Science from La Palma - Beyond 2009

On October 14th 2005 starting at 9:30am there will be an RAS Specialist Discussion meeting on

Science from La Palma - Beyond 2009

Organizers: Danny Lennon & Chris Evans (ING), Janet Drew (Imperial)
web link: http://www.ing.iac.es/~cje/LPA2009.html

In the year 2009 the international agreement setting up the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma will have been in existence for a period of 30 years. In 2007 the United Kingdom will have to make a decision on whether or not to withdraw from that agreement and PPARC, through its ownership of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, has the responsibility of deciding on the UK's involvement in the observatory beyond 2009. Therefore, as part of the decision making process, and in support of the UK's overall strategic re-evaluation of ground-based facilities, the ING is being reviewed during 2005. It is therefore timely to assess recent scientific achievements from the Roque de los Muchachos, and to consider what role the observatory might have beyond 2009. The morning sessions will consist of selected review talks on some recent scientific highlights from La Palma, while the afternoon session will concentrate on the more strategic issues and future development.

For the latest information please refer to the web link given above. The current programme is as follows:

09:30: Introduction & welcome
09:40: Supernova studies using ING telescopes
Peter Meikle (Imperial)
10:00: Surveys with the Wide-field Camera
Mike Irwin (Cambridge)
10:20: Science with Planetpol
Jim Hough (Herts)
10:40: Double degenerates and binary evolution
Tom Marsh (Warick)

11:00: Coffee

11:20: Internal kinematics of dwarf spheroidal galaxies with AF2/WYFFOS
Mark Wilkinson (Cambridge)
11:40: Science from the Planetary Nebula Spectrograph
Mike Merrifield (Nottingham)
12:00: Science with Sauron
Tim de Zeeuw (Leiden)
12:20: Surveying for close binary systems among very low mass stars and brown dwarfs
Rob Jeffries (Keele)
12:40: Science with Ultracam
Vik Dhillon (Sheffield)

13:00 - 14:00: Lunch

14:00: Complimentarity with Grantecan
Rafael Rebolo (IAC)
14:15: ING instrumentation suite & plans
Rene Rutten (ING)
14:30: Summary of the recent ING review
Bruno Leibundgut (ESO)
14:45: The ING Board's view of La Palma beyond 2009
Thijs van der Hulst (Groningen)

15:00 - 15:30: Discussion - Chaired by Janet Drew

It is our intention that a small number of people may have an opportunity to address the discussion. If you want to direct the discussion in this manner, please contact one of the organizers.

Danny Lennon (ING), djl at ing.iac.es
Janet Drew (Imperial), j.drew at imperial.ac.uk
Chris Evans (ING), cje at ing.iac.es

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