Great Work!!

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bria...@gmail.com

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Dec 10, 2008, 1:07:23 PM12/10/08
to LCROSS_Observation
Thanks to all of you for doing some really fantastic work directly
supporting the LCROSS mission!

Early on in the planning for the mission, the mission science team
realized that there is an outstanding opportunity for amateurs to play
a direct role in this mission. This was primarily envisioned as a
campaign of imaging the impact plumes associated with the impact of
the Centaur and perhaps even the Shepherding Spacecraft. Some of you
might also find it to be an interesting challenge to image the
spacecraft during flight. There was initially some question among some
of the staff at NASA if such imaging during flight would even be
possible for amateurs; those LGALRO orbits are pretty big. However,
the amateur discovery and tracking of minor planet J002E3, which was
later determined to probably be the S-IVB stage of Apollo XII,
demonstrates that this is indeed well within the grasp of amateur
telescopes.

This public observation campaign was originally envisioned to be begin
at mission launch. The folks in the CIO's office here realized that
the requirements to gather, archive, and display submitted images (and
their associated metadata) would fit well with the timing and
infrastructure of a new web initiative they were working on, and we
are looking forward to seeing this tool go online in early 2009.

However, NASA astronomer Diane Wooden recently realized that there
could be an immediate area in which amateurs could make valuable
contributions. Prior to launch, she is conducting a series of
observing sessions using the IRTF on Mauna Kea in order to develop the
very precise pointing that will be required for spectroscopy of the
plumes. While actually there at the observatory, she realized that her
images could be valuably supplemented by additional white-light
imaging that could be provided by amateurs. Here need was truly
immediate, so this Google group was established to facilitate her
communicating her needs to the amateur community, sharing her results
with the amateur community, and gathering input from the amateur
community. This group will also serve as a community for amateurs to
share their results, techniques, and advice with each other as they
work with Diane on these initial observations. As such, you have all
made this early endeavor a great success by doing and contributing
some really outstanding work. Thanks again!

Please be assured that we are still proceeding with our plans to
progress beyond the temporary solution provided by this group. As you
have no doubt noticed, the 100MB limit to this group will not be
adequate for any kind of an extended observation campaign. The tying
of data to images also leaves a lot to be desired. The group was
initially created with just the standard Google group default
parameters. These have since been modified to allow any member to
create pages and invite guests. As we progress to the main effort of
the observation campaign subsequent to launch, the current thought is
to keep using this group for discussions between participating
amateurs and between members of the amateur community and the LCROSS
science team. We will offload the image gathering, archiving and
retrieval to the new NASA archive tool under development for us. This
is all still in the formative stages at the moment, so if you have any
input or ideas as to how this should be implemented, please chime in.
The important thing to keep in mind is this online community is to be
your tool. The LCROSS team at NASA understands that you have the best
experience and knowhow to get the most valuable data from your
equipment. They are looking forward to learning from you. As we
transition from Diane's pre-launch observations to the actual impact
observation campaign, you will probably see your mission science
contacts here expand from Diane to a larger portion of the LCROSS
Science Team. They are a great group of people, and I am sure you will
enjoy working with them. Please do keep in mind though that they are a
small team under some pretty amazing pressures on their schedule. The
time that it may take in responding to questions posted does not
indicate any lack of value on their part for the work you are doing.
With a little persistence and patience, you will get through the
deluge of requests and reports they are living through.

A new round of launch planning sessions is be ginning tomorrow. As we
progress, we should get further refinement of our launch opportunities
along with their associated impact dates and target areas. I will make
regular posts to this group to provide you with updates to the mission
status. I'll also keep you posted on developments on our new image
repository.

Thanks again for your great work as part of the LCROSS Mission Team.

Brian

cano...@yahoo.com

unread,
Dec 12, 2008, 11:51:37 PM12/12/08
to LCROSS_Observation
On Dec 10, 11:07 am, brianh...@gmail.com wrote:
> Thanks to all of you for doing some really fantastic work directly
> supporting the LCROSS mission! <snip>
> A new round of launch planning sessions is beginning tomorrow. As we
> progress, we should get further refinement of our launch opportunities
> along with their associated impact dates and target areas. I will make
> regular posts to this group to provide you with updates to the mission
> status. I'll also keep you posted on developments on our new image
> repository. <snip> Brian

Brian, Thanks for the extended update. We all look forward to
receiving more information as the LCROSS mission is refined. Good
luck on your expanded website. Happy Holidays - Kurt

Jim Mosher

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Feb 23, 2009, 10:28:49 PM2/23/09
to lcross_ob...@googlegroups.com
On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 10:07 AM, <bria...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Please be assured that we are still proceeding with our plans to
> progress beyond the temporary solution provided by this group. As you
> have no doubt noticed, the 100MB limit to this group will not be
> adequate for any kind of an extended observation campaign. The tying
> of data to images also leaves a lot to be desired.

I wonder if the archived e-mail attachments count towards the group's
storage total?

As others have undoubtedly noticed, Google Groups permanently archives
all e-mails sent to the group address, including the attachments, and
they are publicly viewable, and can be linked to, much the same as
images uploaded to the Files area. If the provision for group e-mail
archiving is at all similar to the 2.5GB+ allowed for personal Gmail
accounts, submitting images by attachments directly connected to an
e-mail message describing them might be an easy way to solve the
storage space problem.

This would also solve the problem of keeping the file permanently
linked to its description, and it might even encourage greater
participation by casual visitors since the use of e-mail attachments
is a very simple and well-established way of exchanging files. Anyone
who has joined the group is, I believe, allowed to send an e-mail with
attachments to the group address. This suggestion would also make the
submitted files available to members who subscribe to the e-mail
service but do not like to visit the group website.

Objects in the Files area have greater permanent visibility and can be
easily sorted by submission date. They are also easier to link to on
web pages (linking directly to the archived version of an e-mail
attachment seems to require using an extraordinarily long
Google-generated URL). But the advantages enjoyed by objects placed
in the Files area seem, to me, to be outweighed both by the limited
storage space available and by the loss of connection with the text
explaining the object.

Does the present method of uploading files to the limited-space Group
Files area and posting a separate Discussion message have some other
advantages I am forgetting? Or should we change the Image Submission
Guidelines to recommend submitting images (and other file types) as
attachments to the message describing them?


-- Jim

cano...@yahoo.com

unread,
Feb 25, 2009, 12:35:51 PM2/25/09
to LCROSS_Observation
On Feb 23, 8:28 pm, Jim Mosher <jimmos...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 10:07 AM, <brianh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Please be assured that we are still proceeding with our plans to
> > progress beyond the temporary solution provided by this group. As you
> > have no doubt noticed, the 100MB limit to this group will not be
> > adequate for any kind of an extended observation campaign. The tying
> > of data to images also leaves a lot to be desired.
> I wonder if the archived e-mail attachments count towards the group's
> storage total?
> As others have undoubtedly noticed, Google Groups permanently archives
> all e-mails sent to the group address, including the attachments, and
> they are publicly viewable, and can be linked to, much the same as
> images uploaded to the Files area.

Yes, on reading the Google Groups Help and help forum postings, it
appears that 100mb is a maximum file limit that Google irrevocably
will not enlarge because Google Groups is a "free" service paid for
with click advertising. The Files section file size limit cannot
increased under any circumstances.

Email attachments do not count towards the group Files section limit.
Attachment of images to emails is the only practical method to
proceed.

From Google Groups help, it appears that there is also a 2MB email
attachment file size limit for emails sent to Google Groups. If this
is case, image posters should be aware of that file size limit. Image
posters may have to resize their raw fit or tif images before sending
them through an email.

Jim, I suggest that you email Brian Day and Rick Baldridge on the
above and revise your Image Submission Guidelines page to conform to
the change in the method to submit images.

The main disadvantage of the email message is that there is no way to
directly link an image to Google Group Page. The only other
suggestion I saw in the Google Groups
Help forum was to start a series of Groups (e.g. -
LCROSS_Observation2, LCROSS_Observation3, LCROSS_Observation4, etc.) -
although the author noted it is probably an impractical suggestion.
My recommendation would be that to reserve the Files Section for the
"best of the best" images and use the second group technique, if
needed, only to add another 100Mb of directly linked "best of images"
if the 100Mb in this group is exceeded. If the LCROSS_Observation2
group technique is used, that group would only be used for depositing
"best of images".

Clear Skies - Kurt

Jim Mosher

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Feb 25, 2009, 2:50:03 PM2/25/09
to LCROSS_Observation
Kurt,

Thanks for looking into this. I didn't know if e-mail attachments
counted towards the total or not.

At the moment, the text at the bottom of the Files page says we are
using just 33% of our quota, so this is not a problem yet, but it may
be. I mostly think submitting images, where size permits, in a one-
step process (by e-mail attachment) might encourage casual visitors to
participate, and would also solve the increasing problem of keeping
the files linked to the messages.

--

> The main disadvantage of the email message is that there
> is no way to directly link an image to Google Group Page.

Yes. There is no easy way, but they *can* be displayed and linked
to. Examples can be found at:

http://groups.google.com/group/lcross_observation/web/index-to-images

where the thumbnails of the e-mail attachments appear somewhat larger
than the others.

For those who may be interested, the method I have used to is as
follows:

----------------------------------

1. Display the archived message via the Group web interface. For
example, by clicking on the message name in:

http://groups.google.com/group/lcross_observation/topics

2. If the attachment is an image, right click on the image and ask for
its "Properties". This gives a URL (in Internet Explorer it is called
"address"; in Mozilla/Foxfire it is called "location") that can be
used to display a thumbnail on any webpage. Example:

http://groups.google.com/group/lcross_observation/attach/ffd8ce348247bda4/Bondo_Weigand_45pc_Illum_Comparison.jpg?part=2&thumb=1

3. To find the URL of the full-sized image, click on the "View" button
and make a similar request for Properties, or simply click the "View"
button. This will give a URL that looks something like:

http://lcross_observation.googlegroups.com/attach/ffd8ce348247bda4/Bondo_Weigand_45pc_Illum_Comparison.jpg?view=1&part=2

where "ffd8ce348247bda4" identifies the associated message:

http://groups.google.com/group/lcross_observation/msg/ffd8ce348247bda4

4. This URL will not itself directly display the image, but if you cut
and paste it into the address bar of a browser window, Google will
return the following message:

Found
Please click the following link to continue.

/attach/ffd8ce348247bda4/Bondo_Weigand_45pc_Illum_Comparison.jpg?
gda=zgtE60QAAABwpcRkW-
oxkvtvh312tpywJP3gH1H7Wqn_DqovL377VdoMXxRBwyVU0_qCvAeZZ89V6u9SiETdg0Q2ffAyHU-
dzc4BZkLnSFWX59nr5BxGqA&view=1&part=2

5. Click on that link and an extremely long URL will appear in the
address bar. In this case:

http://lcross_observation.googlegroups.com/attach/ffd8ce348247bda4/Bondo_Weigand_45pc_Illum_Comparison.jpg?gda=zgtE60QAAABwpcRkW-oxkvtvh312tpywJP3gH1H7Wqn_DqovL377VdoMXxRBwyVU0_qCvAeZZ89V6u9SiETdg0Q2ffAyHU-dzc4BZkLnSFWX59nr5BxGqA&view=1&part=2

6. This last URL is a functional one that can be used to display the
full-sized image on a Group page (by using the above URL as the "web
address" in the Image Insertion tool), or as a link that will display
the full-sized image (or any other file type) on a separate web page.
This can be verified by cutting and pasting the URL into the address
bar of a new window. Note: any deviation from the format returned by
Google seems to break the link.

----------------------------------

The above method is rather tedious, and there is undoubtedly an easier
way, but it does work (at least until Google changes their syntax).


-- Jim
Message has been deleted

Jim Mosher

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Feb 26, 2009, 5:02:10 PM2/26/09
to lcross_ob...@googlegroups.com
Rainer,

That sounds interesting, but decisions like this are up to the
owners/moderators of the group.

As mentioned in the message at the start of this thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/lcross_observation/msg/4b43d793c7ddda8f

the group administrators are said to be working on a new NASA-hosted
website to handle the flood of images and messages they hope to
receive around the time of impact.

So I was just suggesting something that might help in the interim, if
space became tight. But we don't seem to be running out of space just
yet. If we do, Kurt reports there is a large amount of space
available for photos submitted as e-mail attachments, and those seem
to be archived and displayed much as in the forum format you suggest.
The size limitations also sound similar.

-- Jim

On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 4:03 PM, Rainer <rsb...@rsfotografia.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> How much space is needed ? 1GB 2GB ... 50GB ? Why not create a phpBB
> based forum for LCROSS ?
>
> I am running a forum www.astroforo.net which I did setup having no
> experience at all.
>
> Leave the Google group open and start with new messages in the
> dedicated forum ?
>
> I can offer space (Free of Charge) and eventually setup the LCROSS
> forum
>
> In the phpBB based forums you can upload attachments with a max size
> of 2MB and you can see those as thumbnails in the message itself.
>
> What do you think ?
>
> regards Rainer
>> http://groups.google.com/group/lcross_observation/attach/ffd8ce348247...
>>
>> 3. To find the URL of the full-sized image, click on the "View" button
>> and make a similar request for Properties, or simply click the "View"
>> button.  This will give a URL that looks something like:
>>
>> http://lcross_observation.googlegroups.com/attach/ffd8ce348247bda4/Bo...
>>
>> where "ffd8ce348247bda4" identifies the associated message:
>>
>> http://groups.google.com/group/lcross_observation/msg/ffd8ce348247bda4
>>
>> 4. This URL will not itself directly display the image, but if you cut
>> and paste it into the address bar of a browser window, Google will
>> return the following message:
>>
>> Found
>> Please click the following link to continue.
>>
>> /attach/ffd8ce348247bda4/Bondo_Weigand_45pc_Illum_Comparison.jpg?
>> gda=zgtE60QAAABwpcRkW-
>> oxkvtvh312tpywJP3gH1H7Wqn_DqovL377VdoMXxRBwyVU0_qCvAeZZ89V6u9SiETdg0Q2ffAyHU-
>> dzc4BZkLnSFWX59nr5BxGqA&view=1&part=2
>>
>> 5. Click on that link and an extremely long URL will appear in the
>> address bar.  In this case:
>>
>> http://lcross_observation.googlegroups.com/attach/ffd8ce348247bda4/Bo...
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