CFHT Users’ Meetings take place every three years and their
location alternates between
The next CFHT Users'
Meeting will take place on May 9 to 11, 2007 in downtown Marseille, France. It will come at a time when
exciting scientific results are being published using the three highly
competitive instruments in operation, MegaCam, WIRCam and ESPaDOnS, more
observing time is expected to be made available in mid-2008 with the end of the
bulk of CFHTLS observations, and many questions and ideas are in the air about
what to do with the telescope in 2011 and beyond.
The 2007 Users' Meeting will therefore
offer the opportunity to present and discuss a few "hot topics" on
three main themes:
A review of the ongoing science
- The latest news on the scientific results of the CFHT
Legacy Survey, which represents a huge investment of observing time on CFHT.
- A highlight on other ongoing scientific programs,
including the spectacular results from the first two years of operation with ESPaDOnS, with ample space for posters and enough time for
key oral presentations.
What to do once the CFHTLS is
completed?
In the [2008-2010] period, the 100-night a year currently
used by the CFHTLS will be available to the CFHT communities for large programs
on either (or all) of the three main instruments CFHT will offer, for another
Legacy Survey, or for PI programs. What would you like to see happening:
- A follow-up of the CFHTLS? (continuation
of current topics with MegaCam and WIRCam)
- A CFHTLS-2? (new topics, eg a joint MegaCam/WIRCam survey
for stellar physics)
- Observing campaigns on ESPaDOnS?
- Other ideas?
2011 and beyond
The current "Golden Age Plan" calls for the CFHT
Corporation to be in good shape staff- and operation-wise by the end of 2010. A
few questions remain to be answered in a relatively near future to see what
happens next.
·
What
level of accessibility to the observatory do the current CFHT communities want
to maintain beyond 2011?
·
Which
instruments in addition to the current ones should be made available?
·
Back
to high angular resolution (VASAO or other AO developments), and for which instrumentation?
·
Interferometry (‘OHANA , …)
·
Spectropolarimetry in the IR (SpIRou)?
·
Very
high accuracy radial velocity observations?
·
A
bigger WIRCam?
·
...?
The theme
of the 2007 annual CASCA meeting, to be
held one month after the CFHT Users’ Meeting, is: “Big science in small
packages: smaller-scale facilities in an era of large-scale projects”. CFHT is
an excellent example of such facilities. So, if you are a CFHT user or if you
are interested in the future activities of the telescope and in the Canadian
involvement in this future do not hesitate and make the trip to Marseille!
Whichever way you wish for CFHT to
evolve into, you will have to make it known in order to make it happen. So,
look at the information given on the Users’
Meeting web site, accessible from the CFHT web page at www.cfht.hawaii.edu. Register, submit
talks or posters you would like to present, and participate!
In order to prepare the 2007 Users'
Meeting, a web/email based forum has been set up and you are encouraged
to register. Discussions are going to start any time now. The forum is visible
by all, but posting is restricted to those who register.
Thanks in advance for your
involvement, which is going to be essential to draw the future of your access
to CFHT.