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Max Planck Institute for Astronomy - Annual Report 2005

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I.3 National and International Cooperations<br />

Its location in Heidelberg embeds the MPIA into<br />

an exceptionally active astronomical environment.<br />

Cooperation with the department Kosmophysik of the<br />

MPI für Kernphysik and with the institutes of the<br />

Center <strong>for</strong> <strong>Astronomy</strong> Heidelberg (ZAH), established<br />

on January 1 st <strong>2005</strong>, are manifold (the ZAH consists<br />

of the Landessternwarte, the Astronomische Rechen-<br />

Institut, and the Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik<br />

der Universität). At present, this is particularly true <strong>for</strong><br />

the long-standing DFG-Sonder<strong>for</strong>schungsbereich No.<br />

439, »Galaxies in the Young Universe«, in which all<br />

Heidelberg institutes named above are participating.<br />

There is also a close cooperation within the »International<br />

<strong>Max</strong> <strong>Planck</strong> Research School« (IMPRS) <strong>for</strong> <strong>Astronomy</strong><br />

and Cosmic Physics (see I.4). In addition, MPIA supports<br />

the University of Heidelberg in its activities <strong>for</strong> the<br />

Excellence Initiative.<br />

Nationally, cooperation with the MPI für extraterrestrische<br />

Physik in Garching and the MPI für<br />

Radioastronomie in Bonn as well as with numerous<br />

German institutes is extensive. An overview is given in<br />

Fig. I.8.<br />

The establishment of the German Center <strong>for</strong><br />

Interferometry (Frontiers of Interferometry in Germany,<br />

or frinGe <strong>for</strong> short), located at MPIA, also emphasizes<br />

the <strong>Institute</strong>’s leading role in Germany in this trend-setting<br />

astronomical technique. The goal is to coordinate<br />

ef<strong>for</strong>ts made by German institutes in this field and to<br />

request the interests of German community in the<br />

European Interferometric Initiative. Another specific<br />

goal is the preparation of the next generation of interferometric<br />

instruments. This includes the preparation of<br />

second generation VLTI-instruments such as matiSSe<br />

(the <strong>for</strong>mer apréS-miDi) – an imaging interferometer<br />

consisting of four telescopes – and Gravity. Further<br />

tasks are: participation in the definition of new imaging<br />

capabilities of the VLT interferometer, and participation<br />

in preparing the Darwin space mission. frinGe,<br />

together with other interferometric centers in Europe,<br />

was partaking in the establishment of the European<br />

Interferometry Initiative. The long-term perspective is<br />

to establish a European interferometric center <strong>for</strong> the<br />

optical and infrared wavelength region. Apart from<br />

MPIA, the following institutes are participating in<br />

frinGe: the Astrophysikalische Institut Potsdam, the<br />

Astrophysikalische Institut der Universität Jena, the<br />

Kiepenheuer-Insitut für Sonnenphysik in Freiburg, the<br />

MPI für extraterrestrische Physik in Garching, the MPI<br />

für Radioastronomie in Bonn, the Universität Hamburg,<br />

and the I. Physikalische Institut der Universität zu Köln.<br />

MPIA is participating in a number of EU-networks<br />

and worldwide collaborations, in part as project leads.<br />

These include:<br />

Bochum<br />

Köln<br />

Bonn<br />

Kaiserslautern<br />

Darmstadt<br />

Mannheim<br />

Heidelberg<br />

Hamburg<br />

Braunschweig<br />

Tautenburg Dresden<br />

Jena<br />

Chemnitz<br />

Tübingen<br />

Donaueschingen<br />

Garching<br />

Freiburg München<br />

Potsdam<br />

Fig. I.8: Distribution of German partner institutes of MPIA<br />

OpticOn:. A network of all operators of major telescopes<br />

in Europe, financed by the European Union. Its<br />

one main goal is to optimize use of the scientific-technical<br />

infrastructure in order to increase scientific results<br />

and reduce costs. opticons other main goal is to coordinate<br />

technology development <strong>for</strong> the next generation<br />

ground-based telescopes.<br />

Within opticon, the Calar Alto Observatory with its<br />

2.2m and 3.5m telescopes is participating in the comet<br />

program that includes a total of 20 European telescopes.<br />

Observing teams from every country of the EU and<br />

associated countries that have been allocated observing<br />

time at the telescopes by the caha Program Committee<br />

get free access as well as scientific and technical support<br />

in the realization of their observations. For this service,<br />

caha is compensated financially from opticon.<br />

The matiSSe study at MPIA mentioned above is<br />

supported by opticon and the European Interferometry<br />

Initiative (EII), as is the software work on image reconstruction<br />

<strong>for</strong> Linc-nirvana (Chapter IV.4).<br />

opticon is also supporting a so-called Joint Research<br />

Activity (JRA) of MPIA with the Osservatorio Astrofisico<br />

di Arceti and the University of Durham and other partners.<br />

Within JRA a prototype of a multiple-field-of-view<br />

15

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