VOEvent: Luck Management?

[Rob Seaman]

A.C. Fabian of the IoA has a preprint, "Serendipity in Astronomy" (http://arxiv.org/pdf/0908.2784 
) that makes pleasant reading.  His figure 2 locates serendipitous  
discoveries as a volume in luck v. preparedness v. aim space.  (A bit  
like the Pritchard Scale for evaluating poetry from "Dead Poet's  
Society".)

The time domain represents the essence of serendipity in astronomy.   
One could argue that the static sky (well, phenomena that vary many  
orders of magnitude more slowly than a human lifespan) requires no  
luck for discovery, just sufficiently dogged exploration of phase  
space.  Transient phenomena hide themselves better in the game of  
cosmic peek-a-boo.

Tools and technology like robotic telescopes, autonomous detection and  
classification pipelines, and VOEvent to tie it all together are what  
provide the preparedness.  The aim is a coherently designed survey  
experiment.  Luck is what the universe provides.

Rob