TJO-OAdM Annual report 2014 [NOT TRANSLATED]

Since 2013 the TJO is operating in routine mode and is providing useful data that are distributed through the OAdM web portal and also through the node of the Spanish Virtual Observatory. The telescope carries out multi-purpose astronomical observations and is also a testbed to develop new instrumentation. The compromise of the TJO is to offer 100% of the available time to the astronomical community (IEEC, Spain and international), with the sole requirement of maximizing the scientific and technical performance of the instrumentation. At the end of 2014 the OAdM had 56 registered users, 16 of them from IEEC, 23 from other Spanish institutions, and 17 from international institutions. A total of 16 proposals from 8 different institutions (5 from Spain and 3 international) were received during 2014. Note that from 2013 the call for proposals is permanently open and users are guaranteed less than one-month response time (which is pushed down to one week in case of urgent proposals). In this way, the TJO can best exploit its flexibility as robotic telescope and therefore can react to transient events, new discoveries, etc.

The IEEC has established a Time Allocation Committee (composed of two members of IEEC and an external member – from IAC) that evaluates the proposals, makes a time allocation and assigns a relative priority. The TJO observed autonomously during 190 nights, providing over 700 hours of science data (a 103% increase with respect to 2013). The mean completeness percentage of the proposals that ended during 2014 was at the 66% level, representing an oversubscription factor of 1.5.

The TJO has also entered as a full member into the Spanish System for Space Surveillance and Tracking (S4T), being one of the three optical telescopes in Spain that have proven their capabilities to become a member of this collaboration. The main goal of this program is to develop a European network of telescopes capable to track satellites and space debris.

We have also continued the installation of the medium-resolution fiber-fed ARES spectrograph. This spectrograph will greatly improve the scientific appeal of the TJO by providing R=12000 spectroscopy in two different wavelength regions (around 520 and 660 nm) and with high-efficiency optics. Calculations indicate that a signal-to-noise ratio of 10 could be attained in a 1-hour integration for V=13 mag targets. ARES will open the door to using the TJO for a variety of new science cases, including chemical abundance determination, measurement of radial velocities and monitoring of stellar activity through the Halpha feature. While there are numerous photometric robotic telescopes in the world, only a few of them have spectroscopic capabilities. ARES will thus put the TJO at world-class level. During 2014, all the electronics and most of the software required for an unattended operation were developed. The instrument is due to start the commissioning phase at the beginning of 2015.

TJO publications
The observations carried out at the TJO resulted in three scientific publications in journals indexed by the ISI-WoS:
– von Essen, C.; Czesla, S.; Wolter, U.; et al., 2014, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 561, A48.
– Ergon, M.; Sollerman, J.; Fraser, M.; et al., 2014, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 562, A17.
– Morales-Garoffolo, A.; Elias-Rosa, N.; Benetti, S.; et al., 2014, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 445, Issue 2, p.1647.

Additionally, three publications appeared online in The Astronomer's Telegram:
– Henze, M.; Sala, G.; Jose, J.; et al., 2014, The Astronomer's Telegram, #6305
– Barsukova, E. A.; Fabrika, S.; Valeev, A. F.; The Astronomer's Telegram, #6498
– Sala, G.; Rodriguez-Gil, P.; Henze, M.; The Astronomer's Telegram, #6616

And one Master’s Thesis has used TJO data:
– Chica, J.L., “Variability analysis of Gaia calibration candidate SPSS 034 from Joan Oró Telescope data”, July 2014, Advisors: Jordi, C.; Carrasco, J.M.

Outreach

The OAdM has also been involved in several outreach activities, including a TV program: “Quèquicom”, TV3, November 6, 2014. Emitted on February 10, 2015.

IEEC news: One of the winners of a special baccalaureate award chose the IEEC for doing her internship, August 7, 2014.

And a Verkami fundraising event: A Doctorate to protect Earth from hazardous asteroids.

In addition, the OAdM has organized six visits of different audiences (amateur clubs, local government officials, groups of teachers and students, etc) to see the facilities, receiving almost 100 visitors. [NOT TRANSLATED]