Room: Van Haemele (it will be indicated that the PlatoSim workshop is held there)

A map of Leuven, with the venue and hotels in the neighbourhood can be found here. Also the bus stops (see further) are indicated.

Draft Agenda

• Overview of the PlatoSim documentation
• How to configure PlatoSim: overview of the configuration parameters
• Extracting the PlatoSim output: the structure & content of the HDF5 files
• Scripting PlatoSim using Python
• Use case examples:

• generating an artificial star field tailored to your needs
• astrometry time series of a sample of bright stars
• specifying different CCDs of the same camera
• image series of different telescopes of an overlap sky region
• ...

• Extracting photometry from PlatoSim images
• GitHub: issue tracking & release plan for PlatoSim

Requirements

In order to use the meeting time as efficiently as possible, we would like to ask you to install PlatoSim before you come to the meeting. How to do this is described on

http://ivs-kuleuven.github.io/PlatoSim3/. All you need, is a (free) GitHub account. You are, of course, welcome to contact us if you would come across problems when installing PlatoSim.

Please, also make sure you have a Python distribution installed, e.g. Anaconda. Packages you will be needing are: numpy, h5py, matplotlib, and numpy.

If there are specific things you would like to simulate, please, let us know!

How to get there

Getting in Leuven by airplane & train:

When booking your plane, make sure you end up in Brussels and not in Brussels South (which is a lot less convenient).

At Brussels Airport, take the train in the direction of Leuven/Louvain - Luik/Liège, getting off the train in Leuven. Note that Leuven (or Louvain) and not Louvain-la-Neuve should be your destination! Trains can be booked on the NMBS website (from: Brussel Airport - Zaventem, to: Leuven).

Getting around in Leuven:

At the train station of Leuven you can take the bus:

• Bus 1 (direction: Heverlee Boskant) & bus 2 (direction: Heverlee Campus):

• your stop: Sint-Kwintenskerk (Naamsestraat)
• continue on foot til the traffic light
• turn right onto the Tervuursevest
• after 200m you find the entrance to the Faculty Club on your right side

• Bus 337 (direction: Waver):

• see bus 1 & 2

• Bus 600 (ringbus):

• your stop: Universitair Sportcentrum
• take the pedestrian tunnel under the ring road
• on the other side of the road, turn left
• after 100m (just after passing the Dijle-river), you find the entrance to the Faculty Club

• Bus 601 (ringbus):

• see bus 600 (but you are already on the right side of the right road)

Bus tickets can be bought at the shop of De Lijn, right next to the train station of Leuven. Tickets cannot be sold from abroad.

Alternatively, you can go on foot (ca. 2 km from the train station, 1km from the centre):

The Grand Béguinage ("Groot Begijnhof") of Leuven is free of traffic and it is nice to take a walk there. It is best to take the entrance in the Schapenstraat. Go past the Sint-Jan-de-Doper church and turn left. You then end up at the main entrance of the Faculty Club.

A taxi from the railway station will cost about 15.

If you are coming by car:

Address to enter in your GPS:

• Tervuursevest 70, Leuven

There's a free parking lot. The code to enter is: 1018.

Dietary restrictions

Lunch will be provided on both meeting days. In case you have dietary restrictions, please, let me know on June 1st at the latest.