2nd April 2004 Observatory meeting room 10.00 - 11:10 Present: STH, JRL, PSB, MJI, DWE, RGM Apologies: WJS Agenda ------ 1. Actions from last meeting 2. Comments on WFAU minutes 3. Report on JAC telecons etc. (inc. WFCAM User Guide, MSB guidelines) 4. Items for Q1 2004 report 5. Work plan for Q2 2004 6. VDFS UK User Requirements Document v0.4 7. Outstanding PDR issues 8. AOB: APM building refurbishment PDR travel plans Note ---- The meeting was deliberately kept short and sweet due to time pressure from PDR-related issues. Minutes ------- 1. Actions from last meeting WJS has sent the current best estimates of the VISTA saturation limits to STH. STH has filled in the gaps of the photometric standard fields plan and added a few more fields to the North of VISTA's zenith. This still needs to be propagated into the Calibration Plan (by Monday). <<<< DWE suggested that the appropriate declinations for the latitude of WFCAM and VISTA be marked on the plot. STH said that he would do this.<<<< STH has made no progress regarding the spatial systematics in the UFTI standards data and new test data - ongoing <<<< JRL has reached agreement with Adam and Benoit regarding the WFCAM example FITS headers and files. A link to this has been added to our diary web page (http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~wfcam/docs/wfcam_head_eso.ps). MJI no progress on comparison of FIRES project reduced data with ours - ongoing <<<< STH has not calibrated FIRES data using NICMOS or the published FIRES work - ongoing <<<< STH has acquired the missing ISAAC data, but forgot to email its location to JRL (!). STH to email JRL <<<< JRL writing a report on ISAAC reductions is ongoing <<<< MJI JRL example calibration frames to test the ingest procedure have been MJI sent to IAB. ALL no comments on Paul Hirst's User Guide have been received by JRL (understandable considering the preparation for the VISTA DFS PDR). There will be a JAC telecon on Monday evening, so comments by then <<<< would be useful. Some quick comments that were raised were the lack of a link to the glossary and a simple printable (eg. ps or pdf) version of the entire User Guide. It might also be useful to have link to the MSB guideline page. [After the meeting MJI checked up and found 7.1 was a pointer to the glossary and 7.2 to the MSB guidelines.] ALL had read the Data Reduction Specification and the User Requirements Document and provided feedback for the 25th March meeting. ALL had read V0.4 of the VISTA DFS UK User Requirements Document and some comments had been passed onto WJS. This was felt to be an ongoing action since there was a need to discuss this with WJS at the next meeting. <<<< DWE provided a document number for VISTA DFS UK User Requirements Document 2. Comments on WFAU minutes MJI noted that WFAU were still having problems with their advanced disk RAID array. There was some discussion as to what picture format was most appropriate (JPEG, GIF or PNG). It was noted that CASU generate PNG files in their pseudo-colour image generating software. 3. Report on JAC telecons etc. (inc. WFCAM User Guide, MSB guidelines) There have been no JAC telecons since the last CASU meeting. The one scheduled for 23rd March was cancelled. The next one will be on Monday evening (5th April). STH said he may attend. MJI said that the delayed disussion of issues relating to the WFCAM User Guide will be raised at this meeting and that everyone should forward any further comments to MJI by Monday. <<<< Another issue was the status of the MSB guidelines and their use by the survey heads in the UKIDSS consortium. The last information on this is now 2 months old. MJI and JRL were reminded to enquire about the status of the engineering tests and the SDF example file. 4. Items for Q1 2004 report There has been considerable progress on the VISTA documentation front required for the DFS PDR (WP2) ie. the Calibration Plan, User Requirements (ESO) and Data Reduction Specification documents. Over the last month this has occupied the majority of the group's time. Final versions for proof reading by DWE are needed by first thing Wednesday morning. There will be further iterations of these available in plenty of time for the upcoming telecon on Tuesday afternoon. There had been some pleasing progress on the PSF generating and fitting front. Several anticipated issues have been raised and factored in for the next stage of development. STH commented that overall most areas where there was a lack of progress or slippage behind schedule, were due to the dearth of detailed engineering data (understandable given the problems with the detectors). The remaining items for the report need to be sent to STH as soon as possible. <<<< 5. Work plan for Q2 2004 Although some future work plans had been sent to STH the detail of the Q2 deliverables still needs to be worked out. MJI and STH will go over the GANTT charts etc. over the weekend and formulate a plan for Q2. This has to be ready before 2:30pm Monday (5th April), when the next VDMT telecon is to be held. <<<< 6. VDFS UK User Requirements Document v0.4 It was agreed that more feedback needs to be given to WJS regarding the VDFS UK User Requirements Document. In order to do this we will arrange the next CASU meeting so that WJS can attend. The deferred discussion of this document will be the one of the main agenda items. 7. Outstanding PDR issues There was a general discussion regarding the VISTA DFS project and the science goals. Some worries were expressed that the science wood was sometimes being lost in the engineering trees. It was noted that many things of a general nature have been raised while preparing for this PDR that have not been picked up at the previous reviews. It was felt that VDUC could be very useful in helping to minimise this problem in the future. MJI reported that he had spoken with Tim Naylor (VDUC chair) at NAM2004 and impressed upon him the need for VDUC to meet as soon as possible. PSB said that the three PDR documents were now only being sent out for review as PDF files, so that the problem of multiple word doc copies of the same document would not arise again. This had wasted a lot of time over the last two weeks, refixing formats, typos and so on. He also reported that with JMS's help he has even managed to get digital signatures to work. 8. AOB: APM building refurbishment MJI said that the APM building refurbishment is still on track. [ STH :-) PSB :-( but watch this space ]. The plates and their associated racking have been moved and re-assembled (the racks that is) into long-term storage at Laundry Farm (sic!). The APM itself is due to be removed in May (MJI found out after the meeting that this was now scheduled for July [ STH :-( PSB :-) but watch this space ]. Planning permission for the refurbishment works, including a new roof and some new windows, is due by the end of April. MJI noted that he didn't have any up-to-date information about this and said that he would check progress on this with Paul Aslin. <<<< PDR travel plans The PDR is scheduled for 13th May. For CASU it was decided that PSB, JRL, MJI and STH should go over the night before and stay for at least two nights. There would thus be no time pressure on the PDR to finish early, so that all that needed to be discussed could be covered. It would also provide an opportunity to socialize with ESO staff in the evening in order to establish a good working relationship. Continuing Actions ------------------ STH propagated new standards into the Calibration Plan (by Monday) STH finish looking at the spatial systematics in the UFTI standards data and new test data MJI compare FIRES project reduced data with ours STH email location of missing ISAAC data to JRL STH calibrate FIRES data using NICMOS or the published FIRES work JRL finish report on ISAAC reductions MJI ALL any comments on Paul Hirst's User Guide to be sent to MJI,JRL by Monday evening (next telecon) ALL read V0.4 of the VISTA DFS UK User Requirements Document (again) and provide comments for the next CASU meeting New Actions ----------- STH add declination lines appropriate for WFCAM and VISTA zeniths to the calibration standards plot in the Calibration Plan ALL send in remaining Q1 reports to STH as soon as possible MJI work out remaining Q2 deliverables STH MJI ask Paul Aslin about progress with APM planning building works