Reviews, more reviews...
Gerry Gilmore
There are no longer pure national facilities – every plan involves agreements between (many) partners.
Why is there a review?
Who is reviewing?*
• ASTRONET an EC‐funded partnership of essentially all European funding agencies which support astronomy
• The agencies agreed a top‐level science vision and a roadmap for major facilities would give them all a common context
• This was achieved! Science vision exists.
• Infrastructure Roadmap exists
• Two extra actions underway
•
a review of all (Europe’s) 2‐4m telescopes
•
a review of ways to keep strength in wide‐field spectroscopy
• Each partner decides at a national level which of this to implement/prioritise, but this provides an agreed European context
• Europe’s strategy: E‐ELT first, SKA to follow in stages
• There are no longer pure national facilities – every plan involves agreements between (many) partners.
*Almost everyone, apparently...
European telescope strategy
review committee
• Europe’s 2‐4m telescopes are being reviewed
•
•
•
•
•
•
To identify those goals of the Astronet Science Vision that are most effectively delivered by 2‐4m optical/infrared telescopes;
Identify which observational capabilities are required;
...
Among the science tasks, consider the appropriate balance between large‐scale survey‐type projects, including complementary ground‐based programmes in support of European space missions,** and individual access;
It is anticipated that a similar pan‐european exercise will be done around 2015‐
2018 for 8‐10m telescopes with significant European ownership. ETSRC should take this into account.
Assumption – considerable efficiency and productivity savings can be found by operating all the 2‐4m telescopes as a coordinated group – minimise duplication, gaps, ...
** cf, FUAP – “global properties of our galaxy, objects beyond our galaxy, cosmology”
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/2to4mtelescopes/index.php
European agencies (part) own ~20 2‐4m telescopes
[these are the OPTICON Access Programme]
plus VLT,LBT,GTC,Gemini TBL
CAHA
3.5m
CAHA
2.2m
OHP
Aris
tarc
hos
Obs. Saint-Michel
Obs. Pic du Midi
Calar Alto
Obs. Helmos, Kalavryta
UKIRT
Canary Islands
(OT & ORM)
Mauna Kea
Hawaii
CFHT
ESO
3.6m La Silla
WHT
TNG
INT
NOT
AngloAustralian
Observatory
Chile
ESO
3.5m
ESO
2.2m
LT
TCS
THEMIS
VTT
SST
DOT
AAT
UKST
European Telescope Strategy Review Committee
AstroNet body, Opticon implementation assistance
• PEOPLE
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Janet Drew (chair)
Jacqueline Bergeron (Co‐Chair)
Jerome Bouvier
Margarida Cunha
Angeles Diaz
Geza Kovacs
Andreas Quirrenbach
Clive Tadhunter
Massimo Turatto
Pepe Vilchez
• TELESCOPES
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
CAHA 3.5m, CAHA 2.2m
CFHT
OHP 2.2m
TBL
WHT, INT
UKIRT
LivTel
ESO 3.6, ESO NTT, ESO VISTA, ESO VST
Rohzen 2m
Aristarchos
TNG
NOT
MPG (ex‐ESO) 2.2 •
•
•
AAT +UKST already assumed lost to europeans;
‐‐‐but remain part of optimisation/solution ESO restructuring presuming panel outcomes
This work is underway – next meeting Sept 25, Madrid
AstroNet wide field spectroscopy WG
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The AstroNet Infrastructure Roadmap makes a specific recommendation concerning European access to wide‐field multiplexed spectroscopic capabilities (Sect 8.2.2):
Wide‐Field, Multiplexed Spectrographs
There are compelling and fundamentally important scientific cases for the development of wide‐field, highly multiplexed spectrographs to be placed on an existing 8‐10m class telescope, and consequently such a project was given very high scientific priority. It should enable massive spectroscopic surveys of a million or more objects at a speed and on timescales compatible with the next generation of wide‐
field imagers, e.g. the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The primary science drivers are the determination of the equation of state of Dark Energy, the study of stellar populations over a large fraction of the history of the Universe, and the study of the structure and formation of the Galaxy and Local Group by determining in a quantitative manner the kinematical and chemical signatures of the different stellar components.
Considering the enormous scientific value of wide‐field spectrographic surveys and their under‐
representation compared to imaging initiatives, we recommend setting up a working group, under the auspices of ASTRONET, with OPTICON, with the task of i) developing the top‐level requirements of the surveys, ii) identifying implementation options on a European scale, iii) establishing the merits of these options with a trade‐off analysis and proposing an implementation plan to provide a facility for the whole European community in the 2015‐2020 time‐frame. In that context, we establish a Working Group with remit: “to identify specific opportunities for highly‐multiplexed spectroscopic capabilities on 4m‐10m telescopes with European access, to deliver the relevant aspects of the ASTRONET Science Vision’’.
Wide Field Spectroscopy WG
• Being setup now – Chair invitations are underway • Will be integrated with the potential host observatory planning processes
• ESO STC wants urgent plan to deliver surveys in both near‐
field (Gaia follow‐up) and high redshift: two timescales
• Urgent – dedicate lots of time now
• Also – develop new optimised instruments
• “STC reiterates with vigour its conviction that large‐scale public spectroscopic surveys should be available at ESO...” [stc454, 4/09]
European telescope strategy review committee
•
Among the science tasks, consider the appropriate balance between large‐scale survey‐
type projects, including complementary ground‐based programmes in support of European space missions, and individual access;
GAIA science is accepted as a primary driver for future telescope use. •
•
•
The current TAC model, one per telescope in isolation, will end
Telescopes will be more coordinated, more collaborative, more specialised
Faster, cheaper, better.....
•
We may assume that significant observing resources, if necessary on many observatories, will be made available as a strategic priority, to properly‐prepared projects
•
New optimised instrumentation proposals can be considered: a specific need for massive spectroscopic surveys is recognised, and a new WG is being implemented now.
•
Gaia is the top European mid‐term priority.
•
Rhyme of the national review
• They said it could not be done
• With a laugh he went right to it.
• He tackled the thing that couldn’t be done –
• And couldn’t do it.
Gaia data products will be staged releases.
what will be able to do to get full value?
• Assumption 1: Gaia data will revolutionise most of astrophysics – in a few years every proposal will be based on Gaia data. And all Gaia data go public with no priority access.
• Assumption 2: nothing will happen unless someone plans it*.
• *first law of planning – make sure all your text fits on a single line
Gaia data products will be staged releases.
what will be able to do to get full value?
• Assumption 1: Gaia data will revolutionise most of astrophysics –
in a few years every proposal will be based on Gaia data. And all Gaia data go public with no priority access.
• Assumption 2: nothing will happen unless someone plans it.
• Assumption 3: telescopes and research funding are already heavily oversubscribed: to get a lot of Gaia exploitation, we need to get organised: scientifically, financially, politically.
• Context one: Gaia data products will be staged releases. We need to match plans appropriately: full astrometry is a decade away...
• Context two: Europe’s mid‐sized telescopes are being restructured right now, with Gaia science as a primary driver for their continued operation and development.
Gaia‐related data
• Since Gaia affects almost all astrophysics, almost everything is Gaia‐related – there is nothing `special’ about being Gaia‐relevant
• Exclude here pure `calibration` [GBOG]
• All science advances advance Gaia science*
• And vice versa**
• So here just consider sources detected by Gaia, and being studied because of a Gaia detection
•
•
* people complain scientific euro‐english has a vocabulary of only 100 words –
actually, even fewer are apparently adequate...
** Latin doesn’t count
Gaia data products (tentative!!)
this is only a planning hypothesis, prior to CU9!!!
•
•
•
•
•
•
Alerts: quasi real‐time flux alerts from mid 2012
then:
Photometric all‐sky catalogue
Limited precision astrometry (cut at mas‐level?)
BP/RP spectrophotometry
Brighter‐star spectroscopy
• Alerts from mid‐2012
• All‐sky data to be bundled in stages 2014‐2018(tbc)