Max Planck Institute for Astronomy - Annual Report 2005
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy - Annual Report 2005
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