The Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems (ADASS) conference provides a forum for scientists and programmers concerned with algorithms, software and software systems employed in the acquisition, reduction, analysis, and dissemination of astronomical data. The ADASS XXIV is underway in Calgary, Canada.

China-VO has been contributing to the conference activity for several years. 5 presentations from the China-VO team are submitted to the ADASS XXIV, including one oral presentation and 4 posters. These presentations focus on the recently released AstroCloud system. Backgrounds, architecture, data management, interoperability, cloud computing, current status of the AstroCloud are covered in these presentations.

For more information, please refer to website of the conference at:
http://www.adass2014.org/

Program Organizing Committee (POC) shows strong interest in holding an ADASS conference in China in the future.
 

Beta version of China-VO AstroCloud was released on May 15, 2014.
http://astrocloud.china-vo.org
Suggestions and comments are very welcome!
The China-VO AstroCloud project was supported by NDRC (National Development and Reform commission) and CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences). Based on VO and Cloud technologies, the China-VO AstroCloud hopes to be a full lifecycle data management platform and an astronomical resource planning environments for the community and telescopes in China. Tasks such as observation time application, proposal review, data archiving, data release and sharing, scientific discovery collection, will be (or demanded) done on the platform. The platform will provide astronomers proposal submission, data archiving, data access, limited data processing and data mining, and maybe more services. 
 
 

China-VO 2013 was held successfully at Ya’an, Sichuan from Nov. 13-17. China-VO 2013 is the 12th annual meeting organized by the China-VO project. The theme of the meeting is "From the Ground to the Cloud". More than 70 representatives from nationwide observatories, universities and companies attended the meeting. For more information please visit:
www.china-vo.org/events/cvo2013/

October 23, 2013, Vice President of Microsoft Research Connections, Tony Hey, visited National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC). Dr. Dan Fay (Director of Earth, Energy, and Environment of Microsoft External Research), and Dr. Guobin Wu (Microsoft Research Asia Academic Cooperation Department Manager) accompanied the visit. Deputy directors of NAOC, Gang Zhao and Jinxin Hao met with Dr. Hey. Professor Yongheng Zhao, Dr. Chenzhou Cui and China-VO team members attended the meeting.

Prof. Zhao expressed his welcome to Tony Hey. He showed grateful for the support given for the collaboration of Microsoft Research in the academic area with NAOC and China-VO. Dr. Cui recalled the pleasant and highly achievement cooperation for the past 11 years, since 2002 Microsoft Senior Scientist, Turing Award winner Dr. Jim Gray 's first visit to NAOC.

Kickoff meeting of the CAS AstroCloud project was held on Oct. 11, 2013.

At the beginning of 2013, two proposals submitted to NDRC (National Development and Reform commission) and CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) were approved. With the support of the two funding, the China-VO will be going to build an Astronomical Resource Planning platform (AstroCloud) for the astronomical community and telescopes in China. Tasks such as observation time application, proposal review, data archiving, data release and sharing, scientific discovery collection, will be (or demanded) done on the platform. The platform will provide proposal submission, data access, limited data processing and data mining, and maybe more functions, to astronomers. If the platform can be realized in 2 or 3 years as current aims, it will become an essential cyber infrastructure in China for Astronomy. Achievements from the IVOA and VO partners will be adopted heavily by the platform.

China-VO and AstroInformatics 2012 was held successfully in Yichang. Slides and more information about the annual workshop are available here.

• Virtual Observatory Activities during the last 10 years in China, IAU Commission 5 VO Working Group, 27 August, 2012
• Data Resources and Services at Chinese Astronomical Data Center,International EMU Meeting 28 August 2012
• BOOTES-4 robotic astronomical observatory, linking time domain astronomy and data intensive astronomy, SpS 15, 31 August, 2012

The May 2012 issue of the IVOA Newsletter is now available at http://ivoa.net/newsletter/. This biannual newsletter for astronomers is intended to highlight new capabilities of VO tools and technologies for doing astronomy research. It also lists recent papers and upcoming events related to the virtual observatory.

Featured in this issue: VAO Data Discovery Portal, VO SED Analyzer 3.0, CDS Xmatch Service, and more....

Comments and feedback are encouraged; you may contact the editors at ivoa-news-editors@ivoa.net.

The International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) was formed in June 2002 with a mission to facilitate the international coordination and collaboration necessary for the development and deployment of the tools, systems and organizational structures necessary to enable the international utilization of astronomical archives as an integrated and interoperating virtual observatory. You can read more about the IVOA at http://www.ivoa.net/pub/info/.

The opening ceremony of the Bootes-4 was held at Gaomeigu station, Yunnan Astronomical Observatory on March 20, 2012.

On that night, Bootes-4 observed the GRB 120320A successfully.