Survey Definition Tool (SDT) - Change Log

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    Changes made between December 2003 and April 2004


  1. Guide star skipping: Set SKIP_GUIDE_STARS=true in the cfg/sdt.cfg file
    to skip the guide star allocation. This is useful to get a first impression of how pointings are distributed over a wide survey area. But when creating an actual WFCAM survey this feature must be switched off: SKIP_GUIDE_STARS=false
    NOTE that GUIDE_QUERY_DISPLAY becomes obsolete if SKIP_GUIDE_STARS=true

  2. WFCAM multi-detector footprint added to Survey Area Display.
    Can be switched on and of using
    WFCAM_FOOTPRINT_DISPLAY=true
    WFCAM_FOOTPRINT_DISPLAY=false
    in the cfg/sdt.cfg file

  3. Each generated MSB contains one or more complete tiles. Pointings belonging to the same tile are not spread over several MSBs.

  4. Each generated MSB contains at least one complete tile even if this means that its duration exceeds the duration specified by MSB_DURATION in the cfg/sdt.cfg file. (This might not be change.)

  5. Bug fix: The first MSBs Survey Component used to contain 4n + 1 Survey Targets and the Survey Components of the following MSBs would contain 4n Survey Targets. Now the first one contains 4n Survey Targets as well.

  6. Bug fix: The obsolete copy of the template MSB has been removed from the Science Program with the generated MSBs.

  7. Bug fix: Scheduling Constraints bug fixed.

  8. WFCAM detector footprint added to Survey Area Display.

  9. Survey ID text field added. Special characters in the Survey ID are replaced by _ to prevent problems with other ORAC software.

  10. Preferences menu for proxy settings added.

  11. File save dialog on exit added.

  12. Bug fix: Old pointings are now removed when an sdt file is opened.

  13. Bug fix: When an existing file is selected in a "Save As ..." dialog and the dialog is then cancelled then the user will no longer be warned that the file exists.

  14. SURVEY_ID added as prefix of Survey Target name (i.e. FITS key OBJECT).

  15. WFCAM detector footprints added to OT's Telescope Position Editor (TPE)

  16. Z and B gamma filters added to OT WFCAM component.

  17. Validity check for FK5 declination range added: values must be in the range -90..90 degrees. Unrealistic coordinates in systems other than FK5 will probably not cause the SDT to freeze due to a java.lang.OutOfMemoryError. Instead it should be apparent from the Survey Area display if the coordinates are unrealistic.

  18. Repaint bug in SurveyAreaDisplay and DetectorDisplay fixed.


    Release: May 7, 2004


  19. MSB generation from multiple template MSBs changed
          Previously:
            SpProg
              SpMSB
                SpObs         Filter J
                  SpSurvey    n tiles (4n fields AKA pointings AKA "Survey Targets")
                SpObs         Filter H
                  SpSurvey    n tiles (4n fields AKA pointings AKA "Survey Targets")
                SpObs         Filter K
                  SpSurvey    n tiles (4n fields AKA pointings AKA "Survey Targets")
    
    
          Now:
            SpProg
              SpMSB
                SpSurvey      n tiles (4n fields AKA pointings AKA "Survey Targets")
                SpObs         Filter J
                SpObs         Filter H
                SpObs         Filter K
          
    The previous version can still be used by adding the line
    SURVEY_COMP_IN_EACH_OBS=true
    to the cfg/sdt.cfg file
    .

  20. Bug fix: The components in the first template MSB are now copied into the generated observation components rather than the components in the last template MSB in reverse order.


    Release: May 20, 2004


  21. Bug fix: The second integer in the tile identifier in the survey target name, e.g. 3 in "2_3" in "some_id:2_3:1_0" are no longer faulty after backtracking.

  22. The SDT no longer leaves gaps at the left end (East) of a tile rows in survey areas at high declinations.

  23. GUIDE2 added: A second guide star is allocated for each survey target if one is in the range of the autoguider CCD unless the GUIDE2_TAG line in the cfg/sdt.cfg file is commented out.

  24. Guide star selection is now based on magnitude rather than proximity to the centre of the autoguider CCD.

  25. Exluded areas are now implemented as follows: The SDT removes all tiles that intersect with an excluded survey area. Since a tile is removed even if only a small part of it falls in the excluded area this can result in large gaps of the surrounding included survey area not being covered.

  26. The valid AUTOGUIDER_WIDTH and AUTOGUIDER_HEIGHT in the cfg/sdt.cfg file have been reduced by 2√2 · 5.0 arcseconds, allowing offsets of ±5.0 arcseconds.


    Release: July 01, 2004


  27. The filter names in the OT have changed as part of ongoing WFCAM work. This could cause problems when loading existing Science Programs into the OT. To fix the problem you can.

    Either

    1. Load the Science Program with the old filter names into the OT
    2. Go through all WFCAM instrument components and reset the filter. (It will probably display filter Z when you first open the component.)
    3. Go through all WFCAM configuration iterators, delete all iteration steps that contain the old filter names and add new iteration steps selecting new filter names from the filter choices.

    Or

    Load the Science Program XML file into a text editor and search/replace the old filter names. The filter names that have changed are

    Filter Names
    OldNew
    blank Blank
    J98 J
    H98 H
    K98 K
    H2_1-0_S11-0S1
    Br gamma BGamma

    Filters Y and Z are unchanged.

  28. Bug fix: Previously the first tile of some rows covering curved survey areas (e.g. rectangle in galactic coordinates) started to far West such that the first tile was outside the survey area. This bug has now been fixed.

  29. Bug fix: In some instances the SDT did not backtrack when no guide star was found for a field. It would use the guide star of the previous field. This bug has now been fixed.

  30. Bug fix: It seems that the May 20, 2004 release of the SDT did not shift subsequent tiles in a row after backtracking (shifting tile when no guide star had been found). This would have left a gap between the shifted tile and the following tiles in the row. It is possible that this bug has always been there although nobody seems to have noticed it. The bug is now fixed.

  31. Image in section 5.2. Multiple Template MSBs of help and manual page updated.
  32. The names of the guide stars retrieved from the catalogs are now propagated through to the name field of the guide star in the Target Information tab of the Survey Component.


    Release: September 13, 2004


  33. Obsolete Target Information and Survey components are removed from tempalte MSB Science Program before it is used to generate MBSs from the pointings of the SDT. The removal is not saved. The tempalte MSB Science Program XML file remains unchanged.

  34. Bug fix in help window: The links to HTML anchors in the same document do now work.

  35. The number of pointings created is now displayed in the dialog window that pops up when the SDT has finished creating pointings. The number of backtracks and fields for which now guide stars could be found (since the the creation of pointings was started or resumed by clicking the "Start" button) is also displayed. Note that each backtrack event is counted even when multiple backtracks occurred resulted in the end only in one tile being shifted. So the number of backtracks can be greater than the number of tiles that overlap with the previous tiles in the row due to backtracking.

  36. The bug that seemed to prevented the GUIDE2 information from being exported to an OT Science Program has been fixed.


    Release: October 25, 2004


  37. Bug fix: partial or no query result for guide stars:
    There was a problem with some of the catalogs which use a default maximum number of matching objects returned by a query. If this number is too low then the autoguider display appeared only partially filled with objects. This was the case when USNO B1.0 Catalog at CDS (maybe other catalogs as well) was used: Only part of the autoguider CCD was covered by retrieved objects when the survey area was near the galactic plane. Other catalogs, e.g. GSC-2 at STScI, did not work at all because their default restriction seemed to be: return zero objects unless told otherwise. The maximum value of objects retrieved from the catalog per autoguider CCD is now set to an arbitrary value of 10000. This should fix the problem.

  38. Change in selection of magnitude fields in catalog (bug fix): Some objects appeared as lines on the autoguider display because no valid magnitude was retrieved from the catalog for them. This because some catalogs provide several magnitude fields (e.g. r_mag, b_mag) but sometimes not all of them are defined for each object in the catalog. So far the selection of a magnitude field in the catalog query result table was done on a run by runbasis as follows: (A "run" starts when the "Start" button is pressed and ends when the SDT is finished or the "Stop" button is pressed.)

    1. The SDT tried to use the "mag" field.
    2. If there was none it tried to use the "Fmag" field.
    3. If there was none it tried to use the "Jmag" field.
    4. If there was none it tried to use the "R1mag" field.
    5. If there was none it tried to use the first field containing the substring "mag" (not case sensitive) and use that to get the magnitude.

    (You can use GAIA's Data-Servers Catalog searches to see which catalog uses which fields. The fields appear in the header line of the catalog query result table in GAIA.)

    Once the SDT had decided which magnitude field to use it tried to retrieve this field for each object in the query result returned from the catalog. The problem with this approach was that some catalogs (e.g. USNO B1.0 Catalog at CDS) provide several magnitude fields but not all of them are set to a value for all the objects in the catalog. (Again you can check this in GAIA.) That is why the SDT has to look at more than one magnitude field until it finds one which contains a value. This means that the SDT might end up comparing different kinds of magnitudes (the B1 magnitude of one object with the R1 magnitude of another object, say) when selecting guide stars. This does not seem to be ideal. On the other hand it only seems to be an issue with some catalogs such as USNO B1.0 Catalog at CDS. Normally each magnitude field defined in the result table is actually set for each object. So the magnitude fields are now selected on an object by object basis in the following order of preferrence:

    1. The SDT tries to use the "mag" field.
      (Used by "Guide Star Catalog at CADC", "Guide Star Catalog at ESO" and "USNO at ESO", format 8, where "mag" is probably the same as "r_mag".)

    2. If there is none or its value is not defined it tries to use the "r_mag" field.
      (Used by "USNO at ESO)

    3. If there is none or its value is not defined it tries to use the "Fmag" field.
      (Used by "GSC-2 at ESO" and "GSC-2 at STScI".)

    4. If there is none or its value is not defined it tries to use the "Jmag" field.
      (Used by "GSC-2 at ESO" and "GSC-2 at STScI".)

    5. If there is none or its value is not defined it tries to use the "R1mag" field.
      (Used by "USNO B1.0 Catalog at CDS")

    6. If there is none or its value is not defined it tries to use the "R2mag" field.
      (Used by "USNO B1.0 Catalog at CDS")

    7. If there is none or its value is not defined it tries to use the first field containing the substring "mag" (not case sensitive).

    8. If the first field's value is not defined it tries to use the second field containing the substring "mag" (not case sensitive).

    9. ...

    As mentioned above this gets rid of the follwing bug: When using USNO B1.0 Catalog at CDS (maybe other catalogs as well) lines would sometimes be drawn accross the autoguider CCD display. This problem was probably caused by the failure to retrieve a magnitude from the catalog for some objects. The calculation of the radius of the circle representing such objects on the autoguider CCD display was then based on a zero magnitude which let to circles with an infinite radius. The problem should now be fixed.

  39. New feature: when the SDT is interupted during tiling and guide star allocation (by hitting the Stop button on the progress dialog) the user can select any of the objects in the autoguider CCD display by clicking in the centre of the object. The coordinates (in J2000) and the name of the object in the catalog from which it was retrieved are then displayed in the upper bar of the display frame.


    Changes after CVS repository move to ESO (February 2006)


  40. The README file describes the details of how the code of the Wfcam SDT and the Vista SADT are related.
  41. The official CVS repository for the SADT (SDT) development was moved to ESO (February 2006).

  42. The jar files used the SADT (SDT) have been put into the CVS tree together with the rest of the SADT code which is now self contained (February 2006).
  43. The SADT (SDT) now uses jsky-2.5 instead of jsky-1.0. This means that the SADT (SDT) can no longer use the jsky.jar file (and jar files needed by jsky) from the JAC OT distribution. (See README file for details.)