EuroVO-DCA WP6: Support to data centres from other European Countries

1. EuroVO-DCAWP6: Support to data centres from other European Countries E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

2. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO WP6: goals • Same objectives as WP3… • Dissemination of VObs knowledge. • Support to Data Centres willing to join the VObs initiative. • … but different “audience” • Data Centres from European countries not participating in the project.

3. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO WP6: work methodology • Identification of potentially interested Data Centres. • Preliminary Census of European Data Centres. • Available since Nov’06 and updated on a regular basis. • From Centres with a positive response: • Formal letter of interest indicating: • Clear, focused objectives • Specific needs • Added value for the DCA project • Contact point

4. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO WP6: work methodology (II) • Support • Technical Visits: • To/from the Data Centre. • Close-contact after the visit: periodic reports and feedback. • Regional VObs info-workshops • Sofia, Bulgaria. 2008, Jan 24-25th. • Also participants from Hungary, Serbia and Romania. • Participation in WP3 workshops • “Astronomical spectroscopy and the VObs”, Madrid, March07. • “How to publish data in the VObs”, Madrid, June07.

5. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO WP6: Visits and Workshops • Technical visits • Lígia Amorim (Portugal) visited LAEFF/SVO in March’07 • Petr Skoda (Czech Rep.) visited Lyon/France-VO in August’07 • András Holl (Hungary) will visit CDS/France-VO in 2008. • WP3 Workshops • “Astronomical Spectroscopy and the VObs”, Madrid, March 07 • Czech Rep.: Petr Skoda • “How to publish data in the VObs”, Madrid, June’07 • Portugal: Andre Moitinho, Lígia Amorim, Sonia Anton • Bulgaria: Milcho Tsvetkov • Czech Rep.: Petr Skoda • Hungary: András Holl • IVOA Meeting, Cambridge, September’07 • Czech Rep.: Petr Skoda (“VObs for ground-based optical spectroscopy”)

6. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Report of activities: Portugal • University of Lisbon/SIM (Laboratory of Systems, Instrumentations and Modelling). • Contact point:André Moitinho. • The project:“Development of a VO service to provide access to a catalog containing UBVRI photometric information of open star clusters”. • The goal:Multiwavelength analysis of these sources.

7. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Portugal (II): progress report • Database ready • Web interface (almost) ready • VO service with a public dataset available: March08

8. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Portugal (III): progress report • Also interested in WP5 (“Grids”) • Participation in the ESAC Grid Workshop (Nov’07): Sonia Anton. • VO dissemination • André Moitinho is acting as a VO-coordinator in Portugal: • Collaboration with Coimbra University • Solar data with a time line of 100 years. • Stellar evolution models. • Libraries of stellar spectra.. • Presentation of the VO service to the Portuguese stellar community (beginning 2008). • DCA Info-day in Lisbon (possibly).

9. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Report of activities: Bulgaria • Bulgarian Academy of Sciences • Contact point:Milcho Tsvetkov • The project:“VO-compliance of WFPDB”. • WFPDB contains descriptive information of more than half a million plates (23% of the existing ones all over the world). • A small subset of plates has been scanned. • Plates offer a unique opportunity to explore astrophysical phenomena on a long timeline basis.

10. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Report of activities: Bulgaria (II) • VObs Info-Workshop: Sofia, 2008, Jan 24-25 • Attendance: 40 participants + 9 DCA people. • Day-1: • DCA lectures on: • The VObs: Why is it necessary? • IVOA VObs standards: access protocols, formats, data models, registries,… • VObs tools • VObs Science • Presentations from participating Data Centres

11. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Report of activities: Bulgaria (III) • VObs Info-Workshop: Sofia, 2008, Jan 24-25 • Day-2: • Hands-on sessions on how to publish in the VObs. • Guided by DCA tutors. • Work on real data brought by the participants from their Data Centres. • Workshop summary and follow-up plans.

12. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Report of activities: Czech Republic • Ondrejov Observatory • Contact point:Petr Skoda • The project:“VO-compliance of the spectroscopic archive of the Ondrejov 2-m telescope (the largest telescope in the Czech Rep.)

13. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Report of activities: Czech Rep. (II) • Active participation in the definition of requirements for the proper handling of ground-based optical spectra in the VObs.: • Impact on the IVOA access protocol (SSAP) and Data Model • VObs dissemination in the Czech Republic • Contacts with the solar community. • University lectures in Prague and Brno. • Conferences for amateur astronomers. • Specific materials for teachers and students of secondary school.

14. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Report of activities: Hungary • Konkoly Observatory, Hungarian Academy of Sciences • Contact point:András Holl • The project:“VO-compliance of the International Bulletin of Variable Stars”.

15. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Report of activities: Hungary (II) • Interoperability between journals and archives. • IBVS tabular data will appear in the HTML version as a link. • By clicking on the link, a VObs is launched (e.g. Aladin) and the IBVS data displayed.

16. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Non-European countries • VObs is a global endeavour and collaboration already exists with many non-European countries. • The DCA project is willing to strengthen its links with these countries by providing a limited amount of support. • Workshops & Technical Visits: • A. Mickaelian (VObs-Armenia) and I. Chilligarian (VO-Russia) participated in the EuroVO-DCA workshop (March’07).

17. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Non-European countries (II): The Holy See • Contact point:Alessandro Omizzolo • The project:“VObs-compliance of the Vatican Plate Archive”. • Well-preserved and metadata-rich archive of 10000 plates. • Problem:The Holy See is not considered either a project’s partner or an EU member • Put in contact with the Italian VObs for a deeper collaboration.

18. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Cycle-2 activities • Support to on-going projects. • Activities will be finished by the end of DCA project. • Projects for which the real work has not yet started (Austria, Finland) • Roadmap definition with clear, affordable objectives for 1-year cicle. • Start process for new participants • First contacts with the Lithuanian astronomy community in Oct’07 in the framework of the EU-funded project “Expanding the abilities of Lithuanian scientists while Lithuania integrated into the infrastructure of the EU”. • Advertisement • Presence in meetings with a high participation of potential newcomers (IAU General Assembly, JENAM, ADASS, national astronomy meetings,…).

19. E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO Summary • Very successful cooperation with Data Centres from Portugal, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. • These teams have begun to build a strategy to include their knowledge and data holdings in the VObs. • In some cases a national VO-infrastructure is being created. • WP6 has also helped Data Centres to explore other EU initiatives: • Hungary is leading a working group of 10 people from 9 countries to identify and evaluate the EU calls that best fit their needs (mainly in terms of equipment and manpower). • We aim at continuing and expanding the activities here reported during Cycle-2.