_______________________________________________________________________ NOTES FROM THE CTIOPI MEETING IN SANTIAGO ON AUGUST 13-14, 1999 (http://www.chara.gsu.edu/RECONS/ctiopi.meeting99) _______________________________________________________________________ IN ATTENDANCE Claudio Anguita Todd Henry Phil Ianna Rene Mendez Maria Teresa Ruiz _______________________________________________________________________ PROGRAM ISSUES We'll call this project CTIOPI. (I would be delighted to hear other offers here...) Our (current) mascot is GJ 2022C, otherwise known as Peanut Lobe, found while observing at the 0.9m on the first night of the program. T-shirts illustrating a coutour profile of Peanut Lobe can be purchased at the gift shop. _______________________________________________________________________ GOALS The following are general goals, suitably enhanced/expanded, as we discussed at the kickoff meeting in Santiago on August 13-14, 1999. Although there is certainly no one (yet) requiring us to meet these, it is good to have some idea where we are headed. 1. Have fun. If we're not at least having a good time working on this project, what's the point? 2. For June 2000 AAS 0.9m 1.5m preliminary parallaxes 24 12 5-10 mas final VRI photometry 50 25 0.02 mag initiate VLMBIN search 24 -- 3. By September 2001 (the two year mark) final parallaxes 48 24 3 mas final VRI photometry 200 100 0.02 mag _______________________________________________________________________ RESPONSIBILITIES The following were generally agreed upon areas for each of us to concentrate on, although I have taken the liberty of splitting the 1.5m and 0.9m astrometry into what seem to be natural categories. Do not hesitate to suggest other divisions of effort. It is best for CTIOPI if we play to our strengths, and I hope that we will all exchange targets for astrometry, photometry, and spectroscopy so that we can fully characterize each object. 1.5m Astrometry Anguita 0.9m Astrometry Ianna Data Reduction Pipeline Seitzer ??? Optical Photometry Ianna/Patterson in addition: Seitzer will continue using the Curtis/Schmidt to find more nearby candidates Ruiz has some data now and will continue observing the Calan-ESO fields that have already provided several targets for CTIOPI Mendez/Costa may propose to do a complimentary WT stars program that using available DD time Infrared Photometry (2MASS) Seitzer/Henry Optical Spectroscopy Ruiz Infrared Spectroscopy ??? Target Lists Henry/Mendez Distance Estimates Henry Bureaucratic Hassles Henry _______________________________________________________________________ SCIENCE/OBSERVING There was much discussion, led by the grand masters of astrometry, Anguita and Ianna, about the best ways to make astrometric observations. Much of their wisdom has been folded into a different document called ctiopi.observing which explains in detail the protocol we will follow when making observations. A copy can be found in the back of the finders book. Note that there is a finder book and a log book that will remain in Mendez's office in La Serena. YOU SHOULD PICK THESE UP BEFORE HEADING UP TO THE MOUNTAIN. _______________________________________________________________________ TARGET SELECTION In general, the following projects have been designed: CALESO Ruiz/Anguita MASSIF Henry/Ianna MOTION Ianna/Mendez RDWARF Mendez/Henry RECONS Henry/Ianna This is by no means an exhaustive list and additions can and should be made to the observing list during the next year. In fact, we need more targets! There are three categories of targets, GOLD, SILVER, and BRONZE. Here are a few guidelines for putting a target on the observing list: GOLD a. reliable photometric/spectroscopic distance estimate within 12 pc b. type M8 or later and reliable distance estimate within 20 pc c. proper motion greater than 2"/year SILVER a. reliable photometric/spectroscopic distance estimate within 20 pc b. proper motion greater than 0.5"/year -- we must get VRI photometry so that we can estimate the distance before observing intensely for parallax c. unreliable photometric/spectroscopic distance within 12 pc -- again, we must get VRI photometry first BRONZE a. other potentially interesting targets that do not quite meet the above two categories b. special programs (dwarf carbon stars, active stars) Adding a target to the observing list requires that all of the answers to the following questions are NO: 1. Does the target have a parallax in the Yale Parallax Catalog already? (you will certainly have to check SIMBAD for other names such as LHS/NLTT/Giclas) 2. Does the target have a parallax from Hipparcos? 3. Is Ianna already measuring the parallax from Australia? 4. Is the U.S. Naval Observatory already observing the target, or is it north of DEC -20 so they might do it? If the answers to the above four questions are NO, search for any BVRI photometry you can find, as well as a spectral type. RI photometry should be on the Cousins system. If not, make sure you tell Henry so that he can convert it for distance estimates. Send all your new target information to Henry and Mendez with 2000 coordinates, proper motion, and a finder 15 arcmin in size (or a description of the location of the star in the field so it can be identified once we download a finder from the DSS). _______________________________________________________________________ DATA HANDLING AND STORAGE The data will be written to DAT tape. Ianna is planning to purchase a 50 Gbyte disk to store data from this program. Data archiving will be accomplished using a perl script that reads headers from a nightly file. All data will be given to Ianna and a copy of (at least) the 1.5m data will be given to Anguita/Mendez. So, make TWO copies of the 1.5m data. Henry will probably travel to U. Virginia in September or October to assist in setting up the data archiving there. _______________________________________________________________________ PUBLICATIONS Authors on all CTIOPI papers will include the six coinvestigators plus any students/postdocs who do SIGNIFICANT work on the project. Lead authors will be determined by who is leading a particular effort (astrometry, photometry, spectroscopy), combined with those who have taken responsibility for developing astrophysically interesting sub-samples. Let us never forget that sample development is work, too! Individuals who have contributed targets to the program before publication (e.g. Delfosse, Gizis, Scholz) may be invited to be part of a related paper. _______________________________________________________________________ OBSERVING RUNS AND FUTURE SUPPORT Plan 0: We each cover one run per semester. The first semester coverage is: AUG Henry (with help from Ianna and Mendez) SEP Anguita OCT Ruiz NOV Ianna DEC Mendez JAN Seitzer Plan 1: We hire two night assistants who would be employed by CTIO, as was done for MACHO. Mendez found out from Malcolm Smith that it requires $80K to hire two night assistants. These two people would cover all of our observing time, as well as help keep the 0.9m open and increase the good karma of the universe. Henry will pursue this further with Malcolm via email once he returns to the US. Henry will include a request for support through the NStars Project in his upcoming grant renewal. In addition, Ianna will request a supplement to his NSF grant via the NStars Program. Note: the NStars Project is out of NASA Ames and is a distinct funding situation from the larger NStars Program, which is headquartered in Washington, DC. By trying two different directions, we hope to split the request into two smaller chunks. Cross your fingers. Plan 2: We hire an "outside" observer who travels from Santiago. The estimated cost to support such a person is $100/night for observing plus La Serena - Santiago airfare. The cost of food/lodging for the observer at CTIO has not yet been determined, but might be zero (Ruiz will check on this). Assuming one trip each month and eight nights on the mountain, the cost would be $1100/month ($13K/year) with no charge by CTIO, or $1600/month ($19K/year) if they charge the usual $60/night. The problems with this plan are 1) identifying and training a suitable person, and 2) the possibility that the 0.9m might be closed. Nevertheless, this is perhaps a good option if Henry/Ianna manage to raise some money but not enough to hire two night assistants. _______________________________________________________________________