Educational activities

During period 39 there was again a lot of activity on the educational front. This included the on-site course from the Stockholm University (5 nights in May) and the master school in CUO/NBI guaranteed time (3 nights in August), but the main emphasis has been on the NORDFORSK/Onsala summer school at Tuorla observatory in Finland which which used the NOT in remote mode.

The remote observations for the summer school included imaging and spectroscopy with ALFOSC and imaging with NOTCam spread over 6 half nights. For this the remote observing systems for each instrument including the telescope control, data display, data transfer, communication, remote observing instructions, data reduction/quality control were developed and tested. These systems were largely based on the experience we already had gained with the remote observing school at Moletai observatory in Lithuania but include some new aspects as this uses different instruments while the bandwidth to Tuorla is significantly higher which allowed a system that is (even) more similar to normal observing at the telescope.

The staff has also been heavily involved in the practical preparations for the school, while extensive support was also provided (both at the telescope and at the course site) throughout the whole school. Feedback from the participants was also collected.

As part of the support and training of the NOT students on La Palma, regular meetings have been held with the NORDFORSK post-doc and lectures about some software applications were organized, while lectures about data reduction of spectroscopic and NIR data are planned.