International Young Astronomer School on High Angular Resolution Techniques (2010)

November 1st to November 5, 2010 - Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France

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– PUBLIC : PhD Students, Post-Doc and Young Scientists

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– Organized by Île-de-France Doctorate School in Astronomy and Astrophysics

The Paris Doctoral School (École Doctorale d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique d’Île de France) organizes an international school on High Angular Resolution techniques from November 1st to November 5, 2010. Sessions will take place at the Paris Observatory Meudon site near Paris and at the Sèvres CIEP nearby. High Angular Resolution techniques is a very active field at Paris Observatory with recent contributions in various fields : images of stellar surfaces with interferometers, images of extrasolar planetary systems with adaptive optics and coronography, instrumental projects for the future JWST space telescope, for the VLT with SPHERE or for the VLTI with GRAVITY, project studies for the E-ELT. The wealth of HAR novelties will increase in 2010 – 2011 with the upcoming decisions on the E-ELT and the shipping of SPHERE to Paranal. Other such events are also occurring on other continents and other countries with the construction of ELTs, studies for space missions and attempts to image exoplanetary systems with other large telescopes.

The school will last one week to bring participants – 30 PhD students and post-docs – the basic knowledge on the different techniques as well as how they can be used for astrophysics purposes so that they can become advanced users or participate to instrument projects. Part of the program will benefit from the existing classes taught at the Paris Doctoral School. Sessions will comprise theoretical classes, seminars to illustrate the use of these techniques are used in astronomy and practical classes to learn how to master existing tools or to go further in the understanding of classes.

The school will address the three following items :

Adaptive optics ;
High dynamic imaging and coronography ;
Long baseline interferometry.

Each day will unfold according to the following template agenda :

Theoretical class ;
A seminar to present how the technique can be used in astronomy ;
A practical session to learn about tools for future use of the technique.

Participants will be selected using different criteria such as academic record, age, motivation to use high angular resolution techniques, etc … They will have to describe a simple proposal to use one of the techniques when submitting their proposal and they will present their idea to participants at the beginning of the school. The last day of the school will be devoted to the preparation of an observing proposal using the knowledge acquired during the week. Programs will be presented and discussed collectively for optimum feedback.