European small and medium sized telescopes

1. European small and medium sized telescopes Paul Murdin Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council

2. European astronomical telescopes • Telescopes in or (at least partly) for Europe: • Astronomical Almanac 1981-84 • Sky and Telescope August 2000 (d > 2.3m) • SEDS http://www.seds.org/billa/bigeyes.htm • FutureFrame http://www.futureframe.de/astro/instr/emopt.htm • … plus ad hoc updates • There is not an comprehensive list • A job for Opticon ?

3. Telescope locations • Remote from European city areas, requiring boat or plane trip • On a mountain location but within, say, two hours' drive from a European city • Within an easy hour's journey from a European city • Robotic or remotely operated telescopes starting to emerge

4. European telescopes

5. European telescopes • There are natural groupings in the distributions • There is a clear break at 5m aperture • There are groups as follows • 3.5 - 4.2 m (9 telescopes) • 2.2 - 2.64 m (7) • 1.2 - 2.0 m (18) • ~1 metre (15+?)

6. Scope of Opticon • The scope of the Opticon WG on SMTs makes almost consistent sense • Telescopes at national, bilateral or international observatories with a European component • Telescopes between ~1m and 5m • Telescopes at mountain top observatory sites

7. Training for astronomical research • Existing educational budgets would tend to support the more convenient telescopes • There are many conveniently located 1 m telescopes but much of Europe has no convenient access even to 1 m telescopes • The 2, 2.5 or 4 metre telescopes tend to be remote or very remote • Such telescopes could be exploited for the transition between undergraduate training (1m class) and professional research (4m) • i.e. postgraduate training

8. European confidence-building • There is a human motivation to study astronomy • It is important to build confidence in science in Europe • Astronomy is an international, scientific venture • Astronomy is a motivational inspiration for developing economies • Enlarge access to the high status observatories

9. Use of Small-Medium Telescopes • General purposes • Support of 8 metre class telescopes • Dedicated programmes, e.g. • variable star monitoring (e.g. machos) • extra-solar planet, SN or NEO searches • surveys (e.g. to feed from/to 8 m telescopes or satellites) • Education and training • Postgraduate education and pilot projects • Enlarge astronomical capability in the developing European academic communities

10. Telescope groupings • Size is not the only relevant parameter, but.. • ..the groupings could form an organisational basis for European coordination • On a voluntary basis (of course) • group telescopes of similar size and similar purpose • trade telescope time within a group • coordinate instrument availability

11. A grouping • Both hemispheres (N & S) • Bright/dark use at each telescope • Common instruments (camera, spectrograph) rationally distributed • Rare instruments not duplicated • Decide the training role (if any)

12. Access within a group • Possibly could move to a common time allocation process.. • ..but could simply liberalise existing procedures • Establish a quota of time (e.g. 20%) for freer access to astronomers outside the existing arrangements? • ..or let the quota establish itself?

13. Trading time • Within a group of similar sized telescopes the unit could be simply the night (dark or bright?) • Obtain observing time by merit but pay money for it under an access programmes • &/or • Keep account of time swapped within the group and draw accounts in retrospect • After a period, perhaps take ‘special measures’ to redress any imbalance

14. Conclusions • I have done no more than offer some thoughts on the topics we need to address.. • ..and tried to bring together some of the directions in which we could go • There is an ‘existence proof’ of some of the solutions • We need to address these issues practically in this Opticon working group