Subject: Next meeting of the LSST SWG; getting started on science programs

From: Michael Strauss

Submitted: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 22:05:00 -0500 (EST)

Message number: 16 (previous: 15, next: 17 up: Index)

Hello all,
  My thanks again to all of you for taking part in the LSST SWG
meeting last week.  Jeremy Mould and Dick Shaw took minutes for the
meeting, which I will distribute hopefully tomorrow, but in the
meantime, I want to ask several questions of you.   First, we agreed
that we would hold the next meeting in roughly one month's time, by
telecon, and then hold a face-to-face meeting in Seattle at or around
the January AAS.  I would like you all to write me letting me know
your availability for these two things.  In particular, please let me
know which days (and times) you are free to take part in a telecon,
lasting perhaps 2 hours, during the weeks of:

  November 25 (Thanksgiving Week)
  December 2
  December 8 

  We also need to set a time and place for our meeting in Seattle. The
AAS meeting itself really only starts in earnest on Monday, January 6,
(although there are a number of other events going on on Sunday, see,
e.g., http://www.aas.org/meetings/aas201/prelim/events.html) and
continues through Thursday, January 9.  So please let me know your
interest and willingness to meet:
  Sunday
  Monday-Thursday (i.e., during the meeting itself; one can listen
only so many 5-minute talks!  If so, let me know which if any day
would be preferable).
  Monday-Thursday evenings.
  Friday. 

I think we could restrict this meeting to of order 6 hours total,
i.e., the equivalent of one full working day. 

The aim of the phonecon in a month or so is to hear from the various
sub-groups that were defined at the Princeton meeting, to start making
detailed and specific science cases for the principal LSST science
drivers.  Of course, this means that now is the time for these
sub-groups to start communicating among themselves, and carrying out
work.  They should feel free to use the mechanism of the LSST mailing
list to do so (or if they would feel more comfortable with additional
more focussed mailing lists, e.g., lsst-kuiperbelt, let me know, and I
can set that up easily).  Sidney said that she would be in a position
to help us out with the mechanics of phone conferences; Sidney, can
you send us details?  

  As I indicated at the Princeton meeting, there is a long list of
desiderata to keep in mind in turning a specific LSST science program
into requirements on the LSST itself.  My attempt at the list is
below.  I would like people with comments on this list (should it be
shorter and more concise, as I think Daniel was arguing?  Is it
woefully incomplete?) to post them to this mailing list. 

  For each of the scientific goals, we need to know:

       The area of sky imaged at any given time.
       The depth and dynamic range needed in a single exposure.
       The depth and dynamic range needed in stacked exposure. 
       The requirements on seeing and pixel size.  
       The filters needed. 
       The need, if any, to stack the data. 
       The photometric accuracy needed (both relative and absolute).
       The astrometric accuracy needed (both relative and absolute). 
       The filters needed. 
       The cadence of observations needed (very different for moving
          objects and, e.g., distant galaxies). 
       The area of sky to be covered. 
       Requirements on the speed of data reduction needed, and the
          nature of the measured quantities. 
       Auxiliary data needed (e.g., follow-up spectroscopy,
                observations at non-optical wavebands, and/or 
                a priori calibrating data)
       Specialized data analysis tools needed to carry out the science
       A meta-question: where the field will likely be in 8-10 years.

			      -Michael Strauss

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