FAQ | Monitoring

1. What is this?

This webpage is designed to take display DREAMS data as well as take advantage of the wide-range of publicly available light curves for astronomical objects. Whilst there are a large range of catalog services (e.g. Vizier) which can query (and do a much better job) the multitude of archival astronomical observations, these are more limited for time series data as in some cases they have not been published.

2. Where does the data come from?

The majority of the data you see is publicly available from a variety of sources.

ZTF: https://www.ztf.caltech.edu, https://fink-portal.org/
Neowise: https://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/release/neowise/index.html
ATLAS: https://atlas.fallingstar.com/
Gaia DR3: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dr3
ASAS-SN: https://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/asassn/
ALADIN: https://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/
SIMBAD: https://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/simbad/
Vizier: https://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/
airmass.org: https://airmass.org/
Pan-STARRS: https://panstarrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/pswww/, https://outerspace.stsci.edu/display/PANSTARRS/

3. What about non-publicly accessible data?

There is some non-publicly accessible data visible if you are logged in and have the appropriate data-access rights.

Gattini-IR: https://sites.astro.caltech.edu/~mhankins/gattini/
Vera Rubin Observatory: https://www.lsst.org/
DREAMS: https://dreams.anu.edu.au

4. Can I request more sources of data to be added?

Sure, as long as the data is available via an API. This may include but not limited to TAP, GET/POST etc.

5. I have some feature requests or suggestions.

Feel free to get in touch below and we can discuss what can be achieved.

6. What are the filter profiles of the lightcurves displayed?

For details, it is best to read the appropriate papers for each survey but a good resource is provided by the Spanish Virtual Observatory at http://svo2.cab.inta-csic.es/theory/fps/index.php?asttype=astro

7. What about the uncertainties?

For user experience reasons the uncertainties are not displayed on the plots, however, these are stored internally and available upon request.

8. Why does some of the data look odd?

Some of the surveys use a number of different telescope to collect their data. For user experience this is registered as a single filter.

9. Can I access the data using an API?

Currently a public API has not been implemented. However, most operations are implemented with GET/POST and webpages can be parsed if really necessary. If there is a strong need for this access, get in touch and something can be arranged.

10. Who can sign up?

At this point in time, signing up is open to anyone. However, please be aware that this website is still considered to be in the development phase.

11. What happens once I've signed up?

You will need to be assigned to a relevant program. The owner of the program can determine the update cadence, as well as whether the program is public and other options.

12. How can I contribute?

Many ways, get in touch.

13. How was this built?

Python, PHP, Postgresql, Jekyll, AdminLTE

14. Who did this?

Jamie Soon

15. Acknowledgments

This website is hosted by the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University.

16. References

References need to go here. For now, please use the links above to locate the appropriate references.