UP: Getting Started page

AstroGrid @ Aus-VO 2008 Summer School

Thursday presentation slides: for those that missed the presentation here are the slides in pdf

Specific instructions for attendees to the AstroGrid session

It is understood that all participants will bring their own laptops and install required software on those before the meeting. Thus, please read on to see how to get and install what you need to use AstroGrid.

The software works on most recent operating systems including Linux (various flavours such as Ubuntu, Fedora etc), Windows (XP and Vista) and Mac OSX.

Information about the local network, how to make sure your laptop will be able to access the internet and so forth in Sydney is (or will be) available on the Aus-VO meeting web page.

Starting Up

Please refer to the main help pages:

• These GettingStarted pages describe how to download and install VODesktop.
• Documentation for the VODesktop 2008.1 'Beta' release is at VODesktop2008beta-doc
• Examples of usage of VODesktop are found at VODesktop2008beta-doc/VOdesktopUsage

In terms of getting a username so that you can store data in your Myspace area - please before the workshop send an email requesting a username/password for AstroGrid to astrogrid_signup@star.le.ac.uk. (In your registration email please include your name and academic department. (NB: this information will remain confidential to the AstroGrid project)).

Important note: due to the proxy cache in Sydney - you will have to start the vodesktop jar file with the following command:

java -Dhttp.proxyHost=www-cache.it.usyd.edu.au -Dhttp.proxyPort=8000 -Xmx1024M -jar vodesktop-2008.1.beta.jar

Helper applications

You'll want to also install the latest versions of:

• TopCat from http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/topcat/#standalone (get the full version)
• Aladin from http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/java/nph-aladin.pl?frame=downloading
• SPlat-VO from http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~pdraper/splat/splat-vo/splat-vo.html

To get round the proxy and ensure that the interconnections between these applications work you'll need to also run them up with commands such as:

java -Dhttp.proxyHost=www-cache.it.usyd.edu.au -Dhttp.proxyPort=8000  -Xmx1024M -jar topcat-full.jar &
java -Dhttp.proxyHost=www-cache.it.usyd.edu.au -Dhttp.proxyPort=8000  -Xmx1024M -jar AladinProto.jar &

Setting up Python

See the setup page at VODesktop2008beta-doc/Scripting/Python

Note if installing at the workshop: due to the proxy - downloading the various install files - e.g. easy_install may not work - check your proxy connections.

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Setting http_proxy

Make sure that you have an environment variable http_proxy set to the proxy - thus in a 'bash' shell:

% http_proxy=http://www-cache.it.usyd.edu.au:8000
% export http_proxy

Under Windows XP:

• Open the Control Panel and click the System icon - The System Properties dialog will be displayed.
• On the Advanced tab, click on Environment Variables. The Environment Variables dialog will be displayed.
• Click New in the System variables panel. The New System Variable dialog will be displayed.
• Add the setting HTTP_proxy, with your proxy name as the value. You must include "http://" and the proxy port, thus for here in Sydney: "http://www-cache.it.usyd.edu.au:8000/".

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Once you have easy_install - you may want to first download the astrogrid python s/w to you local disk - the egg file is at http://pyacr.googlecode.com/files/astrogrid-0.9-py2.5.egg, and then install:

so in Mac or Linux:

% cd 
% wget http://pyacr.googlecode.com/files/astrogrid-0.9-py2.5.egg
% sudo easy_install ./astrogrid-0.9-py2.5.egg 

Add your Astrogrid credentials for the Leicester community to the $HOME/.python_acr file.

[[leicester]] # Leicester community
username =
password =
community = uk.ac.le.star

More info on python scripting is available on the Python Scripting guide and example scripts in python.tar.gz

Working examples

We will work through the examples given in the Examples of usage of VODesktop. In particular take a look at:

A: Cone Searches

These cone search examples show how to ccess and select data based on positional queries. The two examples highlighted show data from Third Reference Catalogue of Galaxies and the IRAS PSC.

Try using VOExplorer to select other cone services and query those - try IPHAS, or UKIDSS for instance. Don't forget - if you query a resource and it returns no data - that will because the data set doesn't cover the entire sky.

B: IPHAS data

This set of examples shows how to work with IPHAS data.

You could also try some cone searches of IC 5070 - find the H-alpha images.

C: Data Access Worksheet

This shows some of the various techniques to get at data.

D: Merlin Imager

This shows how to make your own radio images from Merlin data. Try HMSGE as an example or MKN273

E: Data Base Queries

Try out your SQL knowledge. USe SDSS or UKIDSS for IR data. How about trying some optical - IR data combinations?

Background on the Aus-VO 2008 Summer School

The Aus-VO meeting web page has full details. This 2008 School took place in Sydney, Australia from 26-28 March 2008. The AstroGrid workshop occurred 27 Mar 2008)

Help and feedback after the School

Nicholas Walton (naw@ast.cam.ac.uk) would be happy to answer any help queries you may have after the workshop.

You are encouraged to try keep working with AstroGrid once the workshop has ended! Keep an eye on the http://www.astrogrid.org website for further details. There will also be an announcement email list which we will be setting up - you'll be given a chance to opt-in to that in the next couple of weeks.

Software

The software used can also be downloaded from the following locations:

• VO Explorer (2008.1.beta) file)
• TOPCAT
• Aladin
• Splat VO

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Nicholas Walton (26th March 2008)