This should cope with 95% of the observing. This is 50-60% faster than the JAC Starlink software. In addition, the CASU pipeline delivers astrometric and photometric calibrations, catalogue generation and a data quality index. The 2D results were comparable with the old software. There was some feedback from PH regarding the OMP database. There was discussion as to whether we should use homegrown database replication. Since this is similar technology to our already existing UKIRT DB mirror, this got the vote. Various programming details were discussed, but any resulting changes will not be implemented until after the ADASS meeting following further feedback from Tim J. and Frossie E. who will be there. <<<< Regarding the milestones: level 4 has been reached, level 5 is uncertain and level 6 is done. JRL will inform MJI of the things that need updating in the milestones document. <<<< At the forthcoming UKIDSS meeting the design of the MSBs for each project needs to be sorted out. MJI should contact SJW to ensure that this is on the agenda. <<<< Further discussions with JAC and Subaru took place regarding what aspect of the advanced pipeline work the Subaru group could do. As agreed before this would be part of the advanced stacking problem (ie. seeing dependent variations). We will provide them with (FIRES) data to make a start on. JRL will look into this. <<<< The interface control document has been updated (link on the documentation page). In order to maintain communications, fortnightly telecons with JAC will be organized when the dust after ADASS has settled. 5. Q4 deliverables review The recently drawn up list of Q4 deliverables were discussed. There were no objections from those present to the planned targets. It was re-emphaised that the two main tasks for Q4 are delivering the Version 1.0 pipeline (whatever that means) and delivering the ESO PDR documents. 6. Progress on DID doc The presentations of the camera software control system given by Steven Beard at the recent RAL Camera Design Review were discussed. There seemed to be the usual problem of definition of terms and some confusion about how the camera templates interface with the design of the OBs. PSB will meet with Malcolm Stewart on Friday morning before the AGOC meeting and attempt to sort these issues out. <<<< 7. AOB PSB and JRL will liaise with ESO folk at ADASS and will among other things discuss FITS headers and WFCAM raw data delivery. <<<< It was decided to defer the discussion regarding document wrangling until Simon gets back from Oz. MJI will consider if an update of the on-sky characterization document is needed. <<<< It was pointed out that the small offsets requested by DWE for astrometric tests would not be possible due to the design of the autoguider. MJI reported that the IoA had received some SRIF money to upgrade its computing infrastructure. A 1 Gbit network switch has been purchased for CASU which will connect to the 2 Gbit JANet backbone. Some rewiring is still needed but that will be deferred until the APM building revamp. Continuing Actions ------------------ STH check Sandy Legget's data and (probably) send in a request for more data. STH extend the number of fields that he has established for WFCAM to the south for use by VISTA. It was decided that this should be a Q4 task with a timescale of 1 month. DWE remove the filenames from the documentation web page and add the STH document numbers and reformat to be more readable STH provide a document number for each released CASU document and write a document describing the scheme. Also keep track of these numbers. PSB write real draft version of Data Interface Dictionary document by MJI Friday. New Actions ----------- MJI get more details about the QE variations of the 4 science-grade detectors MJI ensure JPE emails us a list of the sections missing from the User Requirements Document and Calibration Plan document MJI confirm availability for visit to Astrowise group in Groningen in November JRL JRL discuss modifications to software requested by JAC with Tim and Frossie JRL inform MJI of the things that need updating in the milestones document MJI contact SJW to ensure that sorting out the design of the MSBs for each project gets added to the agenda at the forthcoming UKIDSS meeting JRL provide Subaru group with data (FIRES) so that they can work on advanced stacking issues PSB discuss camera templates, nomenclature and other issues with JMS on Friday PSB chat up ESO folk at ADASS JRL MJI check out on-sky characterisation document