The use of multidimensional spatial access methods (SAMs) has been sometimes advocated in the pas... more The use of multidimensional spatial access methods (SAMs) has been sometimes advocated in the past for astronomical database applications, in order to speed up the retrieval of data. However, they have had little practical application until now. This can be ascribed partly to the difficulty of integrating new access methods in traditional, i.e., relational, database systems. With the advent of
INAF, the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics, is currently involved in several Grid-relat... more INAF, the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics, is currently involved in several Grid-related projects, at both the national and international level. This paper gives an overview on these projects; for each of them a short description is given together with its current status and other relevant information like allocated resources, collaborations, work in progress, results obtained so far, and future plans.
We present the status of the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and OmegaCAM projects and stress the appe... more We present the status of the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and OmegaCAM projects and stress the appeal of these facilities for investigation of variable astronomical sources. VST is a 2.6 m telescope which will be integrated into the ESO-VLT environment at Paranal and will be equipped with a 16k × 16k CCD camera (OmegaCAM) covering 1 square degree with a resolution of 0.21 arcsec/pix. The main aim of this observing facility is the selection of targets for VLT scientific projects.
ESO Astrophysics Symposia European Southern Observatory, 2007
ABSTRACT Four projects exploiting Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics with Layer-Oriented wavefront s... more ABSTRACT Four projects exploiting Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics with Layer-Oriented wavefront sensing technique are being developed by our group in this period. The purpose of these projects is, in some cases, to give experimental evidence to the Layer-Oriented concept, developed in the last few years. In some other cases, to build real facilities to be used in 8-m class telescopes, like VLT in Chile or LBT in Arizona. A brief description of these project will be given while indeed an analysis of the possible scientific outcome which can be obtained when reaching diffraction limit images in the near infrared using MCAO will be performed.
In the next few years space missions, new generation telescopes and sky surveys based on new data... more In the next few years space missions, new generation telescopes and sky surveys based on new data and on re-processing of old data will produce astronomical catalogues that will be both large, cataloguing some millions up to billions objects, and complex, including e.g. quick-look images, multiband photometry and spectra. In order to fully exploit the scientific content of these new databases, it is mandatory to provide researchers with new tools allowing advanced data access methods, like content-based data retrieval and database browsing. In this paper the authors describes the pilot project aimed at assessing the feasibility of employing last generation objects-relational database management systems in next generation astronomical catalogue management systems and report on some preliminary results of their work.
The atmospheric image motion control loop for the 3.6m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) has bee... more The atmospheric image motion control loop for the 3.6m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) has been tested and characterized in lab using a turbulence generator. The tip-tilt sensor is based on four Avalanche Photodiodes and the tilt corrector is a voice coil actuated flat mirror. The feedback network is implemented using a a DSP-based system. We have used the same focal ratios of the beam as it will be experienced by the system at the foci of the TNG telescope. The collected data are time--series useful to perform a Fourier analysis aimed to estimate the effectiveness of the correction. These data can be compared with: theoretical and measured tilt spectra obtained at the telescope site, in order to predict the degree of correction that can be achieved by such a system; measured data on single components, like the transfer function of the tip-tilt mirror, the latency of the DSP calculation and the characterization of the APDs tip-tilt sensor unit. The collected data are also suitabl...
In recent years great efforts have been spent in the astronomical community to allow a global and... more In recent years great efforts have been spent in the astronomical community to allow a global and seamless electronic access to distributed astronomical data repositories, and to enable scientific analysis on them. A system capable of providing these services over distributed databases and computer resources is called a Virtual Observatory (VO). VOs are still in the study phase, with many projects around the world now delivering their first prototype implementations. In the meanwhile grid technologies have started to emerge and consolidate and are now expected to play a fundamental role in the development of Astrophysical Virtual Observatories. We report here about our activities aimed at integrating in the grid environment a system, developed in Padova, specifically designed for accessing very large astronomical catalogues. We evaluated several possible solutions, including the use of a tool for accessing databases developed by the European Data Grid (EDG) project, but finally we d...
At the Padova Astronomical Observatory (OaPd), we are developing a system for managing large sets... more At the Padova Astronomical Observatory (OaPd), we are developing a system for managing large sets of astronomical data, such as the GSCII catalog that will be released in the near future. In this paper we describe the different parts of the retrieval system: the Database Management System (DBMS) containing the data and the meta-data of the catalogs, the CORBA services, the Java Servlets and finally the Java Applet Client. A brief description of the hardware and of the support software is also presented. The result is a system that allows one to access a set of astronomical catalogs using heterogeneous clients (i.e., Astrobrowse, StarCat). The first public release is expected in January 2001.
The second Guide Star Catalog (GSC II) will be a catalog of positions, proper motions, magnitudes... more The second Guide Star Catalog (GSC II) will be a catalog of positions, proper motions, magnitudes and colors for stars and galaxies complete down to V=18.5 and is expected to be completed by the end of 1999. Besides its operational nature, the GSC II will also be a powerful tool for galactic and extragalactic research. However, with an expected number of records of the order of two billion, this catalog will pose problems for efficiently accessing the data. In this paper, we describe our on-going effort aimed at building a management system for the GSC II, based on a new technology Object Relational Database Management System, that will allow researchers to fully exploit the scientific content of this catalog. We thus give an overview of the architecture of the system, the data model being developed, the extensions we are making to the database engine to support astronomical data, and the access interfaces currently under development.
The current generation of Grid infrastructures designed for production activity is strongly compu... more The current generation of Grid infrastructures designed for production activity is strongly computing oriented and tuned on the needs of applications that requires intensive computations. Problems arise when trying to use such Grids to satisfy the sharing of data-oriented and service-oriented resources as happens in the IVOA community. We have designed, developed and implemented a Grid query element to access
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
AdOptTNG is the Adaptive Optics Module for the Galileo National telescope (TNG). At first light t... more AdOptTNG is the Adaptive Optics Module for the Galileo National telescope (TNG). At first light this module will feature tip-tilt correction capabilities and a speckle interferometry facility. In this paper we describe the main characteristics of the AdOptTNG Control System Software. The system is composed by a real-time part and a graphical user interface. The real-time software computes the required corrections, drives the tip-tilt mirror and function. The user interface has been written in IDL, using the IDL Widget set, taking advantage of its powerful data manipulation and analysis capabilities for data presentation and diagnostics. The integration of all these components into the TNG Control System Software, in order to allow for remote control and data archiving, is also briefly described.
This paper show the technological solutions adopted to build the blue (U and B bands) and red (V,... more This paper show the technological solutions adopted to build the blue (U and B bands) and red (V, R, I and Z bands) of the prime focus imagers at the LBT. We specially described the functional caracteristics and performances of the cryogenic and CCD control systems and the instrument management system.
We present the status of the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and OmegaCAM projects. VST is a 2.6m tele... more We present the status of the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and OmegaCAM projects. VST is a 2.6m telescope which will be integrated in the ESO-VLT environment at Paranal and will be equipped with a 16k × 16k CCD camera (OmegaCAM) covering 1 square degree with a resolution of 0.21 arcsec/pix. The main scope of this observing facility is the selection
The use of multidimensional spatial access methods (SAMs) has been sometimes advocated in the pas... more The use of multidimensional spatial access methods (SAMs) has been sometimes advocated in the past for astronomical database applications, in order to speed up the retrieval of data. However, they have had little practical application until now. This can be ascribed partly to the difficulty of integrating new access methods in traditional, i.e., relational, database systems. With the advent of
INAF, the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics, is currently involved in several Grid-relat... more INAF, the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics, is currently involved in several Grid-related projects, at both the national and international level. This paper gives an overview on these projects; for each of them a short description is given together with its current status and other relevant information like allocated resources, collaborations, work in progress, results obtained so far, and future plans.
We present the status of the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and OmegaCAM projects and stress the appe... more We present the status of the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and OmegaCAM projects and stress the appeal of these facilities for investigation of variable astronomical sources. VST is a 2.6 m telescope which will be integrated into the ESO-VLT environment at Paranal and will be equipped with a 16k × 16k CCD camera (OmegaCAM) covering 1 square degree with a resolution of 0.21 arcsec/pix. The main aim of this observing facility is the selection of targets for VLT scientific projects.
ESO Astrophysics Symposia European Southern Observatory, 2007
ABSTRACT Four projects exploiting Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics with Layer-Oriented wavefront s... more ABSTRACT Four projects exploiting Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics with Layer-Oriented wavefront sensing technique are being developed by our group in this period. The purpose of these projects is, in some cases, to give experimental evidence to the Layer-Oriented concept, developed in the last few years. In some other cases, to build real facilities to be used in 8-m class telescopes, like VLT in Chile or LBT in Arizona. A brief description of these project will be given while indeed an analysis of the possible scientific outcome which can be obtained when reaching diffraction limit images in the near infrared using MCAO will be performed.
In the next few years space missions, new generation telescopes and sky surveys based on new data... more In the next few years space missions, new generation telescopes and sky surveys based on new data and on re-processing of old data will produce astronomical catalogues that will be both large, cataloguing some millions up to billions objects, and complex, including e.g. quick-look images, multiband photometry and spectra. In order to fully exploit the scientific content of these new databases, it is mandatory to provide researchers with new tools allowing advanced data access methods, like content-based data retrieval and database browsing. In this paper the authors describes the pilot project aimed at assessing the feasibility of employing last generation objects-relational database management systems in next generation astronomical catalogue management systems and report on some preliminary results of their work.
The atmospheric image motion control loop for the 3.6m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) has bee... more The atmospheric image motion control loop for the 3.6m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) has been tested and characterized in lab using a turbulence generator. The tip-tilt sensor is based on four Avalanche Photodiodes and the tilt corrector is a voice coil actuated flat mirror. The feedback network is implemented using a a DSP-based system. We have used the same focal ratios of the beam as it will be experienced by the system at the foci of the TNG telescope. The collected data are time--series useful to perform a Fourier analysis aimed to estimate the effectiveness of the correction. These data can be compared with: theoretical and measured tilt spectra obtained at the telescope site, in order to predict the degree of correction that can be achieved by such a system; measured data on single components, like the transfer function of the tip-tilt mirror, the latency of the DSP calculation and the characterization of the APDs tip-tilt sensor unit. The collected data are also suitabl...
In recent years great efforts have been spent in the astronomical community to allow a global and... more In recent years great efforts have been spent in the astronomical community to allow a global and seamless electronic access to distributed astronomical data repositories, and to enable scientific analysis on them. A system capable of providing these services over distributed databases and computer resources is called a Virtual Observatory (VO). VOs are still in the study phase, with many projects around the world now delivering their first prototype implementations. In the meanwhile grid technologies have started to emerge and consolidate and are now expected to play a fundamental role in the development of Astrophysical Virtual Observatories. We report here about our activities aimed at integrating in the grid environment a system, developed in Padova, specifically designed for accessing very large astronomical catalogues. We evaluated several possible solutions, including the use of a tool for accessing databases developed by the European Data Grid (EDG) project, but finally we d...
At the Padova Astronomical Observatory (OaPd), we are developing a system for managing large sets... more At the Padova Astronomical Observatory (OaPd), we are developing a system for managing large sets of astronomical data, such as the GSCII catalog that will be released in the near future. In this paper we describe the different parts of the retrieval system: the Database Management System (DBMS) containing the data and the meta-data of the catalogs, the CORBA services, the Java Servlets and finally the Java Applet Client. A brief description of the hardware and of the support software is also presented. The result is a system that allows one to access a set of astronomical catalogs using heterogeneous clients (i.e., Astrobrowse, StarCat). The first public release is expected in January 2001.
The second Guide Star Catalog (GSC II) will be a catalog of positions, proper motions, magnitudes... more The second Guide Star Catalog (GSC II) will be a catalog of positions, proper motions, magnitudes and colors for stars and galaxies complete down to V=18.5 and is expected to be completed by the end of 1999. Besides its operational nature, the GSC II will also be a powerful tool for galactic and extragalactic research. However, with an expected number of records of the order of two billion, this catalog will pose problems for efficiently accessing the data. In this paper, we describe our on-going effort aimed at building a management system for the GSC II, based on a new technology Object Relational Database Management System, that will allow researchers to fully exploit the scientific content of this catalog. We thus give an overview of the architecture of the system, the data model being developed, the extensions we are making to the database engine to support astronomical data, and the access interfaces currently under development.
The current generation of Grid infrastructures designed for production activity is strongly compu... more The current generation of Grid infrastructures designed for production activity is strongly computing oriented and tuned on the needs of applications that requires intensive computations. Problems arise when trying to use such Grids to satisfy the sharing of data-oriented and service-oriented resources as happens in the IVOA community. We have designed, developed and implemented a Grid query element to access
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
AdOptTNG is the Adaptive Optics Module for the Galileo National telescope (TNG). At first light t... more AdOptTNG is the Adaptive Optics Module for the Galileo National telescope (TNG). At first light this module will feature tip-tilt correction capabilities and a speckle interferometry facility. In this paper we describe the main characteristics of the AdOptTNG Control System Software. The system is composed by a real-time part and a graphical user interface. The real-time software computes the required corrections, drives the tip-tilt mirror and function. The user interface has been written in IDL, using the IDL Widget set, taking advantage of its powerful data manipulation and analysis capabilities for data presentation and diagnostics. The integration of all these components into the TNG Control System Software, in order to allow for remote control and data archiving, is also briefly described.
This paper show the technological solutions adopted to build the blue (U and B bands) and red (V,... more This paper show the technological solutions adopted to build the blue (U and B bands) and red (V, R, I and Z bands) of the prime focus imagers at the LBT. We specially described the functional caracteristics and performances of the cryogenic and CCD control systems and the instrument management system.
We present the status of the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and OmegaCAM projects. VST is a 2.6m tele... more We present the status of the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and OmegaCAM projects. VST is a 2.6m telescope which will be integrated in the ESO-VLT environment at Paranal and will be equipped with a 16k × 16k CCD camera (OmegaCAM) covering 1 square degree with a resolution of 0.21 arcsec/pix. The main scope of this observing facility is the selection
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