Workshop on image processing for small autonomouse observatories

[Petr Kubánek]

Dear colleagues,

first short summary, so you can skip reading rest if that area is not
your field. Please forward this message to anybody you think might be
interested.

What: workshop on image processing for small autonomouse observatories

When: Monday 18th to Wednesday 20th August 2008

Where: University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Web: http://rts-2.sf.net/workshop
 
We would like to invite you to a meeting to discuss the future
development of software used to operate small to medium size, fully
autonomous observatories (usually with D < 2m). The major focus of the
workshop is image processing and automated discovery. The proposed dates
are Monday 18th August to Wednesday 20th August, 2008. The workshop will
be hosted by University College Dublin, Ireland. Participants (or their
funding institutions) are expected to cover their travel costs and
on-site accommodation (recommended is 30 euro/night at UCD village,
http://www.ucdvillage.ie)). If there is sufficient interest, we
might consider publishing proceedings of the workshop.

The workshop shall be centered on open source packages for full control
of fully autonomous observatories (*). The organisers belong to the RTS2
[http://rts-2.sf.net] community. RTS2 is currently working on ~ 7 sites
on three continents, providing, so far, several TBs of image data. Due
to limited man-power, only the most interesting data are currently
processed and published. Many of the images are in archives and await
new software to enable searches for variable sources and other
interesting celestial phenomena. As we hope we are not alone with this
problem, we would like to discuss possible solutions to it. If there
will be enought will, we would like to start collaborative efforts
on providing solutions as open-source software. The topics might include
proposals for changes to RTS2 to enable faster and easier image
retrieval, calibration and processing for particular programmes.
 
We are open to discussion about any related topic, ranging from (but not
limited to) autonomous observatory development and improvements; use of
new, high sensitivity detectors (EMCCD,..); development of machine
learning tools for automated discovery, especially relating to
transients, to the use of acquired data in publications. The discussion
shall be centered on autonomous observatories, but not necessarily
RTS2-based setups.
      
If you would like to participate in the workshop, please contact me at
petr at iaa.es to register your interest right away and to get further
information.

We are looking forward to see you.

Petr Kubanek
IAA CSIC, Granada & GACE, Valencia - Spain
+34 661 107 995
+34 958 230 606
+420 737 500 268

Skype: pkubanek
       
(*) by fully autonomous observatory we mean a site without any human
operator for routine observations and an astronomer who will look for
interesting events. On such sites computers and software are responsible
for full control of the observatory, including scheduling, failure
recovery, image processing and discovery reporting. Due to the major
differences between remote telescopes, where operators remotely control
observations and fully autonomous facilities, the workshop will focus
primarily on autonomous observatories.