"Town meeting” on the mid- and long-term future of the Nordic Optical Telescope

Tuesday, December 20, 2005, 10:00 – 13:00, Rockefeller Complex, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen

 

The Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) Scientific Association  (NOTSA) has initiated an international evaluation of NOT as a basis for decisions on the future funding and operation of NOT. This includes the proposal to form a Common Northern Observatory (CNO) on La Palma together with the Isaac Newton Group and the Italian TNG.

 

The plans and priorities of the user communities for future observational research in the northern hemisphere are essential for the evaluation process and the NOT Council will therefore organize a series of “Town meetings” in each of the Nordic countries. The meeting in Denmark will take place on December 20, 2005 at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. We therefore invite all interested astronomers, including master- and PhD-students to attend the meeting. Funds to cover travel costs for participants will be available through request to the Instrument Center for Danish Astrophysics (IDA), ida@astro.ku.dk.

 

The “Town meeting” in Copenhagen will cover

 

  1. The need for a long-term access to northern 2-4m-class observing facilities?

 

  1. Would Denmark support the Common Northern Observatory (CNO) model or a

stand-alone Nordic NOT?

 

  1. What are typical examples of programmes that would be given high priority in the near and mid-term future? (A few potential PIs will be asked to present their ideas.)

 

  1. The future instrumentation priorities for NOT?

 

  1. Priorities for future main modes of operation (visitor vs. service mode; flexible scheduling and Targets of Opportunity vs. long observing runs; freedom in choice of subject vs. long-term projects, etc.)?

 

  1. Should we priorities future educational use of NOT and/or the CNO

(on-site students and/or postdocs; fraction of time allocated  for courses;

on-site courses vs. remote observing from home)?

 

  1. Any other issues you wish to bring to the panel's attention?

 

A detailed program will be sent out one week before the meeting.

 

On behalf of the NOT Council and Instrumentcenter for Dansk Astrofysik (IDA)

 

Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, Hans Kjeldsen, Jens Hjorth, and Kristian Pedersen