Category Archives: Uncategorized

New Astronomy Projects Take Up The Virtual Observatory

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

This week, I have been attending the semi-annual IVOA meeting in Urban-Champaign, Illinois. One of the most interesting series of talks was on how three new observational projects in their commissioning phase are using  Virtual Observatory (VO) services as part … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized, Astronomy, High performance computing, software maintenance, cyberinfrastructure, information sharing, astronomy surveys, programming, data archives, Virtual Observatory | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NIRC2 Data Released Through the Keck Observatory Archive

Posted on May 4, 2012 by

This week, the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA) released data from its third instrument, and its first imaging instrument: the Near Infrared Camera 2 (NIRC2). Commissioned in 2001, it is used in imaging and spectroscopic modes, and is equipped with three … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized, Astronomy, High performance computing, archives, software maintenance, information sharing, exoplanets, software engineering, data archives, galaxies, W. M. Keck Observatory | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Astrocompute on Vacation!

Posted on April 3, 2012 by

I will be on vacation from April 6 through April 20, and then I will be at the VAO Team Meeting. I will resume blog posts at the beginning of May.    

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NSF Leads Federal Efforts In Big Data – Webcast

Posted on March 31, 2012 by

On March 29, the Federal Government held  a webcast Federal government science leds from OSTP, NSF, NIH, DOE, DOD, DARPA and USGS outlined how their agencies are engaged in Big Data research, followed by a panel of thought leaders from … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, Astronomy, Cloud computing, cyberinfrastructure, data archives, Grid Computing, High performance computing, information sharing, Parallelization, programming, software engineering, software sustainability, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cloud Computing Is Not A New Idea!

Posted on February 13, 2012 by

While doing the research for a talk on cloud computing at Space Telescope next week,  my eyes were opened to the history of cloud computing. We all know, of course, of the commercial cloud offerings of the Amazon Elastic Compute … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, Cloud computing, cyberinfrastructure, education, High performance computing, History of Computing!, information sharing, programming, social media, social networking, software engineering, Uncategorized, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2011 in review – Thank you!

Posted on January 1, 2012 by

Thank you everyone for reading my blog, making comments, sending me suggestions and most of all for your encouragement.  Happy 2012! The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Astronomy Computing Today Is Now on Facebook!

Posted on December 27, 2011 by

I have linked my blog to a Facebook page, which you can visit at http://www.facebook.com/astrocompute. Please check it out and like (assuming you do!).  I will link all blog posts to the Facebook page, and I will include extra news … Continue reading →

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Royal Society Releases Its Journal Archive To The Public!

Posted on November 3, 2011 by

This may be a little off-topic, but I thought that this was definitely worth a blog post. The Royal Society has announced that its historical journal archive is now freely accessible on-line.  The society has made round 60,000 historical scientific papers … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, document management, information sharing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Astrocompute will be on vacation until October 3

Posted on September 17, 2011 by

… and I will be back blogging about the UK e-Science All-Hands Meeting.  

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GridCafe: Learn About Grid Computing

Posted on September 17, 2011 by

A number of people have asked if there is a good on-line resource where they can learn about Grid Computing. I can recommend GridCafe.org. It explains what grids are in straightforward language: “Imagine several million computers from all over the … Continue reading →

Posted in cyberinfrastructure, Grid Computing, High performance computing, information sharing, programming, software engineering, TeraGrid, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment