Reminder: Talk by John Gathright, Keck Observatory, Hawaii - Friday 26 May

[Margery Ishmael]

Department of Computer Science/The University of Chicago

Ryerson Hall -- 1100 E. 58th Street

COLLOQUIUM  ANNOUNCEMENT


Friday, 26 May
Ryerson 251 at 4:30 pm
(followed by refreshments in Ryerson 255)

JOHN GATHRIGHT
Keck Observatory
Kamuela, Hawaii

Presents:
Web-Based Controls for the Keck Adaptive Optics System
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The William M. Keck Observatory operates two 10-meter telescopes at the 
summit of Mauna Kea, a 14,000-foot extinct volcano on the Big Island in 
Hawaii. The harsh conditions at the telescope site and isolation of the 
observatory itself provide strong motivation for developing the ability to 
control the telescopes remotely, from the Kamuela headquarters initially, 
and subsequently -- indeed, beginning this month -- from designated sites 
in California.
Three years ago, we began investigating the feasibility of a web-based tool 
set with which to build the user interface for Keck's Adaptive Optics (AO) 
system. This presentation will first introduce the observatory and AO 
system in general, and then cover certain of their features in order to 
provide the context for a discussion of the design and implementation of 
the emerging product, which we call the WUI -- Web-based User 
Interface.  The WUI approach is now being extended to additional major 
observatory components, including the Active Control System (for the 
primary mirror) and the Interferometer (being built in conjunction with the 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory). The steps necessary to accommodate systems for 
which the product was not originally designed make an interesting case 
study in software re-use; in particular we will touch on the role of the 
Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) has come to play at the 
observatory in integrating disparate systems.

Time and the network spirits (demons?) permitting, there will be a short 
demonstration, during which we will build a new WUI screen and use it to 
control some aspect of the telescope.

========================================================
Margery Ishmael
Project Assistant

Department of Computer Science
1100 E. 58th St.
Chicago, IL 60637

tel: 773 834-3152   fax: 773 702-8487

marge at cs.uchicago.edu 
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