HIPPARCHOSHIPPARCHOS The Hellenic Astronomical Society Newsletter Volume 2, Issue 3 SPECIAL ISSUE: Present Status of the Hellenic Observational Astronomy ISSN: 1790-9252 Contents HIPPARCHOSHIPPARCHOS Volume 2, Issue 3 • September 2007 ISSN: 1790-9252 Special Issue: Present Status of the Hellenic Observational Astronomy Hipparchos publishes review papers, Editor: Manolis Plionis news and comments on topics of in- terest to astronomers, including mat- Message from the President. 2 The Skinakas Observatory in Crete: a short ters concerning members of the Hel- description of its infrastructure and activities The Helmos Observatory lenic Astronomical Society I. Papadakis & Y. Papamastorakis . 26 C. Goudis, P. Boumis, P. Hantzios, Editor: Kostas Kokkotas E. Xilouris, A. Dapergolas . 4 The Gerostathopoulio Observatory of the National & Kapodistrian Department of Physics, The Vernikos-Eugenides University of Athens Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Wide Field CCD Camera P.G. Niarchos & P.G. Laskarides . 27 Thessaloniki 54124, Greece. of the 2.3m “Aristarchos” telescope Tel: +30-2310-998185 Manolis Plionis The European Southern Observatory Fax: +30-2310-995384 & Ioannis Georgantopoulos . 10 Iason Spyromilios . 30 Email: [email protected] The birth of “ARISTARCHOS” Participation of the Institute Editorial Advisors Evangelos Kontizas . 13 for Space Applications and Remote • V. Charmandaris (Crete) Sensing of the National Observatory The Kryoneri Observatory • D. Hatzidimitriou (Crete) of Athens in space science programs C. Goudis, A. Dapergolas, E. Xilouris, • M. Plionis (Athens) Ioannis A. Daglis, Anastasios Anastasiadis, P. Boumis . 15 • J.H. Seiradakis (Thessaloniki) Georgios Balasis, Anna Belehakis . 34 • N.K. Stergioulas (Thessaloniki) DIMM sampling of the “seeing” Observational X-ray Astronomy in Greece • K. Tsinganos (Athens) at Kryonerion I. Georgantopoulos, I. Papadakis, D. Mislis, E.T. Harlaftis, D. Buckley, Printed by ZITI Publications • www.ziti.gr M. Plionis . 36 K. Gazeas, K. Stathoulis, G. Dimou, J.-H. Seiradakis . 18 The Herschel Space Observatory and the Greek Involvement The Image quality E. M. Xilouris . 37 of the 1.2m telescope of the National Observatory of Athens Observations of the Sun Sue Worswick, Emilios T. Harlaftis, at the National Observatory of Athens George Dimou . 22 G. Tsiropoula & K. Tziotziou . 38 Message from the President Dear Hel.A.S. members, hus, C. Goudis et al. introduce us to This is a special issue of Hipparchos Tthe Helmos Astronomical Station Cover photo: devoted to Hellenic Observational As- which houses the most awaited new Hel- A space probe and tronomy: from the smaller University lenic astronomical instrument, the “Aris- the ARISTARCHOS telescope. telescopes and the historical Kryonerion tarchos” 2.3m telescope. In addition to telescope, to the new 2.3m “Aristarchos”, providing the structure, optics, perform- Editorial assistance now at the final stages of commissioning, ance and instrumentation of the tele- is needed! to the giant, state of the art, ESO tele- scope the article shows some of its “first To improve the contents of scopes and to the great space observa- light” images. The telescope will soon Hipparchos please provide us with tories. The issue provides the reader with be fully operational, providing excellent information related to your Insti- the satisfaction that in all those steps of observations with image quality <0.35”. tute or with exciting news from the ladder to the sky and the Universe It is important to note it will be auto- your field of research. there is a vibrant Hellenic involvement, mated and remotely controlled through of one form or another. the network. M. Plionis & I. Georganto- Message from the President (continued) poulos outline the technical details and Physics of the University of Athens. This space observatories and ESO one may feel the science of the new wide-field (10.1’ small but well equipped telescope not the satisfaction that the nation has final- x 10.1’) Vernikou-Eugenides CCD imag- only has been playing a catalytic role in ly built one of the greatest telescopes in ing camera (VEC) to be installed on the the astronomical education offered at the continental Europe (Aristarchos) and also “Aristarchos” telescope. VEC will provide University of Athens at the undergradu- has recently joined ESA. At the same time unique opportunities to undertake a rela- ate and postgraduate level, but the tele- however, one may wonder why Greece is tively high spatial resolution, deep, broad scope’s modern instrumentation enables not yet a member of the great ESO as- band imaging surveys of selected areas of it to carry out some specialized research tronomical organization, despite the unani- the sky, searching for extrasolar planets programs and participate in international mous call of an international experts com- and various transient objects, studying the networks for the observation of variable mittee that joining ESO should be the top physics of star formation in our galaxy and stars, as shown in the article. astronomy priority for the nation (Ter- other ones, stellar populations, galaxy for- zian report, mation and evolution, large scale structure, Daglis et al present the wide re- http://www.astro.noa.gr/gnca/NEWS/ etc. E. Kontizas, among the key people who search activities of the Institute for ca-report2000.htm, made Aristarchos a reality, describes the SpaceI. Applications and Remote Sensing first steps in the long process of building of NOA, in particular in this new era that the cost is a one-time entrance fee of the telescope focussing on the details orig- the country has joined ESA, while G. Tsi- about 10 million €, i.e., similar to the inal proposal to the Greek government in ropoula and K. Tziotziou present solar ESA annual membership fee, and an an- 1996 which was officially approved by the observations at ISARS/NOA. I. Georgan- nual membership fee of about 1 million General Secretariat of Research & Tech- topoulos, I. Papadakis and M. Plionis sum- €). Clearly the benefits of joining the Eu- nology in November 1997. marize the Observational X-ray Astron- ropean Southern Observatory, the ma- omy activities in Greece and finally E. M. jor astronomical organization of Europe, ext, C. Goudis, et al. describe the 1.2 Xilouris the upcoming Herschel Space are multiple and there is no doubt that m telescope of the National Ob- Observatory in which there is also a Hel- it is a worthwhile investment. The GC servatoryN of Athens situated at 22 km lenic participation. of the Hel.A.S. firmly believes, that this SW from Kiato Corinthias, near the vil- should be the next goal for the Greek lage of Kryonerion at a height of 930 m. Spyromilios, provides a panoramic astronomy. This historical, for the Hellenic Astron- view of the impressive state of the omy, telescope, which is equipped with artI. ESO telescopes and equipments, the ue to lack of space in this special several instruments, used in the past to product of the European active collabora- issue we mainly concentrated to perform mainly photometric and spectro- tion on La Silla (the 3.6-m telescope, the theD larger Hellenic telescopes. That by graphic observations, seems to also have NTT and the 2.2-m telescope, etc), Cer- no means should be interpreted that we a modern future: an agreement recently ro Paranal (the four very well equipped do not appreciate the role of the small- has been reached with members of the 8.2-m Unit Telescopes known as the VLT), er ones, in particular, in Astronomy ed- Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland, to APEX and the under-construction Atac- ucation (Michalitsianos, Ioannina, Stephan- fund, upgrade and robotize the telescope. ama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA). It is ion), or, public outreach (NOA, Penteli). All Then there are two articles on the image also noted that recently the ESO Council have their place and contribution in the quality of the 1.2m Kryonerion telescope decided to go ahead with the construc- present status of Hellenic Observational by Sue Worswick et al and D. Mislis, et al, tion of the European Extremely Large Astronomy. test-studies of the “seeing” at the Kryo- Telescope (EELT) which will have un- nerion Station during July and October precedented discovery capabilities. The t should be mentioned that the first ar- 2002, wherein they find a median “seeing” exciting science from ESO telescopes is ticles, submitted for this special issue of 0.68 arcseconds and 1.42 arcseconds, also reviewed, for example, finding plan- quiteI some years ago, were co-authored respectively. etary systems to the most exciting limits by the late Emilios Harlaftis, one of the with the recent discovery of Gliese 581c, most aspiring members of the Hellen- Papadakis & Y. Papamastorakis provide the first almost earth-like planet in the ic Observational Astronomy family, who a short description of the Skinakas habitable zone. The quoted statistics is passed away tragically on the 13 February observatory,I. operating in central Crete at remarkable: refereed publications from 2005. For this reason the governing board an altitude of 1750 m and on a site with ESO telescopes exceed 600 per year, with of Hel.A.S. decided to devote this issue to excellent seeing conditions (the median the VLT alone producing more than one Emilios memory. seeing has been measured to be sub-arc paper per day! second) and providing impressive results n addition to the authors of the articles since 1986 (a more detailed article on Ski- n particular, focusing for a moment to for their contributions, I would like to nakas can be found in the previous issue the more sophisticated means of as- alsoI thank Manolis Plionis who did all the of Hipparchos). P.G. Niarchos and P.G. tronomicalI observations and the ladder editing and excellent coordination making Laskarides present the 40 cm telescope to the Universe involving some form of this issue a reality. atop the building of the Department of Hellenic participation, i.e., Aristarchos, the Kanaris Tsinganos HIPPARCHOS | Volume 2, Issue 3 3 The Helmos Observatory by C.