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2003 Working Group Meeting
Sydney, NSW (Australia)

WG Home | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | Notes

Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia, 21 July 2003 The 2003 Meeting of the IAU Working Group took place on Monday, 21 July 2003, in conjunction with the General Assembly of the IAU in Sydney, Australia. The meeting was held in the Promenade Meeting Room 2, from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm, with a half-hour break between 10:30 and 11:00. The meeting was attended by approximately 37 people. Read the description of the Working Group activities, New Opportunities in Long Baseline Interferometry written by Andrea Richichi, which appeared in the Magellanic Times on day 8 of the IAU General Assembly.

Agenda

Time	Speaker	Subject
09:00 - 09:15	P. Lawson	Welcome and Review
09:15 - 09:45	A. Quirrenbach	European Interferometry Initiative
09:45 - 10:30	A. Richichi	VLTI Calibrators
10:30 - 11:00	Break	-
11:00 - 11:30	A. Boden	MSC: Calibrators and Observation Planning
11:30 - 12:00	T. Pauls	Data Exchange Standard
12:00 - 12:10	W. Hartkopf	Binary Star Nomenclature
12:10 - 12:25	All	Discussion
12:25 - 12:30	P. Lawson	Summary

Participants

Australia: John Davis, Michael Ireland, Gordon Robertson, William Tango, Peter Tuthill. China: Wang Zhenming. France: Vincent Coude du Foresto. Germany: Pascal Ballester, Francoise Delplancke, Christian Henkel, Pierre Kervella, Christoph Leinert, Andrea Richichi, Markus Schoeller, Peter Schuller, Hans Zinnecker. Netherlands: Andreas Quirrenbach. United States: Rachel Akeson, Ron Allen, Andy Boden, Jim Breckinridge, Theo ten Brummelaar, Ken Carpenter, William Cotton, William Hartkopf, Ken Johnston, Marc Kuchner, Peter Lawson, David Leisawitz, Tom Pauls, Pete Schloerb, Peter Schuller, Mark Swain, Wesley Traub, and Nils Turner.

Minutes of the 2003 Meeting of the WG on Optical/IR Interferometry

Welcome and Review

Action items from the 2002 Working Group meeting were reviewed: The activities of the Working Group were reported to the Division and published in Reports on Astronomy 25A 322-324 (2002). The webpages of the WG were updated and the minutes from the last meeting were distributed. Lists of calibrator stars, where available were collected at http://olbin.jpl.nasa.gov/software/. The public release of getCal suite from the Michelson Science Center was advertised. Observing opportunities with the VLTI were advertised, although in the most recent proposal cycle VINCI was not available for external use. Astronomy meetings relavent to optical/IR interferometry were added to the Meetings page of OLBIN.

Concerning the transition of the WG to become an IAU Commission, it had been understood by the Chair that although such a transition is desirable eventually, what matters most is that the community act together to resolve common issues and collaborate where necessary - the name of the IAU body that supports these activities is of secondary concern. Working Groups normally exist to tackle single problems and are disolved once those problems are solved. Commissions coordinate a wide range of activities and are usually longer lived. The present Working Group is acting more in the capacity of a Commission, but without the title.

The IAU cannot endorse grant applications, although grant applications could indicate (where appropriate) that the proposed work is in support of one of the activities of the Working Group.

The Working Group can co-sponsor IAU meetings, symposia, joint discussions etc... through contacts with the presidents or chairs of the relavent commissions. Co-sponsorship of meetings is strongly encouraged, because without co-sponsorship any individual application for Symposia or workshop is unlikely to be supported by the IAU Executive. Some related commissions with possible overlap of the Working Group's interest include

• Division I: Fundamental Astronomy
  • WG on Future Developments in Ground-based Astrometry
  • Commission 8: Astrometry
• Division III: Planetary Systems Sciences
  • Commission 51: Bioastronomy: Search for Extrasolar Life
• Division IV: Stars
  • Commission 26: Double and Multiple Stars
  • Commission 36: Theory of Stellar Atmospheres
• Division V: Variable Stars
  • Commission 27: Variable Stars
  • Commission 42: Close Binary Stars
• Division IX: Optical and Infrared Techniques
  • Commission 25: Stellar Photometry and Polarimetry
  • Commission 30: Radial Velocities
• Division X: Radio Astronomy
  • Commission 40: Radio Astrononmy
• Executive Committee Commissions and WGs
  • Commission 5: Documentation and Astronomical Data
  • Commission 46: Astronomy Education and Development
  • WG on Future Large-scale Facilities

The IAU doesn't normally formalise catalogs. Even if it were to do so, the gesture would be hollow unless the community decided for itself that the catalog in question was important enough to use as a standard reference. Endorsement by the IAU is unnecessary.

Marilyn Gorsuch, who organizes the conferences for the SPIE, was contacted by the Chair concerning the expense and format of the astronomy conferences. A letter which had been drafted by Harold McAlister was discussed and subsequently mailed to both Ms. Gorsuch and Jim Breckinridge. The letter mostly concerned the expense of the conferences in Hawaii. Ms. Gorsuch explained that if cost (rather than venue) is the driving concern then the conferences could be held elsewhere, although the venue is often the greatest attraction to those attending the conferences and there is great appeal to having the conferences near the telescopes in Hawaii. The decision for the venue in 2006 will likely take place shortly before the 2004 conference in Glasgow. Wes Traub has volunteered to pursue the issue, as he is the 2004 interferometry conference Chair. The balance of science vs technology at the SPIE conferences could be discussed further with Adrian Russell (Royal Obs. Edinburgh), who is the Chair of the Glasgow meetings.

Christoph Leinert has now set up a website to be used as a database for information concerning optical coatings used in interferometry. The site IR COATINGS is hosted at the website of FrInGe. Contributions to the website are encouraged.

Several other action items from 2002 remain to be resolved and will be carried over to this year.

European Interferometry Initiative

In 2002 the European Interferometry Initiative became a Working Group within OPTICON. It is currently seeking ongoing support within OPTICON under the European 6th Framework Program. Proposals are submitted to the European Union every 4 years; funding for the European Interferometry Initiative will likely be announced as a part of the OPTICON proposal at the end of August 2003. An internal review by the Executive committee within OPTICON earlier this year rated the proposal very highly, second after the proposal for its adaptive optics working group.

Interferometry Forum: This part of the proposal is for coordination activities, not research, and contains the following parts:

• Exchange visitor forum within Europe.
• Interferometry Help Desk: to answer questions and provide support for proposal writing.
• Working Groups to coordinate various activities.

Joint Research Project: For these research activities at least 50 percent in matching funds are required. 2 M Euros were requested, and matching funds would be obtained for total support at the level of 5.3 M Euros. The European Union can select which parts of the proposal are to be funded. Negotiations are likely.

• Advanced Instrument Concepts (directed towards the VLTI and LBT).
• Data Analysis Tools (easily accessible tools similar to IRAF or AIPS).
• Modelling and Technology (critical components for next-generation arrays).
• Fringe Tracking Algorithms (multi-telescope arrays).

If successful, there will be a kick-off meeting in October/November with participation of the Michelson Science Center. The contracts are then anticipated to be in place by the end of 2003.

ESO VLTI Calibrator Program

• http://www.eso.org/observing/etc/,
• http://www.eso.org/observing/etc/preview.html,

The VLTI calibrator program began as a collaboration with NEVEC and initially resulted in the CHARM catalog. This catalog is an interactive database principally consisting of measurements made by observations of lunar occultations and measurements with long-baseline stellar interferometers. The use of the catalog was illustrated. With this background, a collaboration was initiated amongst European groups. The intention is to have on online, all-sky catalog available - with the format of ESO catalogs. In January 2003, some added features were included for the AMBER consortium. The format of the calibrator catalog was presented and the quality flags were discussed. The calibrator selection tool, CALVIN, which selects calibrators from the list, was also presented. 593 potential calibrators are included in the list. Observations with baselines of about 100 m are not well equipped with calibrators from this list.

The calibrator measurements are being iteratively recomputed to refine the diameters and errors. Thousands of observations have gone into this work, whose completion is unlikely before the end of 2003.

A new release of the CHARM catalog is planned for 2003 that will include new VLTI measurements.

MSC: Calibrators and Observation Planning

The use and features of the getCal suite of software were described. The current Unix/Linux-based version is available through the MSC Download portal. A web-based version is under development and is anticipated to be available in September 2003. Future extensions to getCal were described, including its interface to a common calibrator catalog format.

The MSC is interested in participating in a community-wide common calibrator database. The group at the MSC coordinating work at the Palomar Testbed Interferometer, is planning to publish a catalog of ~275 PTI calibrators that have been used over the past years, having K magnitudes 2.5 2.5 and 5.0 (Lane and Creech-Eakman 2003). In particular the MSC proposes to collaborate with ESO to unify the database of calibrators and integrate it with the getCal suite of programs.

The Data Exchange Standard for Optical/IR Interferometry will also be supported through the MSC. Keck Interferometer visibility calibration tools are expected to support this data format by October 2003. Christian Hummel (NPOI/ESO) and Andy Boden (MSC/Caltech) are currently collaborating using data exchanged using this format.

Data Exchange Standard for Optical/IR Interferometry

On Designating Components of Binary/Multiple Star Systems

A brief summary was given of Special Session 3, "A New Classification Scheme for Double Stars", held on July 18th. In brief, the problem addressed in SpS3 was as follows: Improved observational techniques such as long-baseline interferometry have led to increasing overlap among previously isolated binary star period/separation regimes; one consequence is that the different component naming schemes used by practitioners of these various techniques are beginning to cause confusion in component identifications. A new nomenclature scheme, based on the one used in the Washington Double Star catalog, has been developed in order to address this confusion. A catalog of all types of binaries (including stars with both stellar and substellar companions) is being compiled as a part of this effort. Following a Type-C resolution adopted in Manchester in 2000, a sample portion of this catalog was prepared in time for discussion in Sydney. The working group's support was requested (and subsequently obtained) for a second Type-C resolution to extend this catalog to the entire sky. The complete Washington Multiplicity Catalog will be presented at the Prague GA in 2006.

Action Items Arising from the Meeting

• Wes Traub, the chair of the 2004 SPIE Interferometry Conference "New Frontiers in Stellar Interferometry" (SPIE AS05), to follow up with the chairs of the SPIE Glasgow Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation conference concerning recommendations for venue of SPIE 2006 meeting. (Orlando, Florida, was reported to be the chosen 2006 conference location. - PRL 17/02/04.)
• The Imaging Beauty Contest to be organized as an paper contributed to the conference "New Frontiers in Stellar Interferometry" (SPIE AS05).
• A paper summarizing the work on the OI-DATA format to be prepared by Tom Pauls, is to be presented at the conference "New Frontiers in Stellar Interferometry" (SPIE AS05).
• Work to be coordinated where possible between the European Southern Observatory and the Michelson Science Center to encourage the development of a common database for calibrator stars.
• Work be coordinated to complement and extend (where appropriate) work being undertaken by the European Interferometry Initiative.
• Greater involvement with Commissions of the IAU to coordinate science activities and broaden the work undertaken by the Working Group.

Report on the Division IX Meeting

Lawson reported on the activities of the Working Group. Ron Ekers reported that the Division and Executive were very favorable to renewing the Working Group and encouraged its activities. Colin Scarfe noted that the Working Group was taking on the responsibilities of a Commission and strongly encouraged the Division and Executive to consider creating a Commission on Optical/IR Interferometry. Chris Sterken noted that it had been his intention in creating the Working Group that this transition to a Commission would eventually occur. Any actions on this were deferred to 2006.

The possibility of creating a Working Group on Adaptive Optics was discussed. The possibility that Division IX would be re-organized to consist only of Working Groups was also discussed. The composition of the Division's new Organizing Committee was proposed and it was suggested that of the two remaining seats one could be occupied by the Chair of the Working Group on Optical/IR Interferometry (Lawson), so that the activities of the Working Group would be represented along with the activities of the Commissions. Decisions on these matters were deferred to a later date.

The incoming president of Division IX is Chris Sterken (Belgium), an active supporter of optical/IR interferometry within the IAU.

New IAU Members noted on display outside of IAU Closing ceremony

Rachel Akeson, Pascal Ballester, Andy Boden, Theo ten Brummelaar, Marc Ferrari, Vincent Coude du Foresto, Rudolf Danner, Mario Gai, Steve Kilston, John Monnier, Guy Perrin, Markus Schoeller, Damien Segransan, Nils Turner, Gerard van Belle, Jean Vernin, Francis Wilkin, Markus Wittkowski, Diane Wooden.

2006 IAU General Assembly is in Prague, 14-26 August 2006

2009 IAU General Assembly is planned for Rio de Janeiro

Deadline for submission of Manuscripts for IAU Transactions XXVB is October 15, 2003.

Related Events at the General Assembly

• 15 July 2003
  Opera House Opening Ceremony and General Assembly Session 1

• 17-19 July 2003 (starts afternoon of 17 July)
  Joint Discussion 08, Large Telescopes and Virtual Observatory: Visions for the Future

• 18-19 July 2003
  Special Session 2: Astronomy in Antarctica

• 19-20 July 2003
  Observatories and NSW Tour (Weekend)

• 21 July 2003
  Working Group on Optical/IR Interferometry Meeting
  Commission and Division Meetings

• 21-25 July 2003 (starts afternoon of 21 July)
  IAU Symposium 219: Stars are Suns: Activity, Evolution, and Planets

• 22-25 July 2003
  IAU Symposium 221: Star Formation at High Angular Resolutions

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