Global Small-Telescope Network including Maidanak Observatory

1. Global Small-Telescope Network including Maidanak Observatory Wen-Ping Chen National Central University Taiwan 2010 June 21

2. Earth at Night

3. Advantages in Taiwan:- Many high mountains- Western Pacific longitude- Low latitude variability studies

4. Maidanak Observatory Uzbekistan E66o56’; N38o41’ Yunnan ObservatoryChinaE102o47’; N25o02’ Lulin Observatory TaiwanE120o52’; N23o28’

5. History & Anecdotes • 2001 Jan - A Hojaev (Uzbekistan) participated in IAUC 183 in Taiwan • 2001 Aug - WP Chen and HT Lee from NCU visited Maidanak Observatory, enjoyed its astroclimate - used 0.6 m and 1.5 m for NGC 6823/6820 imaging - met with S Bartasiute (Lithuania) ; discussed possible joint efforts to renovate the 1 m • 2001 Sep – 2002 Feb - computer equipment to Uzbekistan - teamed up with L Zacs (Latvia) to propose to Taiwan-Baltic Foundation; decided to use open clusters as the central theme

6. 2001 August Maidanak

7. Sharp images taken by 1.5 m at Maidanak Observatory

8. 2002 May - MoU between NCU and UBAI • 2002 Jul - Taiwan-Baltic grant awarded • 2002 Oct - Dec - PMT instrument and computer equipment to Uzbekistan - Yunnan team, led by Prof Pei-Sheng Chen, who succeeded in upgrading an identical model of the 1 m a few years before, visited Maidanak and agreed to help the engineering • 2003 Feb - WP Chen (+ his wife) and CW Chen visited Vilnius; met G Tautvaisiene, J Sperauskas and other colleagues

9. 1 m to be ready by summer 2004; NCU will have > 1/3 time Good for monitoring and global campaigns Lee Hsu-Tai watching observer of the 1.5 m Zhang Zhi-Wei attaching AP-8 to one of the Zeiss 60 cm telescopes (2002.08)

10. 2003 Jun - agreement among NCU, ITPA,YunnanObs, and UBAI on the renovation and science • 2003 Aug - ZW Zhang observed at Maidanak; computer equipment to Uzbekistan • 2003 Sep - WP Chen attended conference in Vilnius for 250th anniversary of University Observatory • 2003 Nov - Taiwan-Baltic Workshop on “Dynamical and Chemical Evolution of Star Clusters”; meeting everyone in person

11. The Taiwan-Baltic Open Cluster Project Taiwan, Lithuania and Latvia A four-party agreement has been signed in 2003, that NCU (Taiwan) and ITPA (Lithuania) shall pool resources together to contract Yunnan Obs. (China) to renovate the 1-m of UBAI in Uzbekistan

12. EPA LABS TAOS C TAOS D T2M LELIS SLT(0.4m) TAOS B LOT(1M) TAOS A NCKU ELF

13. The Lulin 2 m Telescope • PS1 will find many peculiar objects/phenomena, and Lulin will follow them up in the first opportunity •  Secure the discoveries • Equipped with niche instruments, the Lulin 2 m will be very competitive scientifically • Telescope already in Taiwan • But the site is not, currently clearing the environmental impact assessment … 2010/03

14. Discovery images of Comet Lulin LOT Stellar occultation by an asteroid observed at Lulin Lulin in a world-wide campaign One of the supernovae found by Lulin Lulin in sync with a space telescope

15. Global Relay Observations of Blazars

16. Tenagra Observatories Michael Schwartz • Tenagra II and III, Sonoran desert in southern Arizona, near Mt. Hopkins and KPNO • Elevation = 1312 m • Typical humidity 25%, • Moderate but stable seeing 2-3” • Many clear nights www.tenagraobservatories.com/

17. Tenagra Observatories Michael Schwartz • Tenagra II 32” (0.81 m, f/7) (S. Arizona) $200/exposure hour • Tenagra III 16” (0.41 m, f/3.5) $150/exposure hour 4K x 4K x 9 microns 1.3” pixels, FOV=1.48 deg • Tenagra West Australia 14” (0.35 m f/9) $125/exposure hour • All automated (queued) observations, with non-sidereal tracking and the GRB mode We are subscribing a half-season rate $55,000, i.e., for half of every clear night, from Sep 15, 2009 to June 30, 2010

18. SMARTS(Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System) • Outgrowth from YALO • Some 9 member institutes/organizations in the consortium • 1.5 m for low-dispersion spectroscopy; 1.3 m (2MASS) for OIR imaging; 1 m and 0.9 m • At CTIO, with good seeing 1” • ~$1300 / user night; ~$1600 /service night • We get ~10 nights per year. • Vey useful southern sky coverage

19. Now something for this year …

20. Transit Timing Variation another planet?

21. Exoplanet Transit Observed at Lulin

22. Searching for Young Exoplanets in Galactic Open Clusters Young Exoplanet Transit Initiative (YETI) • No transiting exoplanets found so far around PMS stars • If detected  radius and density of young planets would give constraints on • the planet formation mechanism, e.g. whether they form by accretion (i.e. large when young) or gravitational collapse (i.e. small when young) • the time-scale of planet formation from the stellar age •  Monitoring young OCs (metal rich) nonstop (24/7) for exoplanets, and for stellar variability, e.g., pulsators, eclipsing, flare stars

23. So desperately in need of a site between Taiwan and Europe … • Possibilities: • Yunnan --- 2.4 m, site available, wet, but clear sky • Thailand --- 2.4 m, site difficult, wet, clear sky? • Uzbekistan --- excellent astroclimate, new scopes? • India --- 3.6 m Devasthal Observatory

24. Conclusion • Maidanak and Samarqand telescopes should be included in the global network of telescopes for monitoring observations, as have been done. • New scientific initiatives are being pursued with existing facilities. • To work with Uzbek, Japanese, Korean colleagues to improve the conditions, in infrastructure and instrumentation • New facilities may be established?