AVO prototype release documentation/notes. ========================================== Mark G. Allen, CDS, Jan 30, 2003. Revision for AVO Prototype V.0933: M. Dolensky, ESO, July 8, 2003 Contents -------- 1. Introduction 2. Overview of the Software 3. Getting Started 3.1 AVO Prototype Installation 3.2 Supporting files 4. Running the demo 1. Introduction. ------------- The AVO 1st year demonstration was held at Jodrell Bank Observatory on Monday Jan 20, 2003. At this event the prototype was introduced via presentations and by live demo of the prototype capabilities and functionality. Tutorial sessions provided hands-on experience with the prototype. This document provides information and advice on how to install and run the demonstration software. In particular we provide notes on how to reproduce the demonstration and tutorials as shown in Jodrell. We recommend this as a starting point for exploring the features of the AVO prototype. The main source of help for installing and running the demonstration software is via email to: twiki@euro-vo.org Please note that this is prototype software, which contains various known (and unknown) bugs. Reports of bugs will be appreciated, although only limited bug-fixes may be applied. This set of notes is provided as basic documentation for the AVO demo prototype. The core component of this tool was derived from the Aladin software developed at CDS. The manual for the public CDS version of Aladin is available at the web addresses given below. These manuals provide description of the basic features of the Aladin. This document attempts to explain, by example, the new features implemented in the AVO prototype, including a basic description of the "filters" function. A draft manual for filters is also available. Aladin manual: http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/java/aladin.pdf Aladin "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ): http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/java/FAQ.htx Filters manual: http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/boch/doc/filters.htx http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/boch/doc/filters.pdf 2. Overview of the Software. ------------------------- The AVO demo software is made up of three main components: firstly, the core component is based on the CDS Aladin sky atlas; secondly the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) tool, and thirdly the Astronomical Catalogue Extractor (ACE). Further description of the concepts behind the AVO demo prototype can be found in the document called AVOdemoConcepts. 3. Getting Started. ---------------- The prototype has been tested on Linux (Redhat 7.2,8.0) and on Windows XP. Problems may be encountered with some window managers (often when a different jvm is used) or platforms like Solaris or Macintosh platforms, due to minimal testing performed on those systems. 3.1 AVO Prototype Installation: --------------------------- The AVO Prototype is a bundle of three components (ACE, Aladin, SED) available from http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/java/AVO Choose the version matching your operating system including Java VM and follow the installation instruction on the download page. The install-anywhere utility will guide you through the installation process. PITFALL: Never install the software in a directory that has spaces in the path. Otherwise the ACE component won't work. For unix-style file systems only: If you select to "create links", a symbolic link will be made to the AVO prototype executable (called Aladin) in a directory of your choice. Choosing not to create links, simply means that you will need to launch it from the install directory. At this point you can run Aladin, by typing ./Aladin in the install or links directory. This will bring up the main visualization window. At this point, all the demo functions can be run. 3.2 Supporting files: ----------------- A set of supporting files for the demo is also available. This set of files contains tables, scripts, and filter definitions that can be read into the prototype. For example, we provide tables containing information on the currently known transients and high-Z objects in the GOODS CDF-S field. These files are useful starting points for defining your own scripts, and filters. We recommend putting these files close to the main installation directory. For example if the main installation directory is /home/YourAccount/Avo, then /home/YourAccount/demo_extras is a good place for the supporting files. They can of course be put anywhere, but the paths in the scripts will need to be changed accordingly. These files are available in the (tarfile) package called demo_extras. 4. Running the demo. ---------------- __________________________________________________________________________ PITFALL: The tutorials were written for AVO V0.919 and the software has since evolved to V0.933. Most importantly: THE META DATA BROWSER WAS GENERALIZED. type: "cdfs" without quotes as the target and SUBMIT this query in order to get the tree structure repesenting the GOODS data. Before it just worked for GOODS - this restriction is gone. Also, the SED button moved to the new plugins menu and ACE is now an integrated part also available as a plugin. ___________________________________________________________________________ Here we describe how to run the demo scenario as shown at Jodrell Bank. This is meant as an introduction to the demo features. An accompanying set of 'click-by-click' screen shots (with brief notes), called DemoClicks can also found on the wiki page in powerpoint, OpenOffice and postscript formats. The (pg ) references here refer to page numbers of DemoClicks. (Also on the wiki is a presentation of the demonstration that was shown in the tutorial sessions, called "TutorialSnapshots".) Launch the AVO prototype. This will open the main visualization window. (pg 1) ** The Load Window and metadata browser ** The "Load" button at the top left of the visualization window opens the main "Server Selector" window (pg 2) Type: "cdfs" without quotes as the target and SUBMIT this query in order to get the tree structure repesenting the GOODS data The nodes of the tree can be expanded by clicking on the + signs. To start, open the node for the GOODS-WFI, V89-PREVIEW image. This gives access to a preview of the ESO 2.2m WFI image of the CDF-S (pg 3). Select the image for loading by clicking on the text "DEEP2C-FV". This shows a summary of the image properties. To load the image, click the "Load Image" button. (pg. 4) Close the V89-PREVIEW node, and scroll the data tree down to the GOODS-HST-ACS entries. Select the F435W by clicking on the text "F435W". Click the "show all image fields for this level" button to overlay the fields of view of all the images in the F435W data set, on the main image window. (pg. 5) ** Load window - visualization window interaction ** Notice that there is interaction between the fields-of-view map and the data tree. To see this expand the GOODS-ISAAC, J and H nodes, and then move the cursor over the fields of view in the image window. Elements in the GOODS-ISAAC branch of the tree become highlighted indicating that GOODS-ISAAC data is available at the cursors sky position. (pg. 6) The data tree and visualization window also interact when the cursor scrolls over the data tree. For example, moving the cursor over the GOODS-ISAAC data listing in the tree, the field of view for that data is shown overlaid on the image. (pg. 7) (Close down the GOODS-ISAAC nodes.) ** Zoom in on the red object ** We now wish to zoom into the location of the red-object as found in the ACS images. The location of that object is (RA, DEC) 03 32 25.59 -27 55 48.4 Simply typing or pasting that coordinate into the box at the top of the visualization window will put the pink reticle on that point. (pg 8) Zoom into that point by firstly going into zoom mode by clicking the "Z zoom" button in the visualization window, and zoom with the left mouse button. (pg 9) ** Load data at point of interest ** We now wish to load the ACS F435W, F850LP and F775W epoch 1 data available at that point. To do this, open the GOODS-HST-ACS nodes for F435W, F850LP and F775W epoch 1 data. Get out of zoom mode by clicking the "Z zoom" button again. Put the cursor over the pink cross, the desired coordinate, and click. Notice how this puts a red check mark next to the relevant ACS fields in the data tree. (pg 10) To download all the visible checked images simultaneously, press the "Submit" button at the bottom right of the window. Note that whenever one selects a point in the image, every field in the data tree that overlaps that point will become checked. Only the "visible" images, that is, visible in the sense that the node in the tree is open and the checked box can be seen in the window (or scrolled to), will be loaded upon pressing the submit button. The ACS cutout images then proceed to load into the visualization window. (pg 11) (Note, to load images individually, click on their text name in the data tree, and use the "Load image" button.) ** Construct a RGB image ** Now construct a RGB image using these 3 ACS images. Press the RGB button in the visualization window and select F850LP, F775W and F435W as RGB respectively. (pg 12). The click the "create" button. Notice the red object in the field (pg 13). ** Overlay EIS catalog ** We now investigate whether there is already information available on this object in the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS) catalog. Go to the Server Selector window, and select "VizieR Catalogs". This brings up an interface to the VizieR catalogs (pg 14). We wish to query the EIS catalog whether there are entries in our field of interest. To do this it is easiest to return to the preview image. (note the field-of-view of the downloaded images is shown). (pg 15) To select the region of interest, first press the "grab coords" button in the VizieR catalog interface. Then drag a circle using the cursor, around the region of interest. (pg 16) Pressing "Submit" at this point queries all catalogs in VizieR for objects in this region (taking a few moments), and then presenting a list. (pg 17) The EIS catalog (actually a draft catalog obtained from EIS) is listed (somewhat cryptically) as " II/234 Draft EIS Colour Catalog". Select this catalog and press submit to overlay the catalog entries on the image. (pg 18) (In the demo presentation this was done by typing "eis-cc/ubvrijk" into the catalog text box. That syntax allows specifying between the UBVRIJK and the UBVRI catalogs) Return to the colour ACS image and inspect the catalog. (Note that the colour of the catalog points can be changed with the plane properties button "prop" ). Note that the red object has no entry in the EIS catalog. (And note the problematic astrometry between the catalog and images) (pg 19) ** Inspecting catalog values (col names and UCDs) The values of the catalog points can be inspected by selecting them with a drag box in the visualization window (pg 20). The values appear in the measurements window and their catalog column names and Unified Content Descriptors (UCDs) can be seen (pg 21). ** SED tool ** We now introduce the SED tool. The SED tool was designed to take input of SED info in the form of Flux (Jy), error in flux (Jy), frequency (Hz), and bandwidth (Hz). The AVO prototype also supports conversion of EIS catalog magnitudes into fluxes. This conversion is described in more detail in documents on the wiki page. Selected catalog points can be shown as an SED by pressing the "SED" button in the visualization window (pg 22). The SED window provides features such as upper limits and a blink feedback to the main visualization window, and other features described in the SED document on the wiki page. ** Filters ** The AVO prototype includes a feature called "filters" which allows one to manipulate and use the catalog values and display results as an overlay on the image, and to save results as catalog planes in the stack. This is a powerful feature, this intro shows two simple applications. Click on the "Filter" button to bring up the filters interface. Filters have a syntax for expressing logical and mathematical operations on catalog columns. To aide the user a number of pre-defined filters have been included. Select the "Magnitude Circle" predefined filter. This filter draws a circle around any photometric catalog values, with a radius proportional to the magnitude. The range of radii can be controlled with additional parameters as described in the filters manual. Apply the filter by clicking "Apply" in the filters interface. Then Select the filter in the stack to see the result. (pg. 23) Another way to load a filter is via the aladin text window. Here we load one of the filters provided in the supporting files, in the demo_extras directory. Type load ../demo_extras/scripts/u_drop.ajs into the window. This is best viewed on the V89-PreVIEW image in the stack (pg 24). Click on the filter in the stack to see the result. In this case the filter defines an expression for identifying U-band dropouts from the UBVRI catalog magnitude entries. We see here that only 4 objects in this field satisfy that criteria. (pg 25) ** Running ACE *** We now wish to make a measurements of the magnitudes (and many other properties) of the objects in our region of interest by running the SExtractor service provided by ACE. ACE was originally not fully integrated into the Aladin interface, but this was streamlined in the meantime. Therefore, simply skip slides 26 - 29. Start up ACE as from the plugin menu. (the window may be hidden, or need to be re-sized - depending on window manager peculiarities) The ACE interface will start popping up the main ACE interface window (pg 30). When ACE is started for the first time, one need to load the default parameters into it. Do this by simply loading the defaults.ace file that you downloaded (pg 31). The default parameters are now visible in the parameter window, e.g. the "Extraction" parameter window (pg 32). One could change the input image at this point (pg 33), but there is no need in this context. It is possible at this point to run ACE using default values , but it is instructive to change a few parameters. Firstly select MAG_AUTO, MAGERR_AUTO and ELLIPTICITY to be added to the default output (pg 34,35). Also, specify a zero-point for the photometric calibration (pg 36). Make sure the ACE server is set to "Cambridge" and start the process with the "Extract" button (pg 37). After a few moments (secs to mins) the result returns, in the form of a table which automatically opens on the desktop (pg 38). Note that all the output parameter columns are present. Save these results to a local file (pg 39), in this case we choose an appropriate name "F850LP.vot". Load this file into the prototype using the "Local" button on the server selector window (pg 40), and the newly created SExtractor catalog appears in the image stack and is overlaid on the image (pg 41). Note that the "red object" point has been detected and measured. Select that point with a drag box in the image window, and inspect the values in the measurement window, including the "MAG_AUTO" magnitude (pg 42) and the ELLIPTICITY (pg 43)