Original Message
From:
To: "Haebe, Nadja"
Cc: ; ; "Zickgraf, Franz-Josef"
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; ; "Haebe, Nadja"
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2014 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: ASTRONET: Task 5.4 - observing schools
> Dear Nadja & Franz-Josef,
>
> At the Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory there is some experience
> with the organization and carrying out observing schools. In 2007 and 2009
> international observing schools were conducted with financial support from
> UNESCO-BRESCE (the regional office of UNESCO in Venice). At the moment
> preparations are running for an observing school which will be held in the
> second half of September, and which will be funded by the training and
> education program of OPTICON. A preliminary program can be found here:
>
www.iap.fr/opticon/neon_schools/2014/index.html. These schools are
> intended for master and starting PhD students. The program of the schools
> is based on observations with the 2-meter telescope. The main subject of
> the schools in 2007 and 2009 was high-dispersion spectroscopy, based on
> observations obtained with the Coude-spectrograph.. The school this year
> will be dominated by low- and moderate-dispersion spectroscopy, and
> spectropolarimetry, based on observations with a focal reducer, mounted at
> the 2-m telescope. The students will also have the opportunity to see the
> new echelle spectrograph, which is running now in a test phase.
>
> In many aspects the 2-m telescope is a suitable instrument for educational
> purposes. Most of the operations, especially when using the focal reducer,
> are performed manually (changing filters, grisms, Wollaston prism, etc.).
> This, probably, does not correspond to the standards for state-of-the-art
> instruments, but it gives the students the opportunity to touch the
> instrument, and to get a realistic feeling of what is inside of an
> astronomical instrument.
>
> In summary, at the Rozhen Observatory, we are willing to host students at
> PhD and master level, and offer training courses to them. Up to 20
> students can be accommodated in the observatory at the same time. There is
> no national funding for these activities, external sources should be
> found, similar to the cases I described above.
>
> Best regards,
> Tanyu
>
> On Mon, May 12, 2014 12:29, Haebe, Nadja wrote:
> > Dear ASTRONET partner,
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > At the workshop in 2012 there was consensus, that the training and
> > recruitment of the next generation of users of future facilities is a
> > promising area of possible common actions. Transnational coordinating
> > actions on observing schools, providing access for students, Master
> > students to telescope time, could be a promising measure to be taken. The
> > next step was a survey to identify overlap in the funding activities on
> > observing schools for master students.
> >
> >
> >
> > The results of the survey showed, that the observing schools are
> > differently represented in the funding programmes of the various
> > agencies.
> > Some agencies already support such activities, others not yet.
> > In many countries the activities on observing schools are covered by
> > NEON. The NEON school is open principally to students working on a PhD
> > thesis in Astronomy or Post-docs in the field. Just in couple of
> > countries
> > agencies provide funding for such training activities directly.
> >
> >
> >
> > The Working Group of Task 5.4 proposed to focus on training activities
> > in form of observing schools for pre-PhD students. Ideally, the training
> > should take place at medium-sized telescopes. As a first step in
> > realization of this plan, it was agreed to contact the observatories and
> > to ask them whether they would be able to host students at their
> > observatories for training courses, provided the responsible national
> > agencies fund this activity.
> >
> >
> >
> > The Working Group of Task 5.4 composed a letter to observatories (please
> > find attached).
> >
> >
> >
> > Now we need your help in collecting a list of observatories to be
> > contacted.
> >
> >
> >
> > Please find attached a preliminary list with some observatories (optical
> > medium-size telescopes) and links to the respective observatories, which
> > have medium-size optical telescopes (preferably, but not exclusively, 2-4
> > m telescopes).
> >
> >
> >
> > You are kindly requested to check the list and complete it with the
> > information accordingly for your country.
> >
> > The telescopes should have preferably state of the art instrumentation.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > We would be very grateful if you could send us your responses by
> > 23.05.2014
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> >
> > Nadja & Franz-Josef
> >
> >
> >
> > Nadja Haebe
> > Projekttraeger DESY
> > Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
> > Notkestr. 85
> > 22607 Hamburg
> >
> >
> > Tel. : +49-40-8998-5651
> > Fax : +49-40-8994-3702
> > web :
pt.desy.de
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Tanyu Bonev, Director
> Institute of Astronomy and
> National astronomical observatory
> Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
> 72 Tsarigradsko chaussee, blvd.
> 1784 Sofia
> Bulgaria
>
> tel./fax: +359 2 9741910
> Mobile: +359 879 603 450
> E-mail: tbonev at astro.bas.bg
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>
