The NEON
observing
schools (FP7 series)
After the end of the FP6 Marie Curie program,
the Network of European Observatories in the North (NEON)
is happy to announce the organisation of a New Series of Schools,
under the auspices of Opticon
.
With respect to the earlier series (see here for
more details, and reports), the Neon consortium has been enlarged
and the participating observatories are now:
Asiago Observatory (Italy),
Calar Alto Observatory (Germany-Spain)
European Southern Observatory (ESO-Garching)
Haute-Provence Observatory (France), and
La Palma observatories (UK-Netherlands- Nordic Countries-Spain).
The purpose of the school is to provide opportunity to gain practical observationnal experience at the telescope, in observatories with state of the art instrumentation. To this effect, the school proposes tutorial observations in small groups of 4 or 5 students, under the guidance of an experienced observer, centered around a small research project and going through all steps of a standard observing program. Some introductory and complementary lectures will be given by experts in the field.
The school is placed under the responsability of a steering committee composed (starting in 2009) of:
Prof. Michel Dennefeld (Institut d'Astrophysique, Paris) (Chair)
Dr. Roland Gredel (Heidelberg)
Dr. Gaitee Hussain (ESO)
Dr. Alessandro Pizzella (Asiago Observatory)
Dr. Grazina Tautvaisiene (Vilnius)
The school is generally open to students working on a PhD thesis in Astronomy or Post-docs in the field, and which are nationals of a Member State or an Associated State of the European Union (but see specific conditions for each school). The working langage is english. Up to twenty participants will be selected by the organising committee.
The NEW Series intends to broaden the scope of the schools, to
include,
beyond observations, the use of archival data (ground and space) and
some
detailed insight into specific instrumentation. Additionnal expertise is
provided
with the support of the Opticon
Network.
European Community funding has been obtained within Opticon ,
allowing to cover all the local expenses of the students.
In exceptionnal cases, duly justified, a small contribution to travel costs can be given also.
EU students working outside Europe are encouraged to participate also.
In 2010, the Eighth Observing School directly at the telescope will take place at
Calar Alto observatory (Spain), from June 16 to June 28, 2010
For more details about this Eighth Neon Observing School, see the Neon2010
page.
Michel Dennefeld , Coordinator of the NEON schools.
If you are interested in details
about previous schools, you can see
the following pages:
The Second Archive Observing school which took place at
ESO-Garching in September 2006 can be accessed from here.
The Fifth Neon observing school took place at Haute-Provence
Observatory (France) in July 2006 is found here.
The Fourth Neon Observing
School (First of the New Series), which took place in Calar Alto
Observatory in August 2005: see here.
Details about the First Virtual Observatory school (or Archive
Observatory school), which took place
in ESO-Garching in July 2004 , can be accessed from our page.
A full report on the Third Neon School, which took place in Asiago Observatory (September 2002), can be found in this page.