The next generation instrument for calar Alto's 3.5m telescope

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SOC: J. Alves, M. Casali, M. Colless, R. García-López, T. Henning, J. Masegosa, S. Pedraz, F. Prada, D. Reimers, H-W. Rix, M. Roth, S. Sánchez, U. Thiele, S. Warren

LOC: J. Alves, J. Masegosa, S. Pedraz, S. Sánchez, U. Thiele

Rationale:

There is a growing realization that 4m class telescopes have an important role to play in frontline Astrophysical research in the beginning of the 21st century. And as always, outstanding scientific breakthroughs are associated with outstanding instrumentation. To attack the pressing scientific challenges of the day, from Extra-Solar Planets to Cosmology, Calar Alto Observatory is now searching for outstanding ideas for the next generation instrument for its flagship telescope, the 3.5m.

The presentation and discussion of ideas on the next generation instrument will take place in a workshop in Granada, 11-13 June 2008, at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC). Following the workshop, there will be a Call for Proposals for Instruments open to the entire community. The selection of the best proposals will be done shortly after involving the Calar Alto Scientific Advisory Committee, and up to two design studies will be funded by Calar Alto.

Calar Alto Observatory is located in the Sierra de Los Filabres (Andalucía, Southern Spain) north of Almeria. It is operated jointly by the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA) in Heidelberg and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC) in Granada and its role is to provide world-class observing facilities to Spanish and German optical and infrared astronomers as well as the international community. Calar Alto currently provides three telescopes with apertures of 1.23m, 2.2m, and 3.5m together with state-of-the-art instrumentation.

Workshop de la Red de Infraestructuras de Astronomía (RIA)
La Red de Infraestructuras de Astronomía está financiada por la Dirección General de Política Tecnológica del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia con la acción CAC-2007-48