Astronomical News

Figure 5. Image of the Gegenschein obtained in October 2007 above Paranal Observatory. Y. Beletsky/ESO Y. correction of the background (see Fig- ures 3 and 4).

Subsequent observations with IRAS and more sensitive photometric observations from NASA’s STEREO satellites3 have revealed a circumsolar dust concentra- tion in a ring along the orbit of Venus. This was expected and is caused by the influence of the planet’s gravitational ­resonance on the particles (Dermott et al., 1994; Jones et al., 2013). A brighten- ing of the zodiacal cloud by ~ 10 % near the apex of the ’s orbital motion has also been found (Dermott et al., 1994).

Recent observations of nearby stars have demonstrated that the Solar System may not be the only one to exhibit zodiacal Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic) for Low, F. J. et al. 1984, AJ, 278, L15 light. Data from the Very Large Telescope significant support of the image processing of Figure 4, Marion, L. et al. 2014, A&A, 570, A127 and to Bob Fosbury for illuminating discussions. Nesvorný, D. et al. 2003, ApJ, 591, 486 Interferometer have revealed that other Nesvorný, D. et al. 2010, ApJ, 713, 816 planetary systems are also surrounded Reach, W. T. et al. 1995, Nature, 374, 521 by interplanetary dust leading to zodiacal References Rowan-Robinson, M. & May, B. 2013, MNRAS, light, but much brighter than in the Solar 429, 2894 Christensen, L. L., Noll, S. & Horálek, P. 2016, Schulz, R. et al. 2015, Nature, 515, 216 System (for example, Lebreton et al., 2013; The Messenger, 163, 38 Marion et al., 2014; Ertel et al., 2015). Dermott, S. F. et al. 1994, Nature, 369, 719 Dermott, S. F. et al. 1984, Nature, 312, 505 Links Ertel, S. et al. 2015, The Messenger, 159, 24 Guess, A. W. 1962, AJ, 135, 855 1 IRAS: http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/iras.html Acknowledgements Horálek, P. et al. 2016, The Messenger, 163, 41 2 COBE satellite: http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/­ Jones, M. H., Bewsher, D. & Brown, D. S. 2013, product/cobe/ The contribution of David Nesvorný was supported Science, 342, 960 3 NASA STEREO satellites: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa. by the Southwest Research Institute. We are grateful Lebreton, J. et al. 2013, A&A, 555, A146 gov/mission/mission.shtml to Prof. Miloslav Druckmüller (Inst. of Mathematics,

The First NEON School in La Silla

Michel Dennefeld1 The NEON Observing Schools have long performed with two tele­scopes, includ- Claudio Melo 2 provided PhD students with prac­tical ing the New Tech­nology Telescope. Fernando Selman2 experience in the preparation, execution­ A brief description of the school is pre- and reduction of astronomical observa- sented and the observing projects and tions, primarily at northern observato- their results are described. 1 Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, ries. The NEON School was held in Chile CNRS, and Université P. et M. Curie, for the first time, with observations Paris, France being conducted at La Silla. The school After many years of discussions and 2 ESO was attended by 20 students, all from preparations, the NEON Observing South America, and observations were School could finally take place at La Silla

The Messenger 164 – June 2016 47 Astronomical News Dennefeld M. et al., The First NEON School in La Silla

for the first time, from 22 February to Figure 1. Two of the 4 March 2016, with joint sponsorship ­student project groups 1 around the EFOSC2 from ESO and OPTICON and strong Nasmyth focus of the support from the ESO Director General, NTT during the NEON the Director for Science and the Heads School at La Silla. of the Office for Science.

As is well known by now, the NEON Schools are intended to provide PhD stu- dents with practical training on how to prepare and execute an observing pro- gramme. The schools have taken place in several active observatories, compris- ing the Network of European Observa­ tories in the North (NEON; including ­Asiago, Calar Alto, Haute-Provence and La Palma), with which ESO is also associ- training for future use of larger (VLT) facili- with Son of ISAAC (SOFI). This approach ated. Devoting a small fraction of the time ties. But it is still a bit too “automatic” to allowed four out of the eight stars ob­­ at 4- and 2-metre-class telescopes to understand all the details needed to served to be confirmed as young stars of training purposes can thus be regarded operate less advanced facilities. Thus, the same age. as a useful investment for the overall effi- since according to the local Chileans, ciency of all the facilities, developing the NTT also means No Tocar al Telescopio The group led by Fernando Selman and observing skills of the next generation of (“Do not touch the telescope”), we also Evelyn Johnston (ESO) tried to disentan- astronomers. used the Danish 1.54-metre telescope, gle the counter-rotating discs in the len- made available during Czech time ticular galaxy IC 719. Long-slit spectros- The format of the schools is similar: thanks to Petr Pravec and with the sup- copy with EFOSC for velocities, and B, beginning with writing a proposal followed port of Jan Janik (Mazaryk University), V, R, Hβ photometry with the Danish by the preparation of observations who came over specially to support our 1.54-metre (the Hα filter had inexplicably (instrument set-up, calibrations, etc.) and run. The various science programmes disappeared...) revealed the different the observations themselves, then com- used, as far as possible, a combination of structures, and that more than one stellar pleting the data reduction and finally pre- both telescopes and instruments. component (identified through Lick indi- senting the results. Work is carried out in ces) was present from the radial veloci- small groups of four students, with each The observations were prepared in ties. Evidence was also found for a young group under the supervision of an experi- ­Santiago, prefaced by a set of lectures stellar population. This is clearly a case enced tutor, who also provides the sci- on fundamental observing techniques, where a full 3D map with the Multi-Unit ence project to be executed. This kind of instrument and detector properties and Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) would training is much needed, as instruments data reduction. The full programme of the reveal the full power of this technique. are getting more and more complex, and school can be found on the dedicated many observatories (and ESO not least...) website2. The tutors leading the observa- The group led by Giacomo Beccari (ESO) offer a large fraction of their observing tions in groups were all current, or former, tried to find protoplanetary discs around time at the large telescopes in Service ESO staff in Chile, and thus perfectly young stars, from ultra-violet, Hα or infra- Mode, so that practical experience can aware of all the requirements and instru- red excesses. Multi-band photometry be lacking for many young astronomers. ment performance. of candidate regions in Carina was done at the Danish 1.54-metre telescope. As Hα imaging was not possible, Brackett γ The La Silla school Group projects imaging was done instead with SOFI at the NTT. Finally, six new disc candidates So, how did it work in La Silla? Thanks The group led by Amelia Bayo (University were identified, whose confirmation is to a generous allocation from the Direc- of Valparaiso) and Koraljka Muzic (ESO, pending with spectroscopy. tor’s Discretionnary Time, the New Tech- and University of Diego Portales) studied nology Telescope (NTT) was made availa- the widest binary stars in young stellar Linda Schmidtobreick (ESO) observed a ble for three nights for the school, close groups from the Search for Associations candidate cataclysmic variable detected to full Moon. As the operations there are Containing Young stars (SACY) sample, in the (SDSS) quite similar to the Very large Telescope to find out whether or not they belonged with her group, in order to measure/con- (VLT), with an operator for the telescope, to the same group. The Hα and Li I 6708 Å firm its both by photometry, the same set of observing preparation lines were used as age indicators and and by radial velocity measurements. tools and operations principles (observ- observed with the ESO Faint Object Long series of imaging (with the Danish ing blocks to prepare, pipelines for Spectrograph and Camera (EFOSC), 1.54-metre telescope) and spectroscopy reduction, etc.), this provided an excellent and the K I + Na I lines were observed (with EFOSC at the NTT) data were thus

48 The Messenger 164 – June 2016 and La Silla, including nice lunches in the ESO gardens in Vitacura.

Prospects

One may wonder about the motivation to organise such a school at La Silla, as it is not especially intended for European students, who have ample opportunities to attend the regular NEON Schools in Europe, except for those students doing their PhDs in Chile. In fact, there is a high demand, as shown by the huge number Figure 2. All NEON School students and tutors pose proved to be a young Type Ia supernova, of applications, and it is in ESO’s interests in the dome of the ESO 3.6-metre telescope for a caught about one week before maximum, (and the European community at large) to group portrait. while the other, Gaia16afz, was classified ensure the efficient use of its facili- as a dwarf nova in eruption. Both results ties, which are open to everybody, since obtained, the expected periods being were immediately published as Astrono- the allocation of observing time is based about 80 minutes. The students, after mer’s Telegrams, Nos. 8754 and 8766, on scientific merit only. In addition, the being confronted by all sorts of drifting respectively. Many of the other results operation of all the facilities in Chile and aliasing problems, could finally show from the student groups will also lead to requires a large number of dedicated and that the real period was in fact closer to publications, but over a slightly longer skilled astronomers and engineers, who 3–4 hours for one target, and 6–7 hours timescale. have to be trained somewhere. In this for the other, but longer series of data sense, such a school also reinforces the are still needed to confirm these values. European links with the local commu­ Another, unknown, variable star was also Back to Santiago nities and emphasises the various job found in one of the fields, the nature of opportunities for the future. The success which remains to be clarified. The last days in Santiago were mainly of the present event is already generating devoted to data reduction, before the sci- suggestions for future similar schools, a Finally, Bruno Dias (ESO) conducted an entific results were presented on the last point well taken at ESO, and enthusiasti- ambitious, and difficult (at least for begin- day of the school. In addition, lectures cally supported by the ESO tutors. It is a ners) multi-object spectroscopy pro- on other topics of great interest for the revival of past successes as the first gramme at the NTT with his group, to future were presented: on the Atacama observing school was organised jointly by determine the nature of the globular clus- Large Millimeter/submilllimeter Array ESO and Centre national de la recherche ter NGC 3201: whether it is a member (ALMA), on adaptive optics, the European scientifique (CNRS) at the Haute-Provence of the or an absorbed dwarf Extremely Large Telescope, etc. There Observatory in 1988 (Chalabaev & galaxy. This first required pre-imaging, were also lively discussions about career D’Odorico, 1988). then preparation of the masks, and finally prospects, how to make a good presen- observing during the last night of the run. tation or how to write a good telescope After all the hard work, those students observing proposal. Acknowledgements presented superb results, showing a This NEON School would not have been so success- trend of Fe abundance versus heliocen- Overall, the 20 students, all from South ful without the efficient support of many people: tric velocity (demonstrating that the America, selected from over 140 appli- Paulina Jiron and María Eugenia Gómez (Office for selected stars did indeed belong to the cants in total, were very enthusiastic, Science in Vitacura); Ivo Saviane, Javier Duk and cluster). The CH versus CN indices worked hard during the two weeks, both the whole La Silla Logistics Team; Esteban Osorio and the IT team in Santiago, and many others, all of showed that two different abundance in Santiago and on the mountain, and whom we warmly thank. groups were present, but both belonging presented excellent results at the end. to the Milky Way. The groups of four were very dynamic, covering a wide range of levels (from first References In addition to their main tasks, two of year PhD to postdoc) and origins, Chalabaev, A. & D’Odorico, S. 1988, The Messenger, the groups were triggered to observe a although the majority came from those 53, 11 Target of Opportunity (a situation that countries with a larger astronomical many observers have to face nowadays), ­population, namely Argentina, Brazil and Links led by Michel Dennefeld (IAP, Paris). The Chile, and with a good gender balance. targets were provided by the European The ambiance was very friendly, as it 1 OPTICON: http://www.astro-opticon.org Space Agency’s satellite, which has should be for a summer school, favoured 2 School website: http://www.eso.org/sci/meet- very recently started to provide dozens of by nice weather and excellent environ- ings/2016/lasilla_school2016.html alerts per day. One of them, Gaia16agf, ment at the ESO premises in Santiago

The Messenger 164 – June 2016 49