Quote:
Originally Posted by leinad
Must be crunching some data there!, possibly running a cluster server?
|
From memory, Rob mentioned they are a Linux cluster with application software
provided by their sponsors in the States at the Catalina Sky Survey.
However, I don't think Rob would mind us reminding people that the Siding Spring
Survey that he had Gordon manage operates on a shoe string budget.
One would hope that all those computers would do all the work for you. I guess
some of us have visions that the process would be fully automated with Rob
and Gordon getting up in the morning with the system then having presented them
with a whole bunch of new discoveries.
In practice, when you watch Rob demo what he does during the day, by definition
the objects they are looking for are previously undiscovered and tend to be
distant and small. This means that they are down in the noise of the CCD imagery
and though there is some automation in flagging candidate objects, there is also
an enormous amount of eyeball scrutiny of the images going on by Rob and
Gordon. In fact, most of us would probably miss the good stuff in all the noise,
but Rob and Gordon have the skill and experience to pick it out.
Rob will be giving a presentation at the South Pacific Star Party on the Saturday
and is always very generous with his time in answering questions.
I know all of us in the astronomy enthusiast community in Australia are proud of the
work Rob and Gordon do.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Mt. Kuring-Gai
