PixInsight Forum
PixInsight => Workshops and Conferences => Topic started by: vicent_peris on 2014 April 17 14:32:04
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Hi all,
I'm glad to announce a PixInsight workshop that will take place at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on June 28th and 29th.
This workshop has been conceived with a special focus on the active participation of the attendees. Each registered participant will be provided with a personal account on our file servers, where he or she will be able to upload raw data that will be worked out during the workshop. In this way the participants will have the opportunity to apply and understand the concepts and techniques described in the context of their particular imaging conditions.
The topics covered will be, among others, the graphical user interface, elementary techniques of astronomical image processing, image delinearization and dynamic range compression, and narrowband imaging.
This workshop includes a tour to visit Harvard's famed 15-inch Great Refractor telescope, a key instrument for the development of astronomy in the 19th Century.
For more information about the workshop there are two dedicated webpages. The webpage hosted at harvard.edu contains general information, including lodging and a map of local restaurants:
http://hea-www.cfa.harvard.edu/piworkshop/
The webpage at pixinsight.com contains more technical information about the workshop contents, as well as the registration info:
https://pixinsight.com/workshops/cfa-2014/
This workshop is being sponsored by Astrosysteme Austria (ASA) and the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Valencia.
I want to publicly thank Joe DePasquale for their help on the organization, we're making this workshop reality thanks to his collaboration.
See you in Cambridge!
Vicent.
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Hi Vicent,
Sounds great! How many participants will be allowed for the workshop?
-Jim
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Hi Jim,
The room has a capacity of maximum 40 people.
Best regards,
Vicent.
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Hi Vicent,
That's a decent manageable size. I'm registering! I have an interest in learning how to deal with gradients in my images due to local light pollution. I've had some success with DBE but I'd like to learn more. Will you be explaining what the settings do in the modules?
Best,
-Jim
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Yes, we can review DBE in the first part of the workshop.
See you then!
Vicent.
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According to the description it is recommended that participants bring a laptop. I don't have a laptop capable of running PI. Would this put me at a big disadvantage?
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Hi,
Yes, in the room there aren't computers, so the only way to go is to bring your own laptop. But I think you can always ask a person coming to share his laptop. At the end, much of the people talk and share opinions with their neighbors.
Best regards,
Vicent.
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I'm very much looking forward to it, Vicent!
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Well, despite the potential challenges without a laptop I just registered. Can't wait to meet everyone! I hope folks won't mind my peering over their shoulders.
-Josh
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Will there be any package deals on local hotels? The website lists several places but there's no mention of discounted rates. I'm only asking but I realize that the group may be too small to be used to leverage a better rate.
Thanks,
-Jim
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Hi Jim,
We are working on this. Will let you know as soon as possible.
Best regards,
Vicent.
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Hi guys,
I would like to proposed for an online version of this workshop, maybe using Google+ Hangout or similar.
It is kind of depressing to see all of the awesome workshops you have in USA and Europe, which is way too far for PI users on this side of the hemisphere to travel. :'(
Maybe one in the future :smiley:
Regards
Shah
Malaysia
shahgazer.net
plus.google.com/+ShahrinAhmad
twitter.com/shahgazer
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Hi Shah
If you gather enough people interested in one workshop in Asia, I'm sure that there will be more than one PTeam member willing to go there :)
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Unfortunately, we were not able to secure discounted rates at any of the local hotels. In fact, internet prices are actually better than what we were being quoted for room blocks in some hotels. Please refer to the lodging page on the workshop website for more information:
http://hea-www.cfa.harvard.edu/piworkshop/lodging.html (http://hea-www.cfa.harvard.edu/piworkshop/lodging.html)
For proximity to the workshop, the Sheraton Commander is a good option. Slightly further away, the Hotel Tria is cheaper and offers hot breakfast, free wifi, and a shuttle that will take you to the CfA.
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Hi, I signed up and am at the Sheraton Commander. Look forward to meeting you all,
Best regards,
Mark Manner
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I am a real newby to Pixinsight. Would the workshop be appropriate for me?
Thanks,
Steve
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Dear Steve,
The first morning will be an introduction to PixInsight, speaking about graphical user interface and elementary techniques. After that, we'll go ahead for more advanced techniques. My hope is that even newbie people will be able to follow the workshop, but this always strongly depends on each person.
Best regards,
Vicent.
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Vicent,
I will attending the workshop and have few questions.
I'll be using a 13" macbook pro is it ok to bring a LCD display to use? Also I didn't get my login for the files site until the 27th by the time read the email it was the 29th of the month (the upload deadline was the May 28th). Should I still load my data or just bring it with me? Not sure if we will be using our own data or you'll provide the data.
For others I will be arriving Friday night is there a place where attends will be getting together?
Peter
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Dear Peter,
Yes, you can bring an LCD display. I'm contacting Juan to check what happened with your login. Anyway, I'll be still working on attendee data next week, so you can still upload your images. I'm going to write you an email also to see if there's a quicker way to get your data.
I'm discussing with Joe what are we going to do on Friday. We'll write you all an email asap with some organization hints.
Thanks,
Vicent.
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I'm staying at the Le Meridien Cambridge arriving midday on Friday. Let's find a place to meet up for those coming in on Friday night.
Pete
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Hi Pete,
Yes, it's a good idea. I would want to know if there is other people in coming to dinner on Friday. I would propose a restaurant near to CfA.
Best regards,
Vicent.
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I will be arriving mid-afternoon on Friday, so if there is a group dinner I would attend.
Best regards,
Mark
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I'll be arriving mid-afternoon. Please include me for any dinner arrangement on Friday evening.
Chris Saddler.
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Vicent,
Pick a place and a time for dinner and I'll be there. If anyone wants to reach me my cell is 716-864-7400.
Looking forward to meeting everyone.
Pete
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I'm arriving mid-afternoon Friday as well. Be glad to join any group for dinner Friday.
Best,
Ken Kattner
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Hi,
Joe already sent an email informing about the plans for tonite, but I'm also dropping here the message. We're meeing around 7pm at John Harvard's Brew House (https://www.johnharvards.com/locations/cambridge-ma) in Harvard Square.
See you then!
Vicent.
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I just got back from the CFA workshop. As I suppose everyone knows, Vicent is absolutely spectacular! Not only is he an expert in PI and a great teacher, he is an extremely nice person. I had a great time, learned a lot, and am now very excited about using PI in my imaging.
Thanks for a great workshop,
Best regards,
Mark
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Hi everybody,
I would want to thank everybody for coming fullresto this workshop, it was a wonderful experience which we are going to repeat next year. We published an attendee survey which was very helpful for us to enhance your experience in the future. From this survey we learned a lot of important things we should apply to upcoming workshops. A key question in the survey was if "Would you like to see this workshop become an annual tradition?". Almost all people replied "Yes" and some of them "Maybe". So next year we'll organize the first Harvard PixInsight Conference (HPIC).
I would also thank to Joe DePasquale for his valuable collaboration managing the logistics of the workshop.
Here you have a photo of the workshop room:
(http://astrofoto.es/astrofoto/foros/CfA-2014/CfA2014_room.jpg)
And a group photo:
(http://astrofoto.es/astrofoto/foros/CfA-2014/CfA2014_800.jpg)
Here (http://astrofoto.es/astrofoto/foros/CfA-2014/CfA2014_fullres.jpg) at full resolution.
People specially liked an example I showed on color calibration. It was of a dark nebula near the galactic plane:
(http://astrofoto.es/astrofoto/foros/CfA-2014/LDN673_original.jpg)
This photo is a challenge for color calibration because the local stellar population has a very warm color cast. When we try to calibrate the color with these stars we get a very bluish result:
(http://astrofoto.es/astrofoto/foros/CfA-2014/LDN673_CC_stars.jpg)
I showed how to use an image of M51 to calibrate the color of this photo. Here you have the color reference image of M51 (1 minute exposures):
(http://astrofoto.es/astrofoto/foros/CfA-2014/M51_reference.jpg)
And the resulting LDN673 image applying M51 as white reference:
(http://astrofoto.es/astrofoto/foros/CfA-2014/LDN673_CC_galaxy.jpg)
We are close to publish some other workshops for this year and next spring, so stay tuned!
Best regards,
Vicent.
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Hi Vicent,
At the workshop, it was mentioned that the Cambridge workshop may be a yearly event. Is that the case, and if so, have you started to plan next year's workshop.
Thanks,
-Jim
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Hi Jim,
Yes, the workshop at CfA will become yearly. Next year will be the first Harvard PixInsight Conference. :) We'll start planning it very soon.
See you,
Vicent.
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Hi Vicent,
That's great news! I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for further information. Joe and the other folks at Harvard did a great job putting it together this past year.
Best regards,
-Jim