1. In spite of Covid, OPTICON technical developments have made substantial progress,. Highlight:
WP1: the French ELT instrumentation programme recently was awarded a large grant (from ANR PIA3 - F-CELT program) directly based on the first studies that were done in WP1. This major investment was funded. This is a direct outcome, which was made possible thanks to OPTICON.
2. OPTICON’s Trans National Access (TNA) ambitions are twofold. The first is to deliver open access to the most appropriate facilities for cutting edge research on Europe’s medium sized telescopes. Time Domain astronomy (TDA), the study of variable sources, is the fastest growing branch of astronomy. We will coordinate and where necessary train these communities, providing the crucial common software and prototype hardware systems needed to deliver characterised science quality data, and to implement effective facility integration. We will provide a central data resource with global open access ensuring added value, data preservation and maximal utility.
The time domain astronomy system, with automated rapid data processing, has been implemented.
In order to facilitate homogenous data processing and coordinate the storage of the data we have been developing and maintaining a unique tool, Cambridge Photometric Calibration Server (CPCS,
https://cpcs.astrolabs.pl/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)). This online tool has been operating since 2013 and is now fully integrated in the BHTOM. Its main purpose is to provide in an automated way the standardised measurements based on the instrumental observations using archival catalogues as photometric standards. Within BHTOM the output of CCDphot is automatically submitted to CPCS and then uploaded to BHTOM database.
An example is shown in the RP3 report:. The photometric data collected for Gaia20fnr, a candidate for a binary microlensing event discovered by Gaia in 2020, as seen in BH-TOM. Multiple observatories contributed.
Networks in adaptive optics and in Interferometry have been active in technical studies, future planning, hosting Technical Schools and establishing viable community support structures. Stefan Kraus, Paulo Garcia, Guy Perrin, "Maximizing the community exploitation of the VLTI 2nd-generation instruments"
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-018-9581-6(öffnet in neuem Fenster) is an example outcome. Other networks include that in Time Domain Astronomy described above, in strategic planning, and in more general training schools (WP12). Unsurprisingly Covid had a major impact on in-person networking, and indeed all collaborative JRA work with labs closed, and in science with observatories closed. Nonetheless, on-line and virtual activities continued.
