Participants are encouraged to submit their science cases. These can be in the form of a summary of project goals, or in conceptual steps. For example, 'search for objects of a particular type, or in particuar catalogues or archives, cross match particular catalogues, search for spectroscopy, search for theoretical models...'. We hope to help you identify where VO tools can help with your projects, and to define small projects that may be developed witin the workgroups during the 'Projects' sessions of the school.

A few examples from previous schools are linked at the bottom of this page.

Please use the following template, and feel free to create additional wiki pages if needed.

Project 1.

Participant Name: Octavi Fors (University of Barcelona)

Submilliarcsecond resolution of thousands of IR sources by means of lunar occultations:

1. The observed area is given by the Moon path during a given period of time plus location site combination. Could VO tools provide such lunar track search area? Otherwise, I can provide starting and finishing (RA,DEC) coordinates of the rectangular box which approximately defines such area. An alternative way to define search box(es) for VO tools is that I can also provide a list of occulted sources (2MASS IDs, for example), each one with their predicted occultation time.
2. Search for reddest (K mag) objects in the area of interest, in particular for catalogues or archives different from 2MASS.
3. Search for objects with highest [J-K] colour index in the area of interest, in particular for catalogues or archives different from 2MASS.
4. Search for TTauri or other objects in star forming regions in the area(s) of interest.
5. Search for binaries and suspected binaries stars of any type in the area(s) of interest.
6. Search for ultra-cool and cool brown-dwarfs with possible companion, in the area(s) of interest.
7. Search for interferometric calibrators in the area(s) of interest.
8. Search for nearby objects of any type, which are expected to be resolved, in the area(s) of interest.
9. Search for Masers, YSOs, Carbon stars, Planetary Nebulae and other objects which might show interstellar emission at the scale to be resolved, in the area(s) of interest.
10. Search for sources with high number of references in the area(s) of interest.
11. Cross match all the objects hits obtained in 2.-10. with 2MASS catalogue.
12. Creation of an image mosaic of the area of interest from a given survey.
13. Creation of an image/model-derived data mosaic of the area of interest of a dust extinction survey.
14. Search for spectroscopy for a given list of 2MASS IDs or (RA,DEC) coordinates.

Project 2.

Participant Name: John Swinbank

Over the course of 2010, LOFAR's Transients Key Science Project will start operating its Radio Sky Monitor (RSM). The RSM will provide frequent monitoring of the low-frequency radio sky for transients over a range of timescales. We will provide alerts of new transients to the community, as well as a searchable archive of transient lightcurves, annotated with as much additional information (classification, etc) as possible.

Our interest in the VO is threefold:

1. When a new transient is detected, we hope to use VO tools to obtain as much additional information about the source as possible, to assist with classification and to determine what response should be taken and alerts sent, if any. This system must be highly automated: we are talking of using VO APIs to enable machines to access the data, not tools for human astronomers.The level of complexity here can vary enormously. In the simplest case, a cone search to establish if our detection corresponds to already known sources is useful; one can also imagine imagine classification algorithms which make use of much more elaborate algorithms. We expect "many" potentially interesting transients: what query rate can we sensibly submit to the VO?
2. We will use the VOEvent system for distributing alerts of new (or updated) transients to the wider community, and also listen to VOEvent feeds from various brokers in the hope of triggering LOFAR. We would like to investigate the various tools for generating, receiving and processing VOEvents automatically.
3. The transient lightcurve archive should be easily accessible from and well integrated with the VO. What steps can we take to ensure this process is as painless as possible?

Project 3.

Participant Name: Georgi Petrov

Project description: Comparison of properties between two classes of Seyfert 2 galaxies – with and without broad lines in polarized light

1. Create two samples of Seyfert galaxies (classified as type 1.8 – 2) for the objects with and without detected polarized broad lines.
2. Search for column densities of neutral hydrogen N_H for X–ray radiation.
3. Search for observed hard X-ray (2-10 keV) fluxes.
4. Search for available fluxes of [OIII] λ5007 emission.
5. Search [OIII] FWHM.
6. Check for differences in N_H between the two samples.
7. Calculate the Eddington ratios using the masses of the central massive black holes (calculated from [OIII] FWHM) and X-ray (2-10 keV) fluxes, and calculate the same ratios using [OIII] λ5007 fluxes.

Help on editing and creating wiki pages is available here http://cds.u-strasbg.fr/twikiAIDA/bin/view/TWiki/TextFormattingRules , and with more than you want to know herehttp://cds.ustrasbg.fr/twikiAIDA/bin/view/TWiki/WebHome . Usually the best advice is to just keep it simple!

Example Projects

-- MarkAllen - 18 Dec 2009