Annotation of “special structures”
in astronomy
Bob Mann
Institute for Astronomy and
National e-Science Centre
University of Edinburgh
What do astronomers want to do?

Annotate data products in the same way we
present data in journal papers
What do astronomers want to do?

Describe extended structures in images
(Vela supernova remnant in
Hα line emission)

N.B. solar physicists may do better in this regard.
What do astronomers do now?

Store “annotations” in databases for use
with the other data products
Satellite track on
photographic plate –
SuperCOSMOS Sky
Survey

(Amos Storkey et al.)
Why don’t astronomers do more?
Technical problems
 How to introduce annotation into existing
data formats interoperably?
 Sociological problems
 Where does data curation stop and
scientific research begin?

Sociological problems
Data whose derivation involves scientific
judgement belongs in a paper not a datacentre
 All data processing involves judgement
 Isn’t it enough to track the provenance?
 Attitude changing, aided by some journals

Original
data in
misssion
archive
WWW version
of Journal Paper
Tables of
derived data
from paper
stored at data
centre
Technical problems

FITS data format
Primary Header (metadata)
Primary data array
(usually an image)
Extension Header
Extension body
(image, table,…)
Technical problems
FITS not insuperable obstacle
 Flexibility in what goes into header:
Keyword-Value-Comment format
 Standard way to reference pixels, etc
 Other standard definitions underway
 e.g. Region – standard way to describe a
region of the celestial sphere

Summary
Astronomers don’t annotate much
 We probably should do more
 We probably will do more
 No concept of third-party annotation yet
 Sociological & technical problems to solve
 Could do with help/advice/inspiration
