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A. Bauer, P. Andrews, C. Baltay, N. Ellman, R. Lauer, N. Morgan, D. Rabinowitz, J. Snyder (Yale University), M. Bogosavljevic, G. Djorgovski, M. Graham, A. Mahabal, R. Williams (California Institute of Technology), M. Gebhard, J. Musser, S. Mufson (Indiana University), R. Brunner, A. W. Rengstorf (University of Illinois)
The Palomar-QUEST Variability Survey is now in routine data taking mode using the 1.3m Oschin Schmidt Telescope at Palomar Observatory with the 112 CCD Large Area QUEST Camera. Data are taken in the drift scan mode 10 to 12 nights each month, producing of the order of 50 gigabytes of data during a clear night, covering about 500 square degrees of sky in four colors essentially simultaneously. We have written a data processing pipeline to process this large volume of data, with the capability of processing each night's data during the following day. The pipeline does astrometry and photometry using both aperture and point spread function (PSF) fitting in four colors.
Each night's data are transferred automatically via a microwave link and internet to CalTech and Yale during the next day. We are establishing online data archives both at Yale and CalTech to store this raw data and make it readily available to users. The archives will be of the order of 10 terabytes each, consisting of RAID arrays of magnetic discs. The two archives will both contain the identical full data set to serve as backup to each other in case of equipment failure.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.