Safety

One issue that has sporadically occurred in the past, but especially happened on various occasions in the last semester is the issue of observers getting to the telescope with out a car (either because they do not have a driving license, or because they do not like to drive up to the observatory on the mountain roads). It is specifically mentioned in the email that is send to the PI when time is allocated, in the email that is send as a reminder to the PI (and whomever is indicated as observer if not the PI), and in the general documentation for visiting astronomers on our web pages that the observer should arrange for their own transport both to the observatory, and to and from the residencia to the telescope at the observatory. In principle, there is no problem if the observers arrange for somebody to pick them up, but we have had the experience that observers walked down several kilometres to the residencia in the early morning cold, and one of the observers actually complained we did not have cars for the observers. Especially in cases of bad weather leaving observers at the telescope without proper transport can be a problem and we will try to improve the information to the observers further.

Thomas Augusteijn 2008-01-11