1. EuroVO-DCA WP6: Support to data centres from other European Countries
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

2. WP6: goals Same objectives as WP3… … but different “audience”
Dissemination of VObs knowledge.
Support to Data Centres willing to join the VObs initiative.
… but different “audience”
Data Centres from European countries not participating in the project.
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

3. WP6: work methodology
Identification of potentially interested Data Centres.
Preliminary Census of European Data Centres.
Available since Nov’06 and updated on a regular basis.
From Centres with a positive response:
Formal letter of interest indicating
Clear, focused objectives • Specific needs
Added value for the DCA project • Contact point
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

4. WP6: work methodology (II)
Support
Technical Visits:
To/from the Data Centre.
Close-contact after the visit: follow-up plans, periodic reports and feedback.
Regional VObs info-workshops
Sofia, Bulgaria. 2008, Jan 24-25th.
Also participants from Hungary, Serbia and Romania
Participation in project workshops
“Astronomical spectroscopy and the VObs”, Madrid, March07
“How to publish data in the VObs”, Madrid, June07
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

5. Report of activities: Portugal
University of Lisbon /SIM (Laboratory of Systems, Instrumentations and Modelling).
Contact point: André Moitinho.
The project: “Development of a VO service to provide access to a catalog containing UBVRI photometric information of open star clusters”.
The goal: Multiwavelength analysis of these sources.
Technical Visits & Workshops:
Lígia Amorin visited LAEFF on March 2007.
Participation in the EuroVO-DCA workshop (June07): André Moitinho, Lígia Amorin, Sonia Anton.
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

6. Portugal (II): progress report
Database ready
Web interface (almost) ready
VO service with a public dataset available: March08
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

7. Portugal (III): progress report
Also interested in WP5 (“Grids”)
Participation in the ESAC Grid Workshop (Nov’07): Sonia Anton.
VO dissemination
André Moitinho is acting as a VO-coordinator in Portugal:
Collaboration with Coimbra University
Solar data with a time line of 100 years.
Stellar evolution models.
Libraries of stellar spectra..
Presentation of the VO service to the Portuguese stellar community (beginning 2008).
DCA Info-day in Lisbon (possibly).
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

8. Report of activities: Bulgaria
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Contact point: Milcho Tsvetkov
The project: “VO-compliance of WFPDB”.
WFPDB contains descriptive information of more than half a million plates (23% of the existing ones all over the world).
A small subset of plates has been scanned.
Plates offer a unique opportunity to explore astrophysical phenomena on a long timeline basis.
Workshops:
Participation in the EuroVO-DCA workshop (June07)
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

9. Report of activities: Bulgaria (II)
VObs Info-Workshop: Sofia, 2008, Jan 24-25
Attendance: 40 participants + 9 DCA people.
Day-1:
DCA lectures on:
The VObs: Why is the VObs necessary in Astronomy?
IVOA VObs standards: access protocols, format, data model, registries,…
VObs tools
VObs Science
Presentations from participating Data Centres
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

10. Report of activities: Bulgaria (III)
VObs Info-Workshop: Sofia, 2008, Jan 24-25
Day-2:
Hands-on sessions on how to publish in the VObs.
Guided by DCA tutors.
Work on real data brought by the participants from their Data Centres.
Workshop summary and follow-up plans
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

11. Report of activities: Czech Republic
Ondrejov Observatory
Contact point: Petr Skoda
The project: “VO-compliance of the spectroscopic archive of the Ondrejov 2-m telescope (the largest telescope in the Czech Rep.) .
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

12. Report of activities: Czech Rep. (II)
DCA Workshops:
“Astronomical spectroscopy and the VObs”, March’07
“How to publish data in the VObs?”, June’07
IVOA Workshops
Cambridge (UK), Sep’07
Presentation: “VObs for ground-based optical spectroscopy”
Technical visits
France-VO/Lyon: “Use of Pleinpot for the Ondrejov Archive”
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

13. Report of activities: Czech Rep. (III)
Active participation in the definition of requirements for the proper handling of ground-based optical spectra in the VObs.:
Impact on the IVOA access protocol (SSAP) and Data Model
VObs dissemination in the Czech Republic
Contacts with the solar community.
University lectures in Prague and Brno.
Conferences for amateur astronomers.
Specific materials for teachers and students of secondary school.
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

14. Report of activities: Hungary
Konkoly Observatory, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Contact point: András Holl
The project: “VO-compliance of the International Bulletin of Variable Stars”.
Workshops & Technical Visits:
Participation in the EuroVO-DCA workshop (June’07)
Participation in the Sofia VObs Info-Workshop (Jan’08)
Technical visits to CDS (France-VO) in 2008.
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

15. Report of activities: Hungary (II)
Interoperability between journals and archives.
IBVS tabular data will appear in the HTML version as a link.
By clicking on the link, a VObs is launched (e.g. Aladin) and the IBVS data displayed.
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

16. Non-European countries
VObs is a global endeavour and collaboration already exists with many non-European countries.
The DCA project is willing to strengthen its links with these countries by providing a limited amount of support.
Workshops & Technical Visits:
A. Mickaelian (VObs-Armenia) and I. Chilligarian (VO- Russia) participated in the EuroVO-DCA workshop (March’07).
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

17. Non-European countries (II): The Holy See
Contact point: Alessandro Omizzolo
The project: “VObs-compliance of the Vatican Plate Archive”.
Well-preserved and metadata-rich archive of plates.
Problem: The Holy See is not considered either a project’s partner or an EU member
Put in contact with the Italian VObs for a deeper collaboration.
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

18. Cycle-2 activities Support to on-going projects.
Activities will be finished by the end of DCA project.
Projects for which the real work has not yet started (Austria, Finland)
Roadmap definition with clear, affordable objectives for 1-year cicle.
Start process for new participants
First contacts with the Lithuanian astronomy community in Oct’07 in the framework of the EU-funded project “Expanding the abilities of Lithuanian scientists while Lithuania integrated into the infrastrcuture of the EU”.
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Presence in meetings with a high participation of potential newcomers (IAU General Assembly, JENAM, ADASS, national astronomy meetings,…).
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO

19. Summary
Very successful cooperation with Data Centres from Portugal, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
These teams have begun to build a strategy to include their knowledge and data holdings in the VObs.
WP6 has also helped Data Centres to explore other EU initiatives:
Hungary is leading a working group of 10 people from 9 countries to identify and evaluate the EU calls that best fit their needs (mainly in terms of equipment and manpower).
We aim at continuing and expanding the activities here reported during Cycle-2.
E. Solano. LAEFF- Spanish VO