ESO Public Surveys Phase 2 Workshop

As the start of the ESO Public Surveys with VISTA and VST is approaching, ESO is organizing the workshop in the third week of September with the goal of presenting the survey Phase 2 tools to the PIs of the public survey teams. The goal of this 2.5 day workshop is to present the new survey Phase 2 tools to the PIs of the ESO public surveys and their teams.

Both ESO and the VISTA consortium have been developing the SADT (Survey area definition tool), and the new capabilities within the ESO P2PP (Phase 2 Proposal Preparation) Tool specifically for the preparation and the support of the ESO Public Surveys. These survey preparation tools are currently being optimized for VISTA operations, which are expected to start in early 2009. Subsequently they will be upgraded to support the VST operations.

The ESO Public Survey PIs are invited to attend the workshop together with (up to) two additional team members, who will be in charge of preparation of the phase 2 material. During the workshop, the different teams will be trained with the new survey phase 2 tools and invited to prepare a phase 2 submission, equivalent to the first year of survey observation on sky. Given the overlap in scientific goals and connection between the VISTA and the VST public surveys, the three VST PIs will be invited to join the corresponding VISTA teams for the phase 2 preparation exercise.

The prepared OBs will then be "scheduled for observations" to evaluate the efficiency of the implemented observing strategies, based on the expected weather conditions on Paranal and the seeing distribution. We expect that this exercise will provide a useful training with the new tools and some early feedbacks on how to operate the six VISTA surveys in the best and efficient way.

Date and Location

Location: ESO, Garching
Dates: September 15th, afternoon - September 17th 2008
Duration: 2.5 days

Programme

The workshop will have the following format:

Day 1, September 15, 2008: Presentations on the survey telescopes status and the preparation for the start of operations.
Day 2, September 16, 2008: SADT and P2PP demo, followed by the full day tutorial session on the preparation of the phase 2 for the VISTA public surveys.
Day 3, September 17, 2008: Discussion on the ESO public survey goals, the data products, and the status of the pipelines will be chaired by Tim de Zeeuw and Duccio Macchetto.

On the first day, September 15th, we plan to start with the programme at 14h and the workshop will end on September 17th, at about 17h.
The final programme is now available for download in pdf format .
The presentations from the workshop can be downloaded from the workshop final programme page.

Hotels and Local Information

Information on how to reach Garching and ESO, as well as other local information is available from the ESO-travel web page.

We have made block reservations for the workshop participants in three hotels in Garching. Please note that these reservations will be valid only until July 31. To make use of the block reservations and the ESO special rate please mention "ESO Survey Meeting" when making the reservation.

  1.  Hotel am Park
    2. Buergermeister-Amon-Str. 2
    85748 Garching
    Tel. +49-89-320 40 84
    Fax  +49-89-329 478 911
    http://www.hotel-am-park.com/

    15 rooms; 5 from 14-18 September and 10 from 14-17 September
    Room rate EUR 69-79 per night, breakfast included

  2.  Hotel Koenig Ludwig II
    3. Bürgerplatz 3
    85748 Garching
    Tel. +49-89-320 50 46
    Fax  +49-89-329 15 10
    email hotel@hkl.de
    http://www.hkl.de/

    11 rooms from 14-18 September
    Room rate EUR 79-89 per night, breakfast included

  3.  Hotel Hoyacker Hof
    4. Freisinger Landstraße 9a
    85748 Garching
    Tel. +49-89-326 99 00
    Fax  +49-89-320 72 43
    email info@hoyackerhof.de
    http://www.hoyackerhof.de/

    6 rooms from 14-18 September
    Room rate EUR 75 per night, breakfast included


In case you need further assistance regarding the logistics, please contact Nina Felber.

Confirmed Participants

  • Tom Shanks (VST ATLAS)
  • Nigel Metcalfe (VST ATLAS)
  • Jim Emerson (VISTA)
  • Massimo Capaccioli (VST)
  • Janet Drew (VPHAS+)
  • Robert Greimel (VPHAS+)
  • Dante Minniti (VVV; video link)
  • Phil Lucas (VVV)
  • Maren Hempel (VVV)
  • Pawel Pietrukowicz (VVV)
  • Maria-Rosa Cioni (VMC)
  • Ralf Napiwotzki (VMC)
  • Vincenzo Ripepi (VMC)
  • Eduardo Gonzalez-Solares (CASU)
  • Matt Jarvis (VIDEO)
  • Ross McLure (VIDEO)
  • Jim Geach (VIDEO)
  • James Dunlop (UltraVISTA; Monday 15th)
  • Kim Nilsson (UltraVISTA; Monday 15th)
  • Marijn Franx (UltraVISTA; Tuesday 16th)
  • Olivier Le Fevre (UltraVISTA; Wednesday 17th)
  • Richard McMahon (VHS)
  • Bram Venemans (VHS)
  • William Sutherland (VIKING)
  • Joanna Holt (UltraVISTA)
  • Bo Milvang-Jensen(UltraVISTA)
  • Eckhard Sutorius (WFAU)
  • Edwin Valentijn (AstroWISE)
  • Gijs Verdoes-Kleijn (AstroWISE)
  • Simon Hodgkin (CASU)
  • Konrad Kuijken (KIDS)
  • Tim Schrabback (KIDS)
  • Bruno Marano (ESO Council)