CHARA Year Six Science Review

Hosted by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute

Pasadena, California

March 9-11, 2010

At the kind invitation of Dr. Chas Beichman, Director of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, members of the CHARA collaboration gathered at Caltech in Pasadena for a three-day review of scientific and technical progress made during 2009. That year was a particularly significant one for CHARA as well as for Mount Wilson Observatory as a result of the dire threat posed by the Station Fire during August and September followed by extensive road closures resulting from rock and mud slides. Although CHARA science operations were significantly interrupted by those events, 2009 was still a productive year with significant advances on a number of fronts including new beam combiners and imaging achievements.

The scientific program was organized by Dr. Theo ten Brummelaar, CHARA's Associate Director. We particularly thank Dr. Rachel Akeson of NExScI for her efforts in providing the excellent local support enjoyed by the participants in this meeting.

The participants in "CHARA Year Six" are shown in the photograph and key below. We were pleased to see additional Caltech and JPL people dropping in during the course of the meeting.

Copies of the presentation materials, arranged according to the meeting agenda, are linked below.

Copies of the presentations at the CHARA Year Six Science Review are available here:

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - CHARA Instrumentation and Observing Updates:

CHARA Classic Throughput - Theo ten Brummelaar, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson

Developments in the CHARA Lab - Judit Sturmann, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson

Telescope Alignment - Laszlo Sturmann, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson

Weather and Seeing Statistics - Nils Turner, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson

MIRC/CHAMP Status and Uptdates - Fabien Baron, UM, Ann Arbor

FLUOR Instrumentation - Benjamin Mollier, Paris Obs., Meudon

VEGA: Status and Future Plans - Denis Mourard, OCA, Nice

VLTI Update and A Proposal for Optical 'Self-Cal' - Gerard van Belle, ESO, Garching

Keck Interferometer: Status and Update - Sam Ragland, KI, Waimaia

Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer - Michelle Creech-Eakman, MRO, Socorro

SUSI Update - Michael Ireland, U. Sydney, Sydney

NPOI Progress Since SPIE 2008 - Don Hutter, USNO, Flagstaff

Station Fire - Larry Webster, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson

Observers Reports 2009 - P.J. Goldfinger, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson


Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - CHARA Instrumentation and Observing Updates (cont.):

CHARA Community Access Experiment - Steve Ridgway, NOAO, Tucson

CHARA Future Directions - Steve Ridgway, NOAO, Tucson


Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - Science from the CHARA Array:

FLUOR Science - Vincent Foresto, Paris Obs., Meudon

PAVO Science and Instrument Review - Michael Ireland, U. Sydney, Sydney

VEGA Science Update: Fundamental Parameters - Nicolas Nardette, OCA, Nice

MIRC Closure Phase Studies for Detection of Hot Jupiters - Ming Zhao, JPL, Pasadena

Exoplanet Host and K Giant Star Project Status - Ellyn Baines, NRL, Washington

lambda Andromedae Imaging Status - Rob Parks, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta

Algol with MIRC - Fabien Baron, UM, Ann Arbor

Masses and Radii of Young Stars - Russel White, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta

Self-Calibrating Multiple Systems - David O'Brien, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta

A Survey of Stellar Families - Multiplicity of Solar-Type Stars - Deepak Raghavan, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta

Separated Fringe Packet Binary Star Program - Chris Farrington, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson

CHARA/MIRC Imaging: Recent Progress in Understanding &epsilon Aurigae - Robert Stencel, U. Denver


Thursday, March 11, 2010 - Science from the CHARA Array (cont.):

Be Star Observations with CLASSIC and MIRC - Yamina Touhami, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta

Monitoring Changes in Be Star Disks Using MIRC - Gail Schaefer, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson

Be Star Observations with VEGA/CHARA - Omar, Delaa, OCA, Nice

Infrared Observations of Young Stellar Objects at CHARA - Rafael Millan-Gabet, NExScI, Pasadena

TW Hya: Where's the Gap? - Rachel Akeson, NExScI, Pasadena

Fundamental Parameters of Low-Mass Stars - Kaspar von Braun, NExScI, Pasadena

Mass Loss Constraints for Massive Stars with the CHARA Array - Noel Richardson, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta

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Last updated: 16 March 2010