Subject: Re: *Complete* draft of the LSST SWG document

From: David Morrison

Submitted: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 20:21:43 -0700

Message number: 215 (previous: 214, next: 216 up: Index)

Michael et al:

In advance of our LSST telecon, I would like to 
note the following possible concerns on wording 
in the first few pages (abstract and 
introduction).These are of course the parts of 
the report that will be most often read, so it is 
important to review them carefully.

Abstract:

… the NAS committees recommending LSST included 
Planetary Science (solar system exploration) as 
well as astronomy & physics
… most discussion in the body of the report is of 
NEAs, yet the abstract refers to PHAs
… it seems unwise to refer to the DMT by name in 
the abstract, since we will not use this 
terminology in most of the report
… Here and later, it seems ambiguous whether 
"Pan-STARRS" refers to a 4-telescope system or 
something much larger.

Introduction

*  The LINEAR telescopes have no way of finding 
specifically asteroids whose orbits take them 
close to the earth; this distinction is made 
later when orbits can be calculated
*  The definition of entendue could be confusing, 
due to ambiguity of what is meant by "solid angle 
subtended by the instrument" (what instrument?).
*  I would prefer to say impact by an asteroid 
200-300 m "could" (not "would") cause wide-spread 
death and destruction.
*  The Congress never mandated 90% or any other 
completeness for PHA surveys, but only for NEAs 
(which is also the way the NASA Spaceguard Goal 
is expressed)
*  Are you sure you want to define KBOs as 
asteroids, rather than as a separate class of 
objects?
*  As in my comment on the abstract, I am not 
sure the same term (Pan-STARRS) should be used 
for both the 4-telescope Hawaii system and a 
possible 15-20 telescope system. This can lead to 
confusion.

Style: two choices seem somewhat unusual:

*  Spelling "focussing" rather than "focusing" 
(and focussed rather than focused)_
*  Taking as plural "tsunami", rather than "tsunamis".

David Morrison

-- 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

David Morrison, NASA Ames Research Center 240-1
Tel 650 604 5094; Fax 650 604 4251; Cell 650 278 0343
david.morrison@nasa.gov or dmorrison@arc.nasa.gov
website: http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov
website: http://nai.arc.nasa.gov
website: http://impact.arc.nasa.gov

LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST    Mailing List Server   LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST
LSST
LSST  This is message 215 in the lsst-general archive, URL
LSST         http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~dss/LSST/lsst-general/msg.215.html
LSST         http://www.astro.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/LSSTmailinglists.pl/show_subscription?list=lsst-general
LSST  The index is at http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~dss/LSST/lsst-general/INDEX.html
LSST  To join/leave the list, send mail to lsst-request@astro.princeton.edu
LSST  To post a message, mail it to lsst-general@astro.princeton.edu
LSST
LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST LSST