RE: Common and uncommon goals and software

["Creager, Robert S" <CreagRS@LOUISVILLE.STORTEK.COM>]

> 
> I know this seems strange.  I would rather have a bunch of 
> good people 
> doing all different things than some mediocre people doing a directed 
> project.  The real hope is that we will sort of get together. 

That's what I'm proposing, a meeting of the minds.  Everyone won't be doing
the same thing, some will be looking over and over at the same general
location, others scanning the entire sky.  I'm suggesting common automated
programs that will operate on whatever data is collected, hopefully along
with the specific software which the individual will be using.

>  I think we 
> will.  If only half of us join up, then it will still be a powerful 
> project.  About half of the Mark IIIs that got sent out 
> produced a useful 
> amount of data.  They would probably still be working if the Mark IV 
> project had not killed the incentive to run them.  I hope to 
> do better with 
> the Mark IVs, but we shall see.

Why not still run the Mark III's?  They are still capable of generating
large amounts of data which some people will find useful.  They may not be
as capable as the IV's, but they still work...

> same band of sky over and over.  If you have already set up a 
> pipeline that 
> reduces this data to star lists, we could just run it through 

It's a little early to call it a pipeline.  I got a couple of programs
running, and was playing with some scripts.  I found the same problems Jure
Skvarc enumerated in TechNote 67, namely the FITS headers are not complete,
and the log file information is difficult to correlate to actual files
automatically (dark frames, filter...).

> and produce 
> material that would generate a nice list of variable stars.  
> It would be 
> still better if someone would join up with us to provide 
> guidance for the 
> photometry so that it would be as good as it can be.  I don't 
> know how to 

Ditto, which I keep hoping someone will provide some guidance.

> do this, but there are several on the list that do.
> 
> As I build the hardware, I want to push some data through the 
> system.  What 
> say, out there who wants to join up with me and start some data 
> analysis.  Rob, will you join up?  Then we just need an 
> astronomer to guide 

You bet...

> 
> OK, this is not a "final solution".  It would be a nice 
> project.  We would 

This could very well be the first "final solution".  If everyone ran this
live on their systems, there would be a lot more data in the study, and we
can modify the analysis as flaws or better methods were found.