Calar Alto, the sky of Europe

Gilles Bergond, on behalf of the CAHA Astronomy Department

OPTICON Awareness conference, Brno, September 5th, 2015

The “Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán” (CAHA) is a private company w/public funding, shared CSIC (Spain)-MPG (Germany)

Outline

1. The site

2. The sky

3. The 1.2-m

4. The 2.2-m

5. The 3.5-m

1. The site

60's: Germany searched for a good observing site in the N, too;

Mediterranean sites tested (Birkle+1976) Calar Alto is the best.

2168-m high flat mountain in semi-desertic Spain: easy access!

2. The sky

Seasonal trends:

Good in Summer Variable in Winter Poor in Spring & Fall

183±18 nights clear for >6-hr/yr

> 6 h

- 70% nightime useful for observing(Sánchez+2007), ¾ in service mode

- 41% of the nights are fully useful

- 30% of the nights are photometric

- 0”84 arcsec median seeing in the V-band (RoboDIMM Aceituno 2004)

2,869,374 DIMM seeing values in 10 years

arcsec

%

07/12/2014

CAVEX (Calar Alto V-band EXtinction monitor, Thiele 2002)Median 0.16 (0.12 in Winter, ~0.2 in Summer due to dust)

EXCALIBUR measurements in 8 bands (3400-10200 Å, ~0.45 in U) for the extinction curve (aerosol content), Pérez-Rámirez+2008

Webcams(meteors,fireballs)24h/365d(see www.caha.es)

%

mag/airm.

10/01/2015434,011 extinction values in 10 years

ASTMON: all-sky (fisheye+CCD) SB in UBVRI (Aceituno+2011)

10/01/2015R-band

19/07/2015R-band

Moon rising behind 3.5!

3.5

2.21.2

- Almeria (300,000 inhabitants) lies 40 km S- Closest villages ~10 km away (but shield effect)

Becoming an issue, so protected dark area(s) proposed.

Andalusian regional government sky protection law (2010) being applied (e.g. changing Hg lamps→ low pressure Na).

Light pollution law

Calar Alto sky brightness in the NIRSince 1993 w/ MAGIC, one of the 1st NICMOS3 (256x256!) camera

Sánchez+2009 with Ω2000@3.5 data: comparable to all other observatories in J and H, only Mauna Kea is better in K-band.

Herbst et al., 20/07/1994

Calar Alto sky is well characterized (Sánchez+2009), monitored and protected: still a dark site despite densely populated coast.

Not on a remote island: easy,quick access from all Europe.

3. The 1.2-m telescope

- First telescope on site (1975), robotized (RTS2, Kubanek 2009) for remote observ. - 21'x21' frame-transfer CCD (DLR Berlin) - Long-term projects (KOI) or ToO (GRBs)

- Academies (training ~60 students a year)

- Visitor instruments tests: PlanetCam (UPV), Myosotis (Paris obs)

- Outreach projects: public nights w/eyepiece (world's largest visual telescope?), nice images (Documentary Photo Gallery)...

V.Peris, J.Harvey, S.Mazlin, J.Conejero, C.Sonnenstein

V.Peris, J.Harvey, J.Conejero

1.2m RGBHα TEXP ~ 24-hr

Five APOD byVicent Peris+(Valencia U.) V.Peris/J.Harvey

V. Peris et al.

4. The 2.2-m telescope(1979, ESO La Silla twin)

Oversubscription ~ 200%

E.de Juan

The 2.2-m instruments

5 available:

- CAFOS: workhorse (2k CCD, LR slit+MOS, polarimeter, FP)

- BUSCA: simultaneous photometry in 4 bands, FoV Ø12'

- ASTRALUX: lucky imaging in i and z (e.g. Kepler-37b)

- CAFÉ (Coudé): HR fibre-fed spectrograph (Kepler-91b)

- new PANoramic Infrared Camera (z to K): field 30'x30'

Visitor instruments: PlanetCAM1&2, MYOSOTIS, ...

CAFOS Imaging FoV 16' BUSCA 300-s in uvyI, Ø12'

AstraLux (Hormut 2010)

PlanetCAM1

Astralux

Sánchez-Lavega+2014

CAFÉ (Calar Alto Fiber-fed Échelle) Fully designed and built in CAHA: Aceituno & Sanchez (2011)

2”4 on sky fibre, 3960-9500 Å at R~67,000, accuracy ~10 m/s

Kepler-91b: 1st CAHA exoplanet confirmed (Lillo-Box & Barrado 2011)

J. Lillo-Box's thesis (2015) based on CAFÉ+KEPLER data

Kepler field ideally located for CAHA latitude:observable whole night during the nice Summer

zYJHKs, 30'x30' (gaps 75”). Surveys, e.g. complete UKIDSS at δ>60º

K. Mesenheimer (quicklook reduction)PANIC 1st light (Nov. 2014) waiting for Sept. 28th eclipse!

5. The 3.5-m telescope Built 1984, still the largest in Europe!

Oversubscription~200%

E.de Juan

The 3.5-m instrumentsFive currently (six soon) available:

Prime Focus

- LAICA: four 4k CCDs, 31 filters (350-970 nm)

- Omega 2000: 2k HgCdTe, 29 filters (z to K)

Cassegrain

- TWIN long-slit spectrographs

- MOSCA image + LS/MOS spec.

- PMAS: 16” lens array or >1' IFU (256 fibres of 2”7)

(Coudé: CARMENES fibre-fed HR vis.+NIR spectrograph)

LAICA 4x15'x15', wide+medium-band filters (20 for the Alhambra survey)

1 sq.deg.=4 LAICApointings

NGC 7331 (APOD)LAICA ~2 h in BVrGalactic cirrus(?)

V.Peris/G.Bergond

M31 nucleus: 1.2+LAICA 489/644 nm

V.P

eris

/J.H

arve

y/S.

Maz

lin/

G.B

ergo

nd

Omega 2000 2k HAWAII-2 (z to K)29 filters available!Scale of 0”45/pixel(FoV15'x15'=1LAICA) 1.23(Hα,OIII) + Ω2000 (H2) + LAICA (BVR): M57 (APOD)

V.Peris/J.L.Lamadrid/J.Harvey/S.Mazlin/A.Guijarro

Two nice but 20-year old spectrographs about to retire... except if demand remains high!

MOSCA Imager + pola.+ LS (R < 1000) + MOS (masks)

TWIN 4-arcmin longslit spectro.2 arms (beam split), max 3200-11000 Å 13 gratings from R ~ 3000 to R ~ 14000

PMAS (Postdam MultiAperture Spectro.)AIP, Roth+2005

Two modes:

array 16”x16”orIFU 74”x65”(331 + 36 sky fibres of 2”7) 10 gratings ofR ~ 500-20000[3600-10000Å]

Intern/extern.lamps (flexure)

New cE galaxy in the NGC 5846 group (Chilingarian & Bergond 2009)

PMAS Larr: 16x16 µ-lens array (1”/pixel)

PMAS PPAK: >1 arcmin^2 fibre bundle

331 fibres of 2”7 on sky:

Fine for low SB objectsat low resolutionS

36 sky fibres lying at 1'5

Complex reduction donew/ pipelines (P3D, R3D)SDSS Reconstructed

CALIFA survey CALIFASánchez+2012

5-year survey(300 nights) of~ 600 galaxies(0.005<z<0.03)

Two setups:3700-7500 Å (R~850) and3700-4200 Å(at R~1800)

Pipeline proc-essed data for 200 galaxies inDR2 (low+hi.R)(García+2014)

Survey-mode instrument to be installed at 3.5-m Coudé by 2015:600 GT nights (80% of observing time) until 2018 (2024? ->PLATO)

Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Échelle Spectrographs

Searching for Earths around 300 M dwarfs

- VIS 550-950 nm and NIR 950-1700 nm (dichroic + ADC)

- R~82,000 in both channels (2nd fibre for sky or sim. calib.)

- Tanks in Coudé: high stability (1 m/s expected w/sim. calib!), 60 repeated observations for all visible M dwarfs within 30 pc.

NGC40 (30-s autoguider exp.)

How to apply to CAHA telescopes?http://www.caha.es/CAHA/Applications/index.html 2016A open-time deadline: September 30th, 2015 24:00 GMT

Observatory current observing mode – to change in 2016:- Multi-purpose (75% service mode), 3 telescopes, 12 instr. - Free nights for Spanish/German PIs, incl. GTO programs.

3.5-m: only ~20% of open time (~80% for CARMENES)...2.2-m: 20% open time, 30% GTO, and 50% on a pay basis.1.2-m: 365 nights a year for sale -- 300 € (+VAT) per night!

Apply now to buy telescope time _________________________________________________

Or apply for OPTICON support: up to 10 nights on the 3.5-m!

All post-2009 data archived (public after one year) by Spanish VO.Browse and datamine the general and dedicated survey archives!

100,000 photo-z for sources F814W<23

DR2 (Oct.14):400 datacubes~1,000,000 spectra>100,000 downloads

“A northern hemisphere observatory will be constructed in the Mediterraneanarea. This observatory for problems of the northern sky should not be too

far away so that it can be used for the education of students also, butthe climatic conditions must be much more favourable than those of our

country.” (H. Elsässer, ESO/CERN CONFERENCE ON LARGE TELESCOPE DESIGNGeneva, March 1-5, 1971)

¡Hasta la vista en Calar Alto!

The future: updated/new? instruments

- PMAS laser frequency comb (innoFSPEC team 1st tests) simultaneous λ-calibration;

- PANIC detectors update (current have up to 20% of hot pixels);

- Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (see Iglesias+2013):1<R<20000 in the whole visible range (reusing Alhambra filters) over a ~10' (2.2 and 3.5-m) to 25' (1.2-m) diameter FoV.

- Super PMAS? Massive MOS (XMS 3.5-m project, Durham Univ.)

… and reopen small telescopes on site!

The 0.8/1.2-m Schmidt telescope

- Let from Hamburg university (built 1955, fully updated 2015)

- Some attempts to use it w/CCDs

- 2nd life: European Spatial Agency search for spatial debris/NEOs

K.Birkle E.de Juan

Beyond 2018: Gran Telescopio Andaluz?

6.5-m HEXA concept study (RC f/3.6 = 1º), “crisis frozen” project.Main idea behind HEXA: massive spectroscopic follow-up of GAIA.

Not windy (>20 m/s only 0.2% of the time), spacy, easy to reach: good site for larger telescopes. Spanish politicians will decide...