Wide Field Astronomy Equipment

广域天文设备

• 批准号: ST/H00047X/1
• 负责人: Robert Mann
• 金额: $ 30.04万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FH00047X%2F1
• 关键词: Wide; Field; Astronomy; Equipment

Sky surveys underpin much of modern astronomical research, by providing the most efficient means of deriving samples of observational data required for the study of rare objects and of the properties of populations of sources. The UK has a very strong history in survey astronomy and Edinburgh's Wide Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) has long been at the forefront of this activity, both since its creation in its current guise, in 1999, and in its previous incarnation, as the UK Schmidt Telescope Unit (UKSTU) of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. WFAU inherited from UKSTU a programme based on photographic sky surveys. This has been successfully completed, and WFAU's focus now is on sky surveys undertaken with digital detectors. The first pair of these - using the WFCAM instrument on the UK Infrared Telescope and the VISTA telescope - are both infrared surveys, but the future surveys for which WFAU is starting to prepare will be undertaken at optical wavelengths. WFAU has developed science archive systems which store securely data from sky surveys and make them available to users in a flexible manner via the Internet. The WFCAM Science Archive is now in operation, and the VISTA Science Archive is entering its final stages of development. The main challenges for WFAU in operating these archives are the volumes of data generated by modern sky survey systems, and the necessity of making the data available to users in a way that helps them to exploit those data scientifically. As data volumes increase, users are no longer able to download to their own computers all the data they want to analyse, so an increasing focus of WFAU work is the development of software to perform a set of basic data analysis tasks within the data centre. Users will be able to run these directly on the sky survey data in WFAU's archives, and then download derived data products, which will be much smaller in size. Sky survey instruments are becoming able to map the sky at ever increasing rates, and the next generation of them will be able to image large areas of the sky to interesting depths each night. This means that not only can they build up deep images of the sky, but they can do so through repeated exposures of each area, so that they derive a time-resolved view of the sky. These so-called synoptic sky surveys represent the next great advance in survey astronomy, and WFAU intends to take a leading role in the preparations for the management of their data, so that the UK astronomical community is well placed for the scientific exploitation of those surveys. Ensuring success of the WFAU programme depends on the staff within the Unit having the correct range of skills. While the computational side of WFAU's work is ever increasing, it is important that members of WFAU staff working on science archive project work retain the astronomical expertise required to interact effectively with WFAU's user community. To this end, a few key members of WFAU staff undertake programmes of project-releated research using our datasets. Experience shows that this yields insights and software which can be fed back into the project work programme, and also provides an important mechanism for recruiting and retaining high quality staff.

巡天是现代天文学研究的基础，它提供了获取研究稀有天体和星群性质所需的观测数据样本的最有效手段。英国在巡天天文学方面有着非常悠久的历史，爱丁堡的广域天文单位（WFAU）长期以来一直处于这一活动的最前沿，无论是自1999年以目前的面貌创建以来，还是在其前身，即爱丁堡皇家天文台的英国施密特望远镜单位（UKSTU）。WFAU继承了联合王国工会联合会的一个以摄影天空观测为基础的方案。这项工作已经顺利完成，现在WFAU的重点是用数字探测器进行天空调查。其中第一对-使用英国红外望远镜和VISTA望远镜上的WFCAM仪器-都是红外测量，但WFAU开始准备的未来测量将在光学波长上进行。世界天文学和天文学联合会开发了科学档案系统，安全地储存来自天空观测的数据，并通过互联网以灵活的方式提供给用户。WFCAM科学档案馆现已投入使用，VISTA科学档案馆正在进入最后的发展阶段。WFAU在操作这些档案方面的主要挑战是现代天空测量系统产生的大量数据，以及以帮助用户科学利用这些数据的方式向用户提供数据的必要性。随着数据量的增加，用户不再能够将他们想要分析的所有数据下载到自己的计算机上，因此WFAU工作的一个越来越多的重点是开发软件，以便在数据中心内执行一系列基本数据分析任务。用户将能够直接在WFAU档案中的天空调查数据上运行这些数据，然后下载衍生的数据产品，这些产品的大小要小得多。天空测量仪器能够以越来越快的速度绘制天空地图，下一代仪器将能够在每晚对大面积的天空进行成像，达到有趣的深度。这意味着他们不仅可以建立天空的深层图像，而且可以通过对每个区域的重复曝光来做到这一点，这样他们就可以获得天空的时间分辨率视图。这些所谓的天气天空调查代表了调查天文学的下一个重大进展，WFAU打算在准备管理其数据方面发挥主导作用，以便英国天文学界能够很好地利用这些调查。确保WFAU方案的成功取决于该股内的工作人员具有正确的技能范围。虽然WFAU工作的计算方面不断增加，但从事科学档案项目工作的WFAU工作人员必须保留与WFAU用户社区有效互动所需的天文专业知识。为此，WFAU工作人员的一些关键成员使用我们的数据集进行项目研究计划。经验表明，这产生了可反馈到项目工作方案的见解和软件，并为征聘和留住高素质工作人员提供了一个重要机制。

项目成果

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the input catalogue and star-galaxy separation

星系和质量组装（GAMA）：输入目录和星星系分离

• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16282.x
• 发表时间: 2010
• 期刊: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: Baldry I

The WFCAM multiwavelength Variable Star Catalog (Corrigendum)

WFCAM 多波长变星目录（勘误表）

• DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201423793e
• 发表时间: 2015
• 期刊: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• 影响因子: 6.5
• 作者: Ferreira Lopes C

The 6dF Galaxy Survey: Fundamental Plane data

• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stu1198
• 发表时间: 2014-06
• 期刊: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: L. Campbell;J. Lucey;M. Colless;M. Colless;D. H. Jones;D. H. Jones;C. Springob;C. Springob;C. Magoulas;C. Magoulas;R. Proctor;J. Mould;J. Mould;M. Read;S. Brough;Tom Jarrett;Tom Jarrett;A. Merson;A. Merson;Philip Lah;F. Beutler;F. Beutler;M. Cluver;M. Cluver;Quentin A. Parker;Quentin A. Parker

THE SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD. XXVII. DISCOVERY OF NEW PROPER MOTION STARS WITH µ ? 0.?18 yr -1 IN THE SOUTHERN SKY WITH 16.5 < R 59 F ? 18.0

太阳能社区。

• DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/142/3/92
• 发表时间: 2011
• 期刊: The Astronomical Journal
• 作者: Boyd M

THE SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD. XXV. DISCOVERY OF NEW PROPER MOTION STARS WITH 0.?40 yr -1 > µ ? 0.?18 yr -1 BETWEEN DECLINATIONS -47° AND 00°

太阳能社区。

• DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/142/1/10
• 发表时间: 2011
• 期刊: The Astronomical Journal
• 作者: Boyd M