Towards the automatic estimation of gravitational lenses' time delays
  Estimation of time delays from a noisy and gapped data is one of the simplest
data analysis problems in astronomy by its formulation. But as history of real
experiments show, the work with observed data sets can be quite complex and
evolved. By analysing in detail previous attempts to build delay estimation
algorithms we try to develop an automatic and robust procedure to perform the
task. To evaluate and compare different variants of the algorithms we use real
observed data sets which have been objects of past controversies. In this way
we hope to select the methods and procedures which have highest probability to
succeed in complex situations. As a result of our investigations we propose an
estimation procedure which can be used as a method of choice in large
photometric experiments. We can not claim that proposed methodology works with
any reasonably well sampled input data set. But we hope that the steps taken
are in correct direction and developed software is truly useful for practising
astronomers.
