Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 09:59:47 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <199805151659.JAA25155@colman.ipac.caltech.edu>
To: 2mass
Subject: IPAC 2MASS WG Mtg #152 Minutes
Cc: chas, stiening, bgreen
Content-Length: 3002
X-Lines: 74
Status: RO

           IPAC 2MASS Working Group Meeting #152 Minutes
                             5/12/98

Attendees: R. Beck, T. Chester, S. van Dyk, D. Engler, T. Evans,
           J. Fowler, J. Gizis, R. Hurt, T. Jarrett,
           D. Kirkpatrick, G. Kopan, J. Mazzarella, H. McCallon,
           B. Nelson, B. Wheaton, S. Wheelock, J. White
          

          
AGENDA

1.) Quality Assessment Calibration
2.) Galaxy Orientation
3.) 2MASS at the AAS Meeting


DISCUSSION


1.) Quality Assessment Calibration

    D. Kirkpatrick and J. Gizis reported that they had made
considerable progress in calibrating the quality assessment
parameters. They are working on this with other people at UMASS
using May 1997 data. These data are rather poor in terms of
photometricity, but this type of data must also be included in
the quality calibration. The goal is to calibrate photometricity
and sensitivity on a nightly and scan-by-scan basis, and to
be able to update the tile data base to make optimum use of
rescanning opportunities. They estimated that the effort should
be finished in 3-4 more weeks. A telecon was held Monday in which
significant progress was made.
    T. Chester reported that one decision made during the telecon
was that nights meeting the photometricity requirement but
failing the sensitivity requirement would not be rescanned until
after the sky coverage requirements are met. This will be
revisited a year or two before the end of the mission, since at
that time it may develop that tiles needing rescanning are
available but unscanned tiles are not. It was suggested that data
base access options should include a quality filter, since some
objects in the data base are from noticeably lower-quality nights
than others. R. Cutri has placed a lot of associated information
on the web at the following URL address:

  http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/roc/2mass/QA/sens/photsum1.html


2.) Galaxy Orientation

    T. Chester and T. Jarrett reported that a preferential
orientation of galaxies had been noticed and that there is a 95%
probability that the point-spread functions (PSFs) have something
to do with this anomaly. Although the southern data have not been
checked very extensively, a symmetric effect appears to exist in
the PSFs there. No satisfactory explanation has yet been found,
and ongoing analysis may be viewed on the web at the following
URL addresses:

  http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/tchester/2mass/analysis
   /galaxies/rtb/entire_rtb.html

  http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/tchester/2mass/analysis
   /galaxies/rtb/ellipticity.html


3.) 2MASS at the AAS Meeting

    S. van Dyk reported that the 2MASS booth for the AAS Meeting
in San Diego is basically ready and that scheduling of 2MASS team
members to work the booth is needed. This should be coordinated
with Schuyler. The IPAC 2MASS team members going to this meeting
are T. Chester, R. Cutri, S. van Dyk, T. Evans, R. Hurt, T.
Jarrett, D. Kirkpatrick, G. Kopan, J. Mazzarella, and B. Nelson.