U.S.-Venezuela Cooperative Research: Long-Term AstronomicalSurveys Using Electronic Detectors on a Wide-Field Telescope

该奖项将支持博士。加州大学利克天文台的David Chih-yuen Koo、Joseph S. Miller和Lloyd B. Robinson与委内瑞拉梅里达天文研究中心（CIDA）的Gustavo Bruzual博士合作研究。合作的目的是建立一个包括两部分的长期联合计划：第一部分是为一个试验仪器项目提供旅行和数据传输支持，以开发用于CIDA新的1米施密特望远镜的大画幅电子（CCD）相机。然后，Lick和CIDA的天文学家将利用这一强大的组合，为共同的科学兴趣进行各种广泛的新光度和天气调查。其中之一将是对天空中20个区域进行新的长期观测调查。在使用这些数据的许多潜在计划中，将包括研究星系亮度函数的多色光度调查和搜索非常遥远的超新星的天气学计划。合作的第二部分将尝试开发新的定量方法来分析广泛的多维数据，主要目的是探索星系和宇宙学的演化。大型观测调查是了解宇宙的最有效的天文工具之一。这样的调查使天文学家能够测量已知物体的性质分布，并发现新的、罕见的或不寻常的物体类别。尽管它们很重要，但在望远镜时间稀缺的今天，覆盖大面积的光度测量、天气学计划或任何长期项目都特别难以进行。委内瑞拉的CIDA天文台最近完成了1米施密特望远镜的建设，该望远镜的整体光学性能与帕洛马的望远镜相似，是北半球最大的三个望远镜之一。合作者计划为CIDA的望远镜开发成像相机，使用里克探测器实验室开发的超大尺寸电荷耦合探测器（ccd），加上CIDA为长期调查提供专门观察员的能力，应该允许天文学家进行各种前所未有的深度，时间和面积覆盖的新调查。

This award will support Drs. David Chih-yuen Koo, Joseph S. Miller, and Lloyd B. Robinson of the University of California Lick Observatory in a research collaboration with Dr. Gustavo Bruzual of the Centro de Investigaciones de Astronomia (CIDA) in Merida, Venezuela. The purpose of the collaboration is to establish a long-term joint program involving two parts: the first involves travel and data-transfer support for a pilot instrumentation project to develop a large-format electronic (CCD) camera for use on the new CIDA 1-meter Schmidt telescope. Lick and CIDA astronomers will then use this powerful combination to undertake various extensive new photometric and synoptic surveys of joint scientific interest. One of these will be a major new long-term observational survey of 20 areas in the sky. Among many potential programs using these data will be a multicolor photometric survey to study the luminosity function of galaxies and a synoptic program to search for very distant supernovae. The second part of the collaboration will attempt to develop new quantitative methods of analyzing extensive multidimensional data, aimed mainly at exploring the evolution of galaxies and cosmology. Major observational surveys are some of the most productive astronomical tools to understand the universe. Such surveys allow astronomers to measure distributions of properties of known objects and also to discover new, rare, or unusual classes of objects. Despite their importance, photometric surveys that cover large areas, synoptic programs, or any long-term projects are all particularly difficult to undertake in today's climate of scarce telescope time. The CIDA observatory in Venezuela has recently finished the construction of a 1-meter Schmidt telescope that has overall optical properties similar to the one at Palomar and is the among the three largest in the northern hemisphere. The collaborators' plan to develop imaging cameras for the telescope at CIDA using charge coupled detectors (CCDs) of very large format developed at the Detector Laboratory at Lick, plus the ability of CIDA to provide dedicated observers time for long-term surveys should allow astronomers to undertake a variety of new surveys of unprecedented depth, time and areal coverage.