************************************************** First Announcement for the ING workshop "SCIENCE WITH THE WILLIAM HERSCHEL TELESCOPE 2010-2020" 22 March 2010 Followed on 23 March by an instrumentation planning meeting Burlington House, London, UK http://www.ing.iac.es/conferences/wht201020/ Bringing together astronomers from the ING communities to discuss the scientific direction of the WHT, and new instrument plans, for the coming decade. Registration deadline: 12 March 2010 ******************************************************** Scientific Rationale ------------------------- During the twenty-two years since the ING began operating the WHT, the ING telescopes have had an excellent track record of world-class scientific results in virtually all areas of optical-infrared observational astronomy. With the current International Agreements for Astronomy in the Canary Islands ending in 2012, the ING is discussing its role for the coming decade. As the funding agencies explore post-2012 managerial arrangements, ING would like to involve the astronomy communities it serves in shaping the scientific roadmap for our telescopes. Our proposed strategic vision for the coming decade is outlined in http://www.ing.iac.es/About-ING/Strategy/decadal_strategy_2010_2020.html A key component of this strategy is a focus on wide-field astronomy, where 4-m telescopes have the potential to out-perform 10-m class telescopes. In this context, ING is studying the possible provision of a wide-field multi-object spectrograph (MOS) for the WHT prime focus. Such an instrument would provide unique capabilities in the northern hemisphere for scientific exploitation of upcoming European-led and international imaging surveys on the ground, and from space. The requirements for such a MOS need to be established by our user communities, who also need to clarify their interest in contributing to the construction and exploitation of this facility. With the progressive shift toward the Southern Hemisphere provided by ESO telescopes, the ING provides essential access to the northern hemisphere, and there needs to be discussion about the number of instruments (resident or visitor) to be supported on the WHT, the balance between classical, visitor-oriented operations and survey science, and the recommendations of the ASTRONET-sponsored European Telescope Strategy Review Committee, which should be published shortly. The time is therefore ripe for a workshop bringing together ING observers to share their views on the scientific priorities, the instruments and the operating mode that will keep the WHT a world-class 4-m telescope in the coming decade. Format --------- The workshop on March 22 will be devoted to invited 15-minute science presentations, concluding with a discussion period. Some time will be available for short (10-min) contributed talks. These should focus on highlighting specific improvements that would make our instruments, and the user's science, more competitive. There will also be limited space for posters. If you would like to present a talk or a poster, please provide a title and abstract on the registration form. On March 23 (morning only) those wishing to be involved in the definition and development of a wide-field MOS on the WHT will meet with the aim of organising a study leading to a proposal to our agencies for the construction and exploitation of the new instrument. The presentations made at the meeting will be made available on the ING web site. We do not plan to publish proceedings. Registration, and contact ----------------------------- Please register at http://www.ing.iac.es/conferences/wht201020/ Registration deadline: 12 March 2010 Contact us at: wht201020'at'ing.iac.es ------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Dr. Marc Balcells, Director Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes 38700 Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain Tel. +34 922 425 403 http://www.ing.iac.es balcells 'at' ing.iac.es ============================================================= You can subscribe to [INGNEWS] by sending a message to elists@ing.iac.es with the following text in the body of the message and in the subject line: subscribe ingnews. To unsubscribe do the same but replacing subscribe by unsubscribe. More information can be found at http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/science/bulletin/.