three partners and a very special relationship
with Hawaii
| The National Research Council of Canada,
the Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique of France and the University of Hawaii signed in 1974 a tripartite agreement for the
construction and operation of a large optical telescope on Mauna Kea.
On that same year, the Canada-France-Hawaii
Telescope (CFHT) Corporation was incorporated in the State
Hawaii and is still today running the telescope. The University of Hawaii owns only two telescopes on the mountain, the 88" and the 24". But among all the others, CFHT is proud of a very special link with Hawaii: It is the only telescope where Hawaii is a co-owner of the facility and participates financially in its operations. These past 25 years have demonstrated how successful such a close relationship between three partners, Canada, France and Hawaii, has been for the best of the science activities on the mountain. |
| - January 1974: Incorporation Canada-France-Hawaii
Telescope Corporation - May/June 1974: Signature of the tripartite agreement - July 1974: Ground braking on Mauna Kea - 1977: CFHT sets its temporary headquarters in Waimea/Kamuela - March 1978: The CFHT permanent headquarters will be in Waimea/Kamuela - September 1978: The telescope mount arrives on the Island - March 1979: The telescope 3.6-m mirror is delivered in Hawaii - August 1979: CFHT sees first light - 28 September 1979: Dedication of the telescope on Mauna Kea - October 1982: Dedication of the CFHT headquarters |
| Regular staff: 41
Resident astronomers (provided by the CFHT members): 8 astronomers Total staff (including supernumerary positions and visitors): ~55 Annual budget: $6.2MObserving time
share between the members: 42.5% to Canada,
42.5% to France, 15% to Hawaii |
| - Total mass of the telescope: 325 tons - Mirror mass: 14 tons - Mirror diameter: 3.6 m - Mirror thickness: 0.60 m - Dome diameter: 32 m - Total height of the building: 38 m |
What is it?
|
Two Communities - One Large
Project With a PI-less structure and a data access policy granting equal and immediate access to any member of the two communities to both processed images and catalogs, the CFHTLS is both exciting and challenging. The survey officially started in mid 2003 and the first pixel data will be made public to the world in August 2006. The three main entities serving the Canadian and French
communities are 1) the CFHT for
the data acquisition, pre-processing and calibration, 2) the Canadian Astronomy Data
Centre (CADC) for
all activities related to the archiving and release of the various data
products to the communities, and 3) Terapix
(based in Paris) for the data stacking, fine
astrometric calibration, and source catalogs generation. |
| More information here |
What for?
|
Three
surveys from the Solar System
to the Distant Universe
A deep synoptic
survey, the "Deep" Covering 4 square degrees in four independent fields spread across the sky to have two fields visible throughout a given night at any time of the year, and acquired through the whole filter set (u*, g', r', i', z') with integration times ranging from 33 to 132 hours depending on the filter (u*: 33, g':33, r':66, i':132, z':66), this survey will also be sequenced over 5 years. The image released today is on one of these four fields, with only a fraction of the exposure time of the final image, and with only three filters (g' r' i'). One of these four fields is Aimed mainly at the detection and monitoring of as many as 2000 type Ia supernovae and at the study of the galaxy distribution on images reaching r'=28, this survey will lead to a better understanding of the early universe as well as a the determination of the dark energy parameters with an unprecedented accuracy. The galaxies and quasars will constitute statistical samples bringing strong constraints on galaxy evolution and global star formation history. Thanks to the time sequencing, transient phenomena and moving objects will be detected and followed up, providing a unique monitoring over five years of fields at various galactic and ecliptic latitudes. A wide synoptic survey, the "Wide" Covering 170 square degrees in three patches of 49 to 72 square degrees through the whole filter set (u*, g', r', i', z') down to i'=24.5, this survey will allow the study of the large scale structures and matter distribution in the universe through weak lensing and galaxy distribution. Thanks to the sequencing of the r' observations in two phases, early in the survey and three years later, proper motions will be available for galactic structure studies. All fields will be used for stellar population investigations and searched for moving objects and transient phenomena. A very wide shallow survey, the "Very Wide" Covering most of the ecliptic plane inside a band of +/-2 degrees for a total area of 1300 square degrees, this survey will provide an unprecedented sample of the solar system population beyond Neptune, while sampling enough of our Galaxy's stars in three colors (g', r', i') in two epochs three years apart to create a major new stellar data set (much deeper and of better image quality than the Sloan Digitized Sky Survey) for studies related to stellar populations (including white and brown dwarfs), galactic structure and very large scale structures. |
&
MegaCam
| More information here |
| MegaPrime is a structure
installed on top of the telescope, equipped with specially designed
optics, a camera and associated systems. MegaPrime is the result of a
collaboration between CFHT, the Herzberg Institute
of Astrophysics, Observatoire de Paris
and CEA. At the heart of MegaPrime is MegaCam, a unique camera built by the "Département d'Astrophysique, de Physique des Particules, de Physique Nucléaire et de l'Instrumentation Associée" at the French "Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique" (CEA). To cover the 1 square degree field, CFHT ordered 40 CCDs from a company in the United Kingdom, e2v technologies, which specializes in the production of high quality detectors. CEA mounted these CCDs very precisely in a mosaic which central area, made of 4 rows of 9 CCDs, covers a square of 25cm by 25cm, or 1 degree by 1 degree on the sky. Detailed information on the various components of MegaPrime can be found in the "Fast Facts" of the MegaPrime Press Release (April 8, 2003) here. |
| Information on WIRCam |
| Information on ESPaDOnS |
WIRCam will be one of the largest infrared cameras in operation on a telescope. It will use four Rockwell 2k x 2k chips. Built in France and Canada in collaboration with the Korean Astronomical Observatory and the Academia Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, WIRCam will be completed in mid-2005.
ESPaDOnS, a new instrument currently undergoing engineering tests at CFHT, is following the tradition of high resolution spectroscopy, a domain of excellence of the observatory for many years. In addition to providing the whole visible spectrum with high resolution, it will give information on the polarization of the light. The end of the commissioning will come before the end of the year... and a Press Release is likely to be issued for the occasion!