***************************************************************************** BOLETIM ELETRONICO SAB N. 236 - 12/05/2004 ***************************************************************************** SECAO: INFORMES/OPORTUNIDADES Responsavel: Vera Ap.F. Martin (vmartin@uefs.br) ***************************************************************************** 1. INAUGURACAO TELESCOPIO SOAR 2. CONCURSO PUBLICO DE PROVAS E TITULOS - UERN (edital em anexo) 3. OBSERVATORIO GEMINI - SYSTEM VERIFICATION NIRI-ALTAIR ***************************************************************************** 1. INAUGURACAO TELESCOPIO SOAR (comunicacao do socio Albert Bruch) Prezado(a)s colegas: O sabado, 17 de abril de 2004, foi um dia de festa e um dia de grande importancia para a astronomia brasileira. Na presenca de autoridades e representantes dos quatro parceiros, da sociedade chilena e da comunidade astronomica internacional, foi inaugurado o telescopio SOAR. Nao ha necessidade de ressaltar aqui o que este novo recurso observacional significa para todos nos. Sabemos bem isso. Agora estamos ansiosos para utilizar o SOAR como "navio almirante" dos nossos observatorios. Queremos usufruir da alta capacidade do telescopio para executar pesquisas de ponta, em qualidade e quantidade sem precedentes. Mas nao vamos ficar impacientes! O SOAR encontra-se agora numa fase critica que define se o telescopio ira se tornar aquele instrumento de qualidade soberba que todos nos esperamos - "o maior telescopio de 4 metros do mundo" - ou somente mais um instrumento entre muitos dessa classe. Isso depende em muito dos trabalhos arduos da equipe tecnico-cientifico do SOAR para otimizar todos os seus subsistemas. Ciente da importancia desses trabalhos para o desempenho futuro do telescopio, o Conselho Diretor do SOAR, na sua reuniao de 18 de abril, determinou que a otimizacao do instrumento devera ter prioridade sobre o inicio precipitado das operacoes cientificas. O Diretor do SOAR foi avisado a continuar os trabalhos de testes e ajustes do telescopio e dos instrumentos perifericos - bem encaminhados e bem sucedidos ate agora - e somente proceder ao inicio das observacoes cientificas apos ter chegado aos valores especificados originalmente para o desempenho do SOAR. Portanto, nao e possivel determinar uma data na qual poderemos comecar a fazer pesquisa com o SOAR. O LNA se compromete a deixar nossa comunidade astronomica informado. O Conselho Diretor do SOAR tem certeza da compreensao da comunidade astronomica de que, neste momento, a otimizacao do telescopio e mais importante do que resultados cientificos rapidos mas mediocres, e solicita um pouco de pacienica dos futuros usuarios. Em nome do Laboratorio Nacional de Astrofisica como Escritorio Nacional do Projeto SOAR, Atenciosamente, Albert Bruch ======================================================================= 2. CONCURSO PUBLICO DE PROVAS E TITULOS - UERN (comunicado pelo socio Gustavo Porto de Mello) Concurso Publico de Provas e Titulos para Docentes e Tecnicos Especializados. O Reitor da Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte - UERN, no uso de suas atribuicoes legais e estatutarias, por intermedio da Comissao de Concurso para Docentes e Tecnicos Especializados - C. C. D.T., e em conformidade com o que dispoem o artigo 37, inciso II, da Constituicao Federal, o artigo 26, Inciso II, da Constituicao do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte, o artigo 33 do Regimento Geral da UERN e, ainda, o Ad Referendum N.º 013/2004- CONSEPE, torna publico a inscricao ao CONCURSO PUBLICO DE PROVAS E TITULOS para o ingresso de Professor na Carreira do Magisterio Publico do Ensino Superior e Tecnicos Especializados do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte, na UERN, para os Departamentos, Cursos, Setores, areas/disciplinas, titulacao, local e regime de trabalho, classe e referencia, conforme dispoe o presente EDITAL (em anexo), sob o Regime Juridico Unico dos Servidores Publicos Civis do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte. O Concurso oferece 119 (cento e dezenove) vagas de Docentes e 09 (nove) vagas de Tecnicos Especializados, conforme edital. ============================================================================ 3. OBSERVATORIO GEMINI - SYSTEM VERIFICATION NIRI-ALTAIR (comunicado pelo socio Max Faundez-Abans) O LNA/NGO anuncia a oportunidade de participar no NIRI + ALTAIR System Verification. As propostas tem que ser submetidas a brevedade. Veja a continuacao maiores informacoes. NIRI SPECTROSCOPY + ALTAIR : CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR SYSTEM VERIFICATION Dear Colleagues, ALTAIR, Gemini's adaptive optics instrument, is now in frequent use with NIRI in imaging mode, with image sizes well under 0.10 arcseconds at H and K being delivered routinely if the natural seeing is not much worse than average. It is now time for the system verification (SV) process for ALTAIR with NIRI in spectroscopic mode (ALTAIR+NIRIsp). Note that ALTAIR+NIRIsp was offered as part of the 2004B Call for Proposals. We are contacting you because you are either Gemini staff, a member of the Altair instrument team, or a member of a National Gemini Office. We strongly encourage you to contact colleagues and communities and to submit projects. Collaboration is highly encouraged since there is a limited amount of observing time. We anticipate using 8-12 clear hours for Altair+NIRIsp SV. Because of the variation of the seeing with zenith angle, we would prefer to observe objects within 45 degrees of the zenith (although we do not absolutely exclude larger zenith angles). This, coupled with the likely dates of the SV observing, in early June suggests that targets should have RA's in the range 12-24. ALTAIR+NIRIsp is conducted at f/32 (0.022 arcsec/pixel) along the slit direction. NIRI possesses J, H, and K grisms for use at f/32, respectively covering the following wavelength intervals: 1.05-1.35, 1.49-1.80, and 1.97-2.41 microns. Each SV program must make use of at least one of these grisms and of either of the two narrow slits (the 4 or the 7 pixel wide slits, with widths of approximately 0.08 and 0.14 arcsec. Resolving powers typically range from 600 to 1200. The properties of these grisms and of the slits that they utilize are given on the NIRI web pages. A brief discussion of the sensitivity of ALTAIR+NIRIsp is given on the NIRI "Performance and Use" webpage, but is repeated here. No ITC is available for this mode. However,one can obtain a rough estimate of time requirements by using the NIRI ITC at f/6 with the narrowest (2 pixel wide f/6) slits, best (20%) image quality, and 25x shorter individual exposures than will actually be used (as the sky and telescope background per pixel will be 25 times less than at f/6. E.g., to estimate the S/N in one hour of integration consisting of twelve 300-second exposures in the low readnoise mode for f/32 spectroscopy, in the ITC one should specify f/6 spectroscopy and 300 exposures of 12 seconds each in low readnoise mode. Other issues to consider are the limited isoplanatic field of view delivered by Altair and the extendedness of the target. For best results the visible AO guide star must be located within about 7 arcseconds of the target. Sensitivity on objects that are further separated or too extended will suffer greatly from the small pixel size used at f/32 without benefiting much from the AO sharpening. Hence, small objects with spatial structure will be strongly preferred over highly extended objects. Note that the OIWFS will not be used for Altair spectroscopy at this time. There is additional information on the Altair webpages about the isoplanatic field of view, guide star requirements and much more. The Main ALTAIR, "Performance and Use," and "Commissioning Performance" web pages are located at: http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/altair/altairIndex.html http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/altair/altairPerformance.html and http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/altair/ altairCommissioningPerformance.html The SV process uses the normal proposal tools. Therefore you must submit your program (by e-mail, see below), including brief scientific and technical justifications, observing constraints, target lists, and instrument configurations using the 2004A Phase I Tool, see http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/P1help/p1Index.html Scientific justifications should be brief (maximum 500 words). Technical justifications should be complete enough that feasibility can be assessed easily. Data reduction and analysis should be completed 2 to 3 months after the observations have been obtained. The data will be made public as part of the normal SV process. THE DEADLINE FOR THE SV PHASE I XML FILES IS FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2004. The XML files must be emailed directly to Chad Trujillo at trujillo@gemini.edu. Early submissions will be appreciated. We will inform PIs of the results of the selection process by the end of May. At that time we will solicit Phase II files for the selected projects. Because of time constraints, PI's will need to be prepared to act quickly if their proposals are accepted. Submitting a SV program or even having a SV program selected as high priority does not guarantee that data will be taken. Selection for SV will be based not only on scientific and technical merit, but also on the abilities of the proposers to reduce the data and provide feedback within a reasonable time. The proprietary period for SV data is two months. PIs and their collaborators will need to provide reduced data for public release. Sincerely, Chad Trujillo, Tom Geballe, and Francois Rigaut Gemini Observatory 670 N. A'ohoku place University Park Hilo HI 96720-2700 ******************************************************************************