On December 5th 2001 PPARC Council took a number of important decisions
on the future of the UK's ground-based astronomy programme.
These decisions will have a profound impact on various existing
facilities, including those of the ING.
PPARC's way forward reflects the reality of the rapidly changing environment
of ground-based astronomy, with the deployment of several 8-m class telescopes
and the adhesion of the United Kingdom to the European Southern Observatory.
Further reference to the Council's decision can be found HEEREEEEE
It has been apparent for some time that the annual operating budget for ING
would come under pressure, in particular as the UK has to free up funds to
contribute towards the annual cost of joining ESO. Over the past year
plans have been developed on how ING could be operated at a reduced budget.
The decision from PPARC Council is in line with these plans. The key
elements of the changes that these plans entail is presented here.
Probably the most important change is presented by the fact that the
Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias will become a full partner in ING
as of 2002. An agreement was reached, with strong support from the ING
Board and the UK and NL funding agencies, on the terms under which the
IAC would join in the operating costs of ING. This agreement significantly
aleviates the impact of the budget reductions announced by PPARC and allows
ING to remain a strong a vibrant organisation that can deliver quality
service to its user community.
The tight collaboration with the IAC is of strategic importance as this
institute fulfills a pivotal role in the development of the observatory
site, in particular with the construction of the 10-m GRANTECAN and its
plans to create a European collaboration for observing facilities in
the Northern hemisphere. Moreover, the IAC is developing a new
observatory centre at sea level on La Palma, in which the ING will
participate.
But nevertheless, the future budget available to ING for the operation
of the telescopes will reduce by more than 30%, in spite of the additional
contribution of the IAC. The IAC's contribution will commence in 2002,
and the Netherlands will leave its annual contribution largely unchanged.
This large decrease in the operational budget and the change of balance
between the international partners implies a number of important changes,
that I can be summarised as follows:
1. Balance of obsering time:
2. Service observations:
3. Use of the JKT and INT:
4. Use of the WHT:
5. A common-user IR imager and spectrograph
The changes mentioned above focus on the impact that the budget
reductions will have on the use of the telescopes. Not mentioned
here are the complex internal changes that will be implemented
in the way ING operates. It is our intention to minimize the
disruption to normal day-to-day operation of the telescopes
as much as possible, and ING remain dedicated to deliver the
best possible service to our user community.
TRAILER !!!
The balance of observing time will gradual change over the following
years. The agreed percentage breakdown of observing time will be as follows:
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005-9
UK
60.0
54.0
50.0
48.9
47.6
NL
15.0
15.0
15.9
17.0
18.3
IAC
0.0
6.0
9.1
9.1
9.1
CAT spanish time
20.0
20.0
20.0
20.0
20.0
CCI International time
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
The existing scheme of service observations that are carried out by
observatory personnel will be discontinued on the JKT from the end of
semester 02A and on the INT from the end of semester 03A.
On the WHT service observation will remain available.
The JKT will be taken out of normal service as of September 2003.
Maybe this telescope will continue as a special-purpose telescope
with external funding. But if no resources can be found the JKT will close.
It is the intention to review the longer term future of the INT before
the end of 2004. By that time various other telescopes will be carrying
out imaging surveys and the Liverpool telescope will be well established,
making it timely to review the scientific use of the INT. Until that
time, operation of the INT will have to be carried out at a lower cost.
Cost saving measures envisaged are to operate the INT with only the
Wide Field Camera from some time in 2003, and at the same time fully
withdraw telescope operator support from that telescope.
The focus of support and development will shift
fully towards the WHT in order to keep that telescope as attractive
as possible to the community. Although scheduling flexibility and
instrument changes may have to be more stricktly limited, the
service delivered will be enhanced through the introduction of
queue observing mode for up to 30% of the time on the WHT. Primarily
queue observing will focus on adaptive optics observations.
As part of the agreement with the IAC, the LIRIS IR
imager and spectrograph that is currently being developed at the IAC
will be made available to the general user community for at least 3
years after commissioning and acceptance. Commissioning of LIRIS
is anticipated to take place at the end of 2003. Given the popularity
of ING's IR imager, we expect that this new instrument will attract
much interest from the user community.