On Wed, 17 Nov 2004, Peter W. Draper wrote:
> coming up to breath for a moment, yes, I have accepted the SPLAT-VO
> challenge (think I prefer the name that way around, but I could be
> persuaded differently if opinions are strong), which is why I've been a
> little quiet. I intended to say something today, so your reminder is
> timely.
>
> I've looked at the SSAP standards documents and decided there isn't one
> really (promised for sometime next year), so I've just more-or-less
> duplicated the sort of thing VOSpec offers and stuck to a very basic level
> of (SSA) functionality.
>
> So SPLAT now has a new shiny button on the main window that opens a dialog
> to control SSAP queries. This offers a fixed set of SSAP servers (there
> are in fact three), a simple name resolver and entry fields for the
> required parts of a query (POS and SIZE). Once the query is made each of
> the returned VOTables is displayed and you can then proceed to either
> download the lot into SPLAT or just a selection of rows (you select using
> the usual table methods).
>
Brilliant. Now someone needs to do the marketing.
Can someone make an announcement on the dal mailing list? This needs to be
publicised.
> What's missing for sure is handling the (proposed VOTable/Spectrum) data
> units, plus some help and the usual convenience functions (double
> clicking, saving/loading results tables), and a lot of testing, but you
> could probably demo it if you have network access. Try a checkout and run
> it up. I haven't managed to find a decent object yet, but you could try
> ngc1068 (the lack of units matching stops useful comparisons).
>
Personally, I don't think the VOSpec approach to units is good enough.
A quick look at Kutner & Ulich
(http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1981ApJ...250..341K&db_key=AST&high=40c10dacd502709
) indicates serious trouble ahead if, for example, you try to compare a
JCMT spectrum with a IRAM spectrum The whole "corrected antenna
temperature" deal means that radio telescopes will need to convert
everything to janskys since there is not enough information in general to
do the conversion on demand.
> Naturally once that's all finished I'll think about a similar tool for SoG
> using SIAP, but the need there is less clear as it already offers image
> downloads.
>
Can I mention that this is missing the point? :-)
It's all about marketting, not about functionality. Someone needs to
provide alternatives to aladin. If it is only a couple of days work then
it's clearly good marketting buzz for another Starlink app to be
compliant.
Now what will really blow people's socks off is for GAIA to be SIAP
compliant. GAIA is an application that is being used all the time and has
some clout. That would trump DS9. I seem to recall that in the pub at
ADASS you said it would only take a week to add SIAP to GAIA? :-)
--
Tim Jenness
JAC software
http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/~timj
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