A Target of Opportunity Observing System for NOAO

Rob SeamanData Products Program29 April 2008

Astronomy is many disciplinesFrom Solar System to Galaxy to CosmosFrom Big Bang to current epochFrom gigayear stasis to explosive detonationPhysics in extreme regimesEarths broadest contextCivilizations ultimate master

Diverse Observing modesClassical observingQueue scheduledSurvey campaignsService staffingRemote staffingKibitzing modesRobotic observingAll share autonomous trends (power tools)

Experimental designObservations serve empirical purpose(s)Archival science is not differentPhilosophical issues cant be ducked:What is a detection?What is an object?What is a process?Software can help or hinder

Astronomical lifecycleAsk questionDesign experimentSubmit observing proposalScheduling constraintsObserving run preparationPick an observing modeTransport data (or VO equivalent)

Astronomical lifecycle 2Reduce dataAnalyze results in contextDeduce sciencePublish to the communityPublish to the publicAsk new questions

Time domainCant afford the cycle overheadMust speed up by several orders of mag.but alsoSchedule is no longer a free parameterPreparation must be complete & explicitContext is everything (sample selection)Competition is fierceThus need new observing mode

Celestial Transient EventsAitoff projection

VOEvent protocolIVOA standardDescribe celestial transient eventsXML message formatTransport neutralIn coordination with Heterogeneous Telescope Network (HTN)

- provenance - observations - space/time localization - instrument configuration - semantic characterization - empirical threads

Many VOEvent projectsVO-GCN (Phil, Mike, Caltech, Cal, GSFC)VOEventNet (Caltech, NOAO, LANL, Cal)HTN (LCOGT, eSTAR, etc.)CBAT/MPC/AAVSO/ATELGCN/SNEWS/NOAO SurveysNOAO ToO

SIE 554/654 projectSystem Engineering ProcessUse Case drivenSysMLSIE grad student team:Victor Tenorio (mining)Ana Catalina KottmanAnabel RodriguezShahzad Patel (Fall 07)

System Engineering Plan

Trade-off studies