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VODesktop Documentation

This page provides documentation on how to run VODesktop and how to use its five applications: VOExplorer, Helio Scope, File Explorer, All-VO Scope and Task Runner.

  • Information on how to install VODesktop can be found on the Getting Started pages.
  • For each application, click on the section heading below to access the Reference Help (describing all the menus and dialogs) or follow the Using ... link, eg Using VOExplorer, for a descriptive guide on how to use it. Note that we show screenshots of the VODesktop applications - sometimes these show the s/w running under Mac OSX, sometmes Windows XP, sometimes Linux.

VOExplorer

This is the main application for discovering data, applications and other resources in the Virtual Observatory. Once you have found what you want, you can then apply a range of actions to that resource, for instance if you find an archive that you want to query and then get data from, then start with VOExplorer.

Helio Scope

This application is provided to enable rapid queries of Heliospheric datasets, including Solar and Solar-Terrestrial-Physics data. Thus use this if you want SOHO images of the Sun, for instance.

File Explorer

This application provides an interface to browse your data files - thus your files in VOSpace (your remote on-line data storage) and locally.

All-VO Scope

If you want to find what data exists for a patch of the sky, for instance, perhaps a Supernova has been discovered and you want to know what observations exist already of that place on the sky, then use All VO Scope. This tool sends a simple query to all available data in the global Virtual Observatory.

Task Runner

Need to run an application - then Task Runner is the required application. This provides access to an ever increasing set of applications provided in the Virtual Observatory. Extract objects from images using SExtractor, generate your models of star forming galaxies using Starburst99 and so forth.

Self Tests

Provides a set of diagnostics to check your connections are fine for using the Virtual Observatory. Remember you need to be 'on-line' for best results!

Background Processess

This gives some information on the background tasks that you may have running.

Login / Logout

Sign in to give access to your online VOSpace data storage area.

Preferences

The VODesktop comes pre-configured ready to run. However, sometimes you may need to change the way it looks, reports information and so forth. In which case, configure it through the Preferences.

Help / About VODesktop / Exit

Find which version of VODesktop you are using. And at the end of the day (or night), Exit the application!

Other Help

The above pages are ordered to reflect the VODesktop interface. below we provide additional help pages which over a range of other issues, most importantly Scripting

Workflows and Scripting With AstroGrid

What if you don't want to work with a Graphical User Interface, but still want to access the Virtual Observatory? Well, with AstroGrid's command line scripting you can. The pages for Python below show you how.

Miscellaneous

Frequently Asked Questions

This section will expand as frequent problems/answers come to the fore:

Glossary

This tries to explain what the various abbreviations and terms are that you may come across in these and other Virtual Observatory web pages. Helps to decipher between the SIAPs, SSAPs, and SNAPs!

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