Related papers: Telescopes don't make catalogues!
We are developing automated systems to provide homogeneous calibration meta-data for heterogeneous imaging data, using the pixel content of the image alone where necessary. Standardized and complete calibration meta-data permit generative…
The next generation of telescopes will acquire terabytes of image data on a nightly basis. Collectively, these large images will contain billions of interesting objects, which astronomers call sources. The astronomers' task is to construct…
Assessing the impact of astronomical facilities rests upon an evaluation of the scientific discoveries which their data have enabled. Telescope bibliographies, which link data products with the literature, provide a way to use bibliometrics…
Telescopes are much more expensive than astronomers, so it is essential to minimize required sample sizes by using the most data-efficient statistical methods possible. However, the most commonly used model-independent techniques for…
Most major discoveries in astronomy are unplanned, and result from surveying the Universe in a new way, rather than by testing a hypothesis or conducting an investigation with planned outcomes. For example, of the 10 greatest discoveries…
Every year, hundreds of images from telescopes on the ground and in space are released to the public, making their way into popular culture through everything from computer screens to postage stamps. These images span the entire…
We present a method to simulate deep sky images, including realistic galaxy morphologies and telescope characteristics. To achieve a wide diversity of simulated galaxy morphologies, we first use the shapelets formalism to parametrize the…
Observational astronomy is plagued with selection effects that must be taken into account when interpreting data from astronomical surveys. Because of the physical limitations of observing time and instrument sensitivity, datasets are…
During recent years, bibliometric studies have become increasingly important in evaluating individual scientists, institutes, and entire observatories. In astronomy, often librarians are involved in maintaining publication databases and…
Observatories need to measure and evaluate the scientific output and overall impact of their facilities. An observatory bibliography consists of the papers published using that observatory's data, typically gathered by searching the major…
Galaxy cluster surveys offer great promise for measuring cosmological parameters, but survey analysis methods have not been widely studied. Using methods developed decades ago for galaxy clustering studies, it is shown that nearly exact…
The digital revolution is transforming astronomy from a data-starved to a data-submerged science. Instruments such as the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), and the Square Kilometer Array…
Observatory libraries traditionally have maintained databases of publications resulting from usage of their facilities. In the era of electronic publication, the methodology of the creation of these databases has perforce changed as well.…
We present a new technique for creating mock catalogues of the individual stars that make up the accreted component of stellar haloes in cosmological simulations and show how the catalogues can be used to test and interpret observational…
Instruments for radio astronomical observations have come a long way. While the first telescopes were based on very large dishes and 2-antenna interferometers, current instruments consist of dozens of steerable dishes, whereas future…
We are pleased to present a Special Section on Statistics and Astronomy in this issue of the The Annals of Applied Statistics. Astronomy is an observational rather than experimental science; as a result, astronomical data sets both small…
We consider the statistical problem of catalogue matching from a machine learning perspective with the goal of producing probabilistic outputs, and using all available information. A framework is provided that unifies two existing…
Telescope bibliographies record the pulse of astronomy research by capturing publication statistics and citation metrics for telescope facilities. Robust and scalable bibliographies ensure that we can measure the scientific impact of our…
Estimation of time delays from a noisy and gapped data is one of the simplest data analysis problems in astronomy by its formulation. But as history of real experiments show, the work with observed data sets can be quite complex and…
Astrophysics demands higher precision in measurements across photometry, spectroscopy, and astrometry. Several science cases necessitate not only precision but also a high level of accuracy. We highlight the challenges involved,…