Contents 1. *** NEW!! *** ADAPTIVE-OPTICS AT THE WHT IN 2000B 2. *** NEW!! *** INGRID Service Opportunity 3. *** NEW!! *** S-CAM Service Opportunity 4. ING INSTRUMENTATION IN SEMESTER 2000B 5. Availability of ING Newsletter No.2 and the 1998 Annual Report ============================================================================== ADAPTIVE-OPTICS AT THE WHT The WHT's common-user adaptive-optics facility, NAOMI, will be available at the WHT on a common-user, shared-risks, basis from September 2000, following commissioning in August. Applications for observing time should be submitted through the normal channels for the Mar 31 deadline. Proposals must include a poor-seeing backup programme (with ISIS, UES or aux-port) on the second page of the scientific justification. NAOMI uses a deformable mirror to correct distortions of the wavefront due to atmospheric seeing, deriving the corrections from simultaneous observation of a nearby bright guide star (which can be the target itself, e.g. an AGN nucleus if sufficiently bright and point-like). With a guide star V < 14 closer than 20 arcsec from the target, NAOMI will deliver diffraction-limited images in K, FWHM 0.15 arcsec (Strehl ~ 0.4), in 0.8-arcsec natural seeing. The correction is degraded if the star lies further than 20 arcsec from the target (K band), and the radius of this 'anisoplanatic patch' scales roughly as wavelength, i.e. it is smaller in J and H. For detailed information about performance as a function of guide-star magnitude, seeing, band and separation between target and guide star, see the WHT AO web page at: http://www.ing.iac.es/~crb/wht/ao.html or contact Richard Myers, Durham (r.m.myers@durham.ac.uk). The detector for NAOMI will be the near-IR camera INGRID, to be commissioned March 2000. Details of INGRID's expected performance and filters (broad-band and narrow-band) can be found on: http://www.ing.iac.es/IR/INGRID/ingrid1_home.htm ING is happy to comment on the technical feasibility of proposed observing programmes, prior to submission (contact Chris Benn, crb@ing.iac.es). It is expected that some of the observations scheduled in the early part of the semester will be carried out in service mode by ING staff. ============================================================================== INGRID SERVICE OPPORTUNITY The WHT's common-user near-IR instrument, INGRID, will be available at the WHT on a common user, shared-risk basis from the second half of semester 2000A. Applications for observing time during semester 2000B should be submitted through the normal channels for the March 31st deadline. In order to achieve rapid science exploitation and to introduce INGRID to the user community, the ING has identified two service nights primarily for INGRID observations. The two nights are 19/4/2000 and 21/5/2000. These nights are in addition to other scheduled service nights during which INGRID will typically be available. Applications are sought from interested parties via the service program, information on which may be found at the WWW page indicated below. Please note that the usual last day of the month deadline applies to this call for proposals. http://www.ing.iac.es/service/service.html INGRID (Isaac Newton Group Red Imaging Device) is a near-IR camera for use at the 4.2m WHT. At the heart of INGRID is a 1024x1024 Hawaii near-IR detector array for imaging from 0.8 to 2.5 microns. For information about INGRID (including available filters) see:- http://ing.iac.es/IR/INGRID/index.html For limited assistance in preparation of proposals contact Chris Packham, INGRID instrument specialist at cp@ing.iac.es. ============================================================================== S-CAM SERVICE OPPORTUNITY ESA/ESTEC's S-CAM superconducting-tunnel-junction camera has its third commissioning run at the WHT Apr 25, 26, 27. Some of this time may be available for observations carried out under the ING service scheme. In the first instance, please simply send applications by email to wji@ing.iac.es by March 31st, giving the usual short scientific case and required technical details. S-CAM is an exciting development in detector technology, allowing the position, energy and time of arrival of every photon to be recorded. The performance expected in April 2000 is: Detector area: 6 x 6 pixels, 0.6 arcsec/pixel Wavelength coverage: UBVRI Wavelength resolution: ~ 8 at 5000 A Throughput, including detector QE, excluding telescope: 0.25 Time resolution: 5 microsec Maximum count rate: 5 kHz/pixel General information about S-CAM and STJs can be found on: http://astro.estec.esa.nl/SA-general/Research/Stj/ A brief report on the 1999 commissioning runs is on: http://www.ing.iac.es/~crb/wht/stj.html Further enquiries can be made to the project scientist, Michael Perryman: mperryma@astro.estec.esa.nl ============================================================================== ING INSTRUMENTATION IN SEMESTER 2000B General information on ING instrumentation, and guidelines for proposals, can be found in the ING Web Pages at http://www.ing.iac.es/INGinfo/ and applicants are recommended to refer to these pages for the latest information. Proposals must be submitted on the current PATT2 form, version 02/2000, and should be emailed directly to ingpatt@ing.iac.es. Font sizes on the application form must not be reduced from the style-file defaults; if they are reduced the application will be disregarded. NOTE: Applicants should be aware that occasionally highly rated proposals may not be awarded time due to scheduling constraints. Applicants are reminded that to encourage proposals for larger time allocations on the WHT, the PATT2 application form allows a 2-page scientific justification for WHT proposals of six or more nights. The second page should be used for the scientific justification for NAOMI backup proposals (more details on NAOMI are given below). The following instrument/detector configurations are available: - Instrument + detector WHT - ISIS BLUE + EEV12 - ISIS RED + TEK - AUX-port + UBVRI + TEK - UES + SITe1 or 2xEEV MOSAIC - PRIME + 2xEEV MOSAIC - AUTOFIB2/WYFFOS + TEK (small fibres expected to be commissioned in 2001A) - INTEGRAL/WYFFOS + TEK - INGRID + 1kx1k HgCdTl INGRID commissioning will be carried out in March 2000, and it is offered on a common-user (but shared-risks) basis in semester 2000B. Refer to the INGRID Web Page for the latest information: http://ing.iac.es/IR/INGRID/ingrid1_home.htm - NAOMI adaptive optics NAOMI/INGRID will be available at the WHT on a common-user (but shared-risks) basis from September 2000, following commissioning in August. Applications for observing time should be submitted through the normal channels for the March 31st deadline, and should include a backup programme (UES,ISIS or Aux Port imaging) which would be carried out when conditions are unfavourable for AO observations. Further information is given below, or refer to: http://www.ing.iac.es/~crb/wht/ao.html - LDSS2 and TAURUS are no longer available as common-user instruments. LDSS2 has been adopted by the University of Durham, contact for further details: Richard Bower (R.G.Bower@durham.ac.uk). The IoA, University of Cambridge is currently considering the resource implications of adopting TAURUS; it will not be available in semester 2000B. Contact for further details: Richard McMahon (rgm@ast.cam.ac.uk). INT - WFC + 4xEEV - IDS 235/500 + EEV10 or TEK Applicants please note: * Observing time is allocated in blocks of one week on average. * Observing programmes shorter than 4 nights are not accepted, unless explicitly agreed in advance by the Head of Astronomy or the Director of ING. JKT - direct imaging (2kx2k SITe2) Applicants please note: * The JKT only supports one common-user instrument, and hence private instruments are not accepted. * Observing time is usually allocated in blocks of one week. * Observing programmes shorter than 5 nights are not accepted. ============================================================================== ING NEWSLETTER The ING is pleased to announce the second issue of the ING Newsletter, which is now released on the web at: http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/newsletter/ Highlights from this issue include articles on: * The first direct detection of an extra-solar planet with the WHT * The latest on Gamma-Ray Burst afterglows * Integral field spectroscopy with Sauron * New instrumentation for the WHT * Sodium laser beacon test results from La Palma Have you considered contributing a science article to the Newsletter? If you have new results based on observations obtained at ING facilities which you think are exciting and important, and which you wish to communicate to the ING user community, please don't hesitate to contact the editorial team or email Javier Mendez (jma@ing.iac.es) directly. Finally the ING 1998 Annual Report is now also available on-line at: http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/annualreports_index.html ============================================================================== Danny Lennon Head of Astronomy, ING March 10th 2000