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Scope of the Meeting

 New Astronomical Instrumentation in Brazil

Astrophysics is a frontier science, not only due to the scientific questions extending the limits of the knowledge but also to the development of front-end instrumentation necessary to overcome the barriers we find in observing the farthest things in the Universe. Brazil has recently joined two major enterprises, becoming partner of the Gemini Project in 1993 and of the SOAR (Southern Astrophysical Research telescope) in 1995. Dedication of Gemini-North was held in june/1999, and of Gemini-South on january/2002. SOAR will have it’s first light in october/2003.

The Gemini and SOAR will allow observations in wavelengths from the ultraviolet up to the mid-infrared, which will give us a totally different perspective from the observational viewpoint and its feedback to the theoretical models in astrophysics.
The Gemini Project consists of two 8m class telescopes, located in Hawaii and Chile. It is a US$ 180M project. Brazil share is 2.5%, in a consortium with USA (50%), UK (25%), Canada (15%), Australia (5%) and Argentina (2.5%).

The SOAR project consists of a 4.2m telescope located in Chile, on the same mountain, "Cerro Pachon", as the Gemini-South telescope. It is a consortium betwen Brazil and USA, with the following shares: Brazil (33%); the American national agency National Optical Astronomical Observatory - NOAO (33%); University of North Carolina - UNC (16.5%), and Michigan State University - MSU (16.5%). Brazil is represented by the national agency CNPq in both projects, and LNA is the national office for both telescopes.

The development of instrumentation that allows us to reach the limits of detection is needed, and new astrophysical problems arise with the new observations. The SOAR and Gemini projects offer the invaluable opportunity of interactions with partners that develop high technology instrumentation. Given the increasing complexity of instruments, the installation of competence in instrumentation has become important for the efficient use of the instruments in the quest for scientific answers.

Following this tendency 80% of the Brazilian astronomers from almost all the astronomy institutes in the country (and many foreign collaborators) created a virtual institute (MEGALIT, Millenium Institute - PADCT/CNPq) to join efforts and foment this strategic research field.

The Workshop

The workshop was focused on optical and infrared instruments for large and medium class telescopes, with special attention on the projects that the Brazilian community is involved. Together with the instrumentation presentations the workshop had contributions about the science that these telescopes and new generation instruments will provide. This allowed the participants (instrumentation groups and the astronomers) interact and set the direction for the new developments needed to achieve the high quality data necessary to answer important open questions in many astronomy fields.

The meeting was organized in invited talks about themes of general interest, oral presentations about more specific instrumentation topics, and poster sections for specific instrumentation topics and the achieved and planed science for these new generation instruments.

The meeting was held in the Bosque Hotel at Angra dos Reis, two hours far from Rio de Janeiro. The location allowed easy access to a large fraction of the Brazilian astronomical community and to the foreign colleagues that  arrived at the Rio de Janeiro International Airport..