Registered: 272  
Attendanti:  244
Evaluation Form: 176

Did you already know the VO?  

Yes:  120     No: 57

If yes, which VO-tools did you know?

Aladin     95	VisIVO           18
Topcat     60	VODesktop     4
VOSpec  11	SkyView         9
Dame      15	Google Sky     32
Other(s) : .1  (DS9); 2 (VO-stat); 2 (NVO registry); 2(Stellarium); 1 (Virgo); 1 (VOSA)

 

Program Summary:

Use Case 1: Confirmation of a Supernova candidate
Use Case 2: Searching for Data available for the bright galaxy M51
Use Case 3: Photometric redshifts with DaME
Use Case 4: Data Extraction from Multidimensional Dataset

Did you find the Use Cases interesting?

	No	Poor	Enough	Interesting	Very Interesting
Use Case 1		1	17	81	62
Use Case 2		3	18	78	72
Use Case 3	1	4	21	60	77
Use Case 4	3	5	19	56	71

comments:

• I didn’t attend the second and third UC
• Topcat extremely useful. VisIVO not for my science. Vospec very interesting but not explained in detail.
• UC4 is very interesting but it’s not clear how it is related to the VO
• I could not follow the other two cases [1 e 3]
• The instruments we used [are very interesting], more than the UCs
• Judgements essentially based on my personal interests. Therefore my rates do not depend on the quality of the exercise nor of the presentation
• Not participating [2 e 3]
• I didn’t follow UCs 1,2 and 3 because I wasn’t there on Thursday
• I did not stand Uc2
• I attended only UC 4
•  vospec case poor interesting
• The cases demonstrate mainly the tools than the VO itself. Anyhow the speed of loading data was more than acceptable, and there were only a few failures of non available data.
• I didn’t knew the interaction between Aladin and Topcat. Excellent!
• Aladin needs history list
• In the last UC sometimes I didn’t understand the reason for some steps and settings.
• In my opinion it would have been better a more didactic approach (step-by-step), done all together, rather than excercises with instructions, that can be done at home to improve.  
• I could’t attend Case 4 because I use a Mac! (non-INTEL)
• About VisIVO: I suggest to underline the adaptability of the package to other simulations (also in a different format) with appropriate heads.
• Impossibile for me to use Case 4 due to hardware problem.
• UC1: it works properly using  SEXTRACTOR / it should be tested with images subtraction
• I didn’t attended UC4
• Use case 2 doesn’t have a clear aim and it confuses the learning.
• UCs were interesting, although  it wasn’t possible to use some parts, for eg. VOSPEC
• All the UCs were very usefull also to know new tools for the scientific research.
• Use cases are very well-explained. It is rather easy and fast to become acquainted with the packages
• Not so immediate to access ( and manage ) data from VisIVO web
• Difficult snap integration with VisIVO
• The tutors were very efficient and effective at explaining the potentially of the different tools. The course gave a well-balanced mix of basic explanation and hands-on application
• Case 3 was a bit confused
• Use case4 extremely slow on desktop

 

 

How Easy are the Use Cases:

	Easy	Normal	Hard
Uc1	64	107	2
Uc2	42	120	10
Uc3	29	111	22
Uc4	35	102	12

comments:

• I marked “easy” for all, because using the notes, which are written in a very detailed and clear way, is very easy to follow the UCs.
• The case 3 left less possibilities to “play” with the results, even if, in practice, it could be very useful for people doing photometric redshift.
• UC1: Aladin crashed two times and the only time it worked it calculated a too imprecise astrometric solution. Impossibile to end the UC by that time. UC4: followed on a colleague’s pc because VisIVO doesn’t run on my pc.
• A UC that uses Vospec is lacking; it would be very useful to have a Mac-compatible VisIVO
• Troubles to download the VisIVO program on Linux
• I could not follow the other two cases (1 e 3)
• I did not try the exercises
• UC4: peculiar installation, what can we do without UGO?
• Suggest to include a case based on ds9
• There is the usual learning curve with GUIs (too many buttons to search with, not always a textual tool tip…one gets confused) NB: I did not read the help in advance by purpose.
• Case 4 couldn’t be valued; case3 useful but a little complicated.
• Case 4 hard -> to run with Mac
• It’s not easy to learn the features of  the various tools if it’s the first time you face them; the use of examples ad hoc is very instructive, even if it could be very useful also an overview of the various features at the end of the lesson.
• I did not try Uc 3 and 4
• All very interesting, too bad the problems of access to different server
• The situations were well defined. Having to give a preference, I would say the case 4.
• Some problems in installing VOspec and VisIVO
• VOSpec didn’t work on my laptop
• It wasn’t a problem of the experiments, but unfortunately the pc was too slow and I didn’t end UC3 and UC4.
• Beautiful and very instructive exercises.
• More info on spectroscopic capabilities would be appropriate
• Would I be able to do anything new myself? That would be considered a go!
• In the printed instructions the text relating to the use case 1 seems less clear than others. This  could be due to the fact that I am not a "observational".

 

Additional comments and suggestions:

• I suggest to add some additional UC to the handouts, but described in a general way (not in detail), so that everyone can test what they learned, but with the possible help of teachers.
• It might be useful to include a section of a dataset from  SDSS data based on a flux from a given line in the spectrum
• Add stellar fields cases
• I would have liked a science case where spectra are used more heavily
• Case2: great presentation with the steps outlined in red, pity that the steps were in a different order than the "guide" that was given to us. Tip: I would place also numbers together with the red squares to visually follow the proceeding. Case3 - Tip: an index of TOPCAT icons explaining the key name and its function. In point 3 / 6 I think there is a bit of confusion regarding the action “Row subsets" compared to the preceding paragraph.
• Case3, sugg.: un indice delle icone di TOPCAT che spieghi il nome del tasto e la sua funzione. Nel punto 3/6 penso ci sia un po’ di confusione per quanto riguarda l’azione “Row subsets” rispetto al punto precedente.
• The “step by step” instructions are quite well written. Ony some minor failures (?) could be clarified. The  case 4 pdf guide was very useful.
• The cases are well explained, some aspects -like the connection between different programs- doesn’t always work on top, creating some problems, but the cases are very well explained, although the operations are quite complex.
• Some procedures of Aladin are a bit tricky, hard to explain. I tried them here with the support of the tutors so it was easy.
• You should specify better that some software don’t run on certain platforms.
• It has been a very useful experience to learn how to use VO software and to understand its potential uses.
• Export all the VO-tools on Mac OS X platform
• Does The Windows XP version distributed as a virtual machine have a license? (VisIVO)
• About  VisIVO again: for Linux is better to distribute the source to minimize problems with the libraries (or even binary with static links)
• I find all very interesting, but I have some doubts. I write the following because I think it may be useful: they are "blackboxes" therefore I don’t know how much we can rely on them, and if it's convenient to use them. Certainly it’s fine as a first roughing of data analysis; regarding the tutorial, the only doubt is that there is no general explanation of the various steps that we follow. For "general" I mean the logic behind it direct to understand how behave in other cases than those treated here (follow your instructions step by step is not difficult, but then what about to move independently?!). But this probably depends on us and on how much we’ll apply and on how much time we’ll decide to spend in the future ... thanks!
• Could you set something in VisIVO to indicate if it is busy? In Fedora I had the problem“ran out of gart memory”, perhaps not enough hardware.
• The VO truly offers many possibilities!
• For a "stellar" [astronomer] which deals with resolved stellar populations, Topcat is certainly very useful (as Aladin and the access to databases of images and catalogs). I wanted to get more exercise with VoSpec (only hinted at here). I suggest to submit at least one "stellar UC”.
• It was helpful to have the use case in advance so as to become familiar with the programs.
• Excellent iniziative to learn very useful tools.
• Very useful and interesting.
• Very useful iniziative, can we have an “advanced course”? Thanks.
• As already discussed in this meeting, useful implementations could be:
  • imporove information on data quality and its use (e.g. TOPCAT)
  • calculation of significativity plots (DAME)
  • visualisation of field lines, for a vectorial field (VISIVO)
• Very useful to "break the ice" with new tools! Thanks!
• It would be useful to use the afternoon of the second VOday to receive proposals for cases of interest to the user's query and try to give an answer with VOtools
• It could be useful to leave some time at the end for the participants to test and use VO for something that interests him directly, with the support of tutors if necessary.
• One of the first two cases request to manual edit the topcat output (add # remove ”) however the “ascii” output format in case 3 will exactly cure that.
• VOspec looks inspiring (things I did 30 secs ago with IVE) but the graphics I/O seems not operating
• Instead lack of high energy dedicated tools
• I also found interesting the didactic-and for amateur astronomers- section, held during the afternoon of February 9 because, although containing known information, offered hints and tips to better use them with generic public and students
• Aladin needs an undo function or/and a history list
• It would be useful to links to manuals to use when giving a command by command lines.
• More information on why you are running some command sequences would facilitate the understanding of the tools.
• Add a few slides with a short overview of the tools functions could make the explanation more interesting.
• The cases should be adequately introduced by an overview of the tools. The steps MUST be  described stressing the logic. This was not the case for VO day in Padova.
• Thanks

• UC 1 ran only on a few pcs. Maybe you can replace it with a UC that uses a Java software like UC2 and UC3; I’m very satisfied with the rest.
• Thanks!
• Missing “how to publish catalogue”
• It would be useful to have more time to make some tests with dataset of the participants.
• Very … the online documentation of  various UCs
• What about a mailing list and/or blog to keep in touch and to disseminate Vo-related material?
• We would like to arrange a VO meeting for systems engineers aimed to share the VO catalogs and / or images from our db
• Is it possible to have (event.on line) presentations .ppt to better tell those absent the various tools?
• Possibility to manage objects database in the solar system.
• Thank you for the very useful training!
• I sincerely hope that in the near future this or similar initiatives can be organized again.
• In the future, it would be nice to have VO tools to work on catalogs of moving objects like the asteroids, to read data-sets of orbital elements, to compute positions fpr any desired epoch, to identify them on CCD frames
• Come again for an update!
• Future support needed
• Thanks for your visit
• Examples could be more useful if part of a quick guide with other worked examples, being more schematic and less detailed.
• Inclusion of a spectroscopic use case is suggested
• That’s was fun! Thank you so much guys, You’ve been great!
• It could be good to have an extra homework with some help or solutions for the curious people, who want to play with the software
• For the cases of the first day there was not enough time to complete them. Very interesting initiative.
• Very useful.
• I'd like to stay informed about updates so Ican use the VO also for my studies and dissemination. Thank you for your willingness shown in these days.
• I would like to have further information regarding sofware updates and the virtual observatory tour.
• Excellent workshop, clear and efficient presentations + description of the science cases.