Re: A rival system

[Arne Henden <aah@nofs.navy.mil>]

Michael Koppelman wrote:
> On Wednesday, May 28, 2003, at 03:28 PM, Dirk Terrell wrote:
> 
>> On Wed, 28 May 2003 15:15:30 -0500, Michael Koppelman wrote:
>>
>>> Is this like they do with the Hubble where no one else can see the data
>>> until a certain period of time has past?
>>
>>> If so, it is a concept I
>>> deplore, especially when the government tax payer money put the damn
>>> thing in orbit.
>>
>>
>> That's a different matter. The embargo of data gives the people who put
>> in the effort to develop and submit a proposal (no small feat I can
>> assure you) a chance to develop their work and publish it.
>>
> 
> Do I presume it is a concept you do not deplore? I'm ignorant on the 
> subject, but something about it seems not right to me. Is that how most 
> observatories work?

No, most observatories have no public policy.  Whatever group took the
data has full rights to their observations; no one else gets them.
The exceptions are the really large telescopes such as Gemini, where
taxpayer dollars paid for the facility.  There, you can often gain
access to data taken if the embargo period has passed; check the CADC
for example regarding access to CFHT data.  The major problem is lack
of manpower to implement an outside user program.  NSF has traditionally
been very reluctant to allocate funds for development of archives.
   Note that MOTESS is the system Roy Tucker described at the IAPPP meeting,
and has been in existence for a couple of years.  He has given data rights
to GNAT to look for variables; looks like they have begun a cursory
glance at the data (but remember how much work is involved with such
a program from the TASS example).  Their concept of 48 telescopes
(I presume 16 systems) is ambitious and unfunded.  The $20K pricetag
is way under the actual cost, since Roy got his CCDs from the SITe
firesale, built his own cameras and telescopes, and his mirrors were
a special favor from a Russian colleague.
   GNAT tried for a decade to fund a 1m-class telescope network and failed.
The MOTESS example will only work close to the equator since it is drift-scan
and is not much of a rival to either TASS nor ASAS, even if all 16 systems
eventually are built.
Arne