WE SEEK FUNDING TO CREATE EASILY EXTENSIBLE, OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DESIGNED TO IDENTIFY ASTEROIDS AND OTHER TRANSIENT/VARIABLE OBJECTS IN IMAGE SETS. NAMED TRANSIENT TRACKER, THIS SOFTWARE WILL PROVIDE (FOR IMAGES WITH SUFFICIENT COMPARISON STARS): ASTROMETRIC AND PHOTOMETRIC SOLUTIONS, IDENTIFICATION OF MOVING OBJECTS, IDENTIFICATION OF VARIABLE OBJECTS, AND IDENTIFICATION OF TRANSIENT OBJECTS. SOFTWARE OUTPUT WILL BE CONFIGURED TO ALLOW DATA TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE MINOR PLANET CENTER, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF VARIABLE STARS ASSOCIATION, AND THE IAU CENTRAL BUREAU FOR ASTRONOMICAL TELEGRAMS. THE UNDERLYING GOAL OF TRANSIENT TRACKER IS TO CREATE EASY TO USE AND EASY TO EXTEND SOFTWARE THAT ALLOWS AMATUER ASTRONOMERS AND LEARNING COMMUNITIES (CLASSROOMS AND AFTERSCHOOL GROUPS) TO PARTICIPATE IN DISCOVERING NEW OBJECTS AND EXTENDING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THINGS THAT FLICKER, FLARE, AND MOVE IN THE NIGHT. IN CREATING TRANSIENT TRACKER, WE TAKE INSPIRATION FROM 5 DIFFERENT PIECES OF SOFTWARE: ASTROMETRICA, VPHOT (FORMERLY PHOTOMETRICA), SALSA-J, ASTRONOMETRY.NET, AND IRAF. EACH OF THESE CODEBASES IS DESIGNED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF VERY DIFFERENT AUDIENCES WHILE ACCOMPLISHING OVERLAPPING TASKS IN LINE WITH THIS GRANT. FROM THE OPEN SOURCE, PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE IRAF, WE CAN TAKE LESSONS ON THE NEED TO SUPPORT DIVERSE SOLUTION TECHNIQUES IN A WAY THAT CAN BE EASILY ADDED TO, WHILE ALSO LEARNING HOW NOT TO CREATE AN INTERFACE. PUT SIMPLY, IRAF IS AMAZINGLY POWERFUL SOFTWARE THAT HAS BENEFITED FROM GENERATIONS OF PROFESSIONALS ADDING SUPPORT FOR DIFFERENT ASTROMETRIC AND PHOTOMETRIC ALGORITHMS (AND MUCH MORE), BUT IT HAS AN INTERFACE THAT ROUTINELY MAKES STUDENTS OF ALL LEVELS CRY. AT THE OTHER EXTREME, SALSA-J AND ASTROMETRY.NET MAKE IT CLEAR THAT SCHOOL STUDENTS AND THE PUBLIC NEED SUPPORT FOR ALL IMAGE FORMATS AND ALL COMPUTER PLATFORMS, AND THEY NEED AN INTERFACE THAT GOES FROM IMAGE UPLOAD TO INFORMATION OUTPUT WITH MINIMAL USER INTERVENTION. ASTROMETRICA AND VPHOT IDENTIFY THE NEED TO CREATE SOFTWARE THAT CAN PIPELINE THE OUTPUT OF STANDARD CAMERAS AND COMMON WEB-BASED TELESCOPES INTO OUTPUT DATA RESULTS THAT ARE IN FORMATS THAT ALLOW DISCOVERIES TO BE READILY SUBMITTED TO RELEVANT ORGANIZATIONS. TAKING THESE LESSONS LEARNED INTO CONSIDERATION, TRANSIENT TRACKER WILL BE DESIGNED IN JAVA WITH A CODE BASE THAT CAN BE ADDED TO THROUGH GITHUB, AND AN API THAT EASILY ALLOWS NEW MODULES TO BE ADDED. IT WILL BE WRAPPED FOR USE IN A BROWSER, BUT WILL HAVE THE ABILITY TO RUN STANDALONE AS WELL. IT WILL HAVE A TWO-MODE INTERFACE; A SIMPLE INTERFACE THAT USES DEFAULT VALUES FOR SETTINGS (E.G. APERTURE, UNITS, OUTPUTS), AND CATALOGUE SELECTIONS (E.G. USAC 4 FOR ASTROMETRY SOLUTIONS) TO PROCESS THE IMAGE SET, AND AN ADVANCED SETUP THAT PAIRS AND EASY TO USE SETTINGS TOOL WITH RICH DOCUMENTATION. IN ORDER TO BUILD A DIVERSE USER/CONTRIBUTOR COMMUNITY, WE WILL HOST SEVERAL COMMUNITY HACKATHONS. OUR SOFTWARE WILL ALSO HAVE AN ACCOMPANYING CODEX THAT WILL BE ESTABLISHED BY THIS GRANT'S TEAM, BUT WILL BE COMMUNITY EDITABLE/EXTENSIBLE IN THE SAME WAY WIKIPEDIA AND OTHER WIKIS ARE. WE WILL ALSO WORK WITH RELEVANT STAKEHOLDERS TO IDENTIFY NEEDS THAT MAY NOT BE CURRENTLY MET THAT OUR SOFTWARE CAN ADDRESS.