Workshop announcement: Planning for 4MOST – toward the 4MOST survey programme

by Joe Liske on 2020-05-19

4MOST is a state-of-the-art, high-multiplex, fibre-fed, optical spectroscopic survey facility currently under construction for ESO’s 4-m VISTA telescope. During the first five years of operations 4MOST will be used to execute a comprehensive, integrated programme of both Galactic and extragalactic Public Surveys. The 4MOST survey programme will consist of both Consortium Surveys and Community Surveys, ideally with a high degree of complementarity, both scientifically and in terms of observing efficiency. The process of selecting the Community Surveys was initiated by ESO in November 2019 by requesting "Letters of Intent for Public Spectroscopic Surveys" (LoIs) from the ESO community. Successful applicants have been invited by ESO to submit full proposals in December 2020.

ESO and the 4MOST Consortium are now jointly organising an online workshop to take place in the period 9-14 July 2020. This workshop is open to all team members of successful LoIs, both for Participating and Non-Participating Surveys, and ESO strongly encourages at least some representation at the workshop from all invited surveys.

The purpose of this workshop is to support the teams behind the successful LoIs in preparing their proposals, and to facilitate a well-matched and efficient joint 4MOST survey programme. Specifically, the goals of the workshop are:

• to provide the invited teams with up-to-date information regarding the selection process
• to provide the invited teams with an opportunity to present their operational requirements and to discuss their integration into the 4MOST operational model
• to provide the invited teams with an introduction to the available tools to prepare their proposals (e.g. 4FS)
• to foster scientific collaborations and to prepare for the integration of potential Participating Community Surveys into the 4MOST Science Team.

Due to the current situation, the workshop will be held entirely online. It will be split into four sessions, each lasting for approximately 4 hours, to be held on 9-10 and 13-14 July 2020. The timing of the sessions will take into account the different time zones of the participants to the extent that this is possible.

Invited participants should register on the workshop's website.