European small and medium sized telescopes Paul Murdin Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council

European astronomical telescopes l Telescopes in or (at least partly) for Europe: l Astronomical Almanac l Sky and Telescope August 2000 (d > 2.3m) l SEDS l FutureFrame l … plus ad hoc updates l There is not an comprehensive list l A job for Opticon ?

Telescope locations l Remote from European city areas, requiring boat or plane trip l On a mountain location but within, say, two hours' drive from a European city l Within an easy hour's journey from a European city l Robotic or remotely operated telescopes starting to emerge

European telescopes

l There are natural groupings in the distributions l There is a clear break at 5m aperture l There are groups as follows – m (9 telescopes) – m (7) – m (18) –~1 metre (15+?)

Scope of Opticon l The scope of the Opticon WG on SMTs makes almost consistent sense l Telescopes at national, bilateral or international observatories with a European component l Telescopes between ~1m and 5m l Telescopes at mountain top observatory sites

Training for astronomical research l Existing educational budgets would tend to support the more convenient telescopes l There are many conveniently located 1 m telescopes but much of Europe has no convenient access even to 1 m telescopes l The 2, 2.5 or 4 metre telescopes tend to be remote or very remote l Such telescopes could be exploited for the transition between undergraduate training (1m class) and professional research (4m) l i.e. postgraduate training

European confidence-building l There is a human motivation to study astronomy l It is important to build confidence in science in Europe l Astronomy is an international, scientific venture l Astronomy is a motivational inspiration for developing economies l Enlarge access to the high status observatories

Use of Small-Medium Telescopes l General purposes l Support of 8 metre class telescopes l Dedicated programmes, e.g. l variable star monitoring (e.g. machos) l extra-solar planet, SN or NEO searches l surveys (e.g. to feed from/to 8 m telescopes or satellites) l Education and training l Postgraduate education and pilot projects l Enlarge astronomical capability in the developing European academic communities

Telescope groupings l Size is not the only relevant parameter, but.. l..the groupings could form an organisational basis for European coordination l On a voluntary basis (of course) l group telescopes of similar size and similar purpose l trade telescope time within a group l coordinate instrument availability

A grouping l Both hemispheres (N & S) l Bright/dark use at each telescope l Common instruments (camera, spectrograph) rationally distributed l Rare instruments not duplicated l Decide the training role (if any)

Access within a group l Possibly could move to a common time allocation process.. l..but could simply liberalise existing procedures l Establish a quota of time (e.g. 20%) for freer access to astronomers outside the existing arrangements? l..or let the quota establish itself?

Trading time l Within a group of similar sized telescopes the unit could be simply the night (dark or bright?) l Obtain observing time by merit but pay money for it under an access programmes l &/or l Keep account of time swapped within the group and draw accounts in retrospect l After a period, perhaps take ‘special measures’ to redress any imbalance

Conclusions l I have done no more than offer some thoughts on the topics we need to address.. l..and tried to bring together some of the directions in which we could go l There is an ‘existence proof’ of some of the solutions l We need to address these issues practically in this Opticon working group