Details of the workshop participants are now available

Workshop Participants

Details of the preliminary programme are now available

Preliminary Programme Details

This is the second announcement of a workshop on 'Panoramic near-Infrared Astronomy' to be held at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh on the 9th and 10th of November 2005.

The workshop forms part of an annual series jointly organised by the University of Edinburgh Institute for Astronomy and UK Astronomy Technology Centre (see also www.roe.ac.uk/roe/workshop/).

With the installation of the widefield camera, WFCAM, on the UK Infrared Telescope, and the imminent commissioning of the VISTA telescope and WIRCAM on the CFHT, it is timely to bring together experts in the technology of and science from infrared sky surveys to discuss projects and scientific results already delivered and those shortly anticipated.

The ROE workshop will review the foundations laid by DENIS and 2MASS and then develop in detail the progress on the latest survey instruments and the planned surveys. The programme also includes time to discuss the future follow up of these surveys with new multi-object spectrographs, such as KMOS and FMOS, and the likely impact on plans for Extremely Large Telescopes.

An outline programme for the workshop includes the following sessions and invited speakers:

1. Existing surveys

'DENIS'
(N. Epchtein, LUAN/UNSA)

'The Two Micron All Sky Survey'
(R.Cutri, IPAC/Caltech)

2. New Technologies and Survey Facilities

'The UKIRT Widefield Camera (WFCAM)'
(M. Casali, ESO)

'Large Area Near Infrared Detectors for Astronomy'
(D. Ives, UK ATC)

'Pipeline Processing of WFCAM and VISTA survey data'
(M.Irwin, CASU)

'The VISTA Survey Telescope'
(J. Emerson, QMW)

3. New Survey Science

'A first look at the UKIDSS data'
(S. Warren, Imperial College)

'VISTA Science'
(W. Sutherland, Oxford)

'WIRCam Commissionning, Performance and Expected Science' (L.Albert, CFHT)

3. Future follow-up

'KMOS: A Multi-Object Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph' (R. Sharples, Durham)

'The FMOS Spectrographs'
(D. Bonfield, Oxford)

Many of the talks will be invited, but a number of slots will be available for presentations in all areas related to survey work including new scientific results, data processing and analysis, instrument technologies and survey design.

Attendance at the workshop will be limited to around 70 people. Please register your interest in attending by contacting the LOC at workshop2005@roe.ac.uk, as soon as possible. If you are interested in speaking, please send a short abstract (200 words). The deadline for contributing talks is the 23rd September 2005. Workshop materials (presentations) will be published on the WWW after the meeting.

In addition to the scientific programme, there will be a public lecture associated with the workshop. Professor Andrew Lawrence will talk on 'Cosmic Explorers: Mapping the Universe'. The lecture will be followed by a dinner for workshop participants. The lecture and dinner will be held at Our Dynamic Earth (http://www.dynamicearth.co.uk/) on the 9th November.

Block bookings have been made at three hotels and special rates negociated for attendees at the workshop. As soon as you are able to, please contact workshop2005@roe.ac.uk with the dates that you require accomodation and stating your preference for one of the following. Coach transfer from the central hotels to the ROE has been arranged.

1. The Kildonan Lodge (http://www.kildonanlodgehotel.co.uk/), a small hotel close to the Royal Observatory with rooms ranging in price from £57 t £66.

2. The Parliament House Hotel (http://www.parliamenthouse-hotel.co.uk/), located at the east end of Princes St very handy for the station and all the attractions of central Edinburgh. Rooms are £60 per night.

3. The Caledonian Hilton Edinburgh (http://www.hilton.co.uk/caledonian/), 5* luxury at the west end of Princes St, handy for the castle. Rooms are £101 a night.

The workshop Local Organising Committee members are: Suzanne Ramsay Howat (chair), Ross McLure, Nigel Hambly, Susanne Sellar and Adeline Nicol.

The Royal Observatory Edinburgh comprises the UK Astronomy Technology Centre of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Edinburgh, the Higgs Centre for Innovation and the ROE Visitor Centre.