Optical Infrared Coordination Network for Astronomy (OPTICON) is an EU funded research infrastructure project that has been running for more than a decade (coordinator Prof. Gerry Gilmore from University of Cambridge). OPTICON is divided into three aspects: joint research activities, networking, and trans-national access. The four-year Horizon-2020 funding started in January 2017, and it involves 32 partners from all over Europe.

University of Copenhagen is in charge of the main educational component of the OPTICON grant; the work-package 12 'Enhancing community skills, Integrating communities' is lead by Heidi Korhonen from Dark Cosmology Centre at Niels Bohr Institute.

This work package has previously been run by Michel Dennefeld (IAP, Paris), and information on the earlier programme can be found from the IAP site.

NEON Observing Schools (NEON=Network of European Observatories in the North) are the main OPTICON educational event organised yearly by workpackage 12. These hands-on schools are hosted by observatories with 1-2 metre telescopes and modern instrumentation - all are facilities used by professional astronomers in their research.

During the observing school the students will conduct a research programme in small groups (typically 4 students) under the supervision of an experienced astronomer (“tutor”).

The process will include preparation of the observations, set-up of the instruments, observations, data reduction and presentation of the scientific results, all within a two week school.

Other schools related to observational astronomy are also organised by OPTICON workpackage 12. The scope of these schools changes yearly, and during the four-year duration of the Horizon-2020 grant several schools are planned, among them are an instrumentation school, multi-wavelength/multi-messenger school, and 'Hot Topics' conferences.

Hot Topics events present the top-level existing and future facilities to help astronomers in new EU (or accessing) countries to raise their interest in the Trans-National Access programme, and attract new researchers into leading topics in astrophysics.

• Tanyu Bonev, Institute of Astronomy and National Astronomical Observatory, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
• Michel Dennefeld, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, France
• Roland Gredel, Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany
• Petr Kabath, Astronomical Institute ASCR, Ondrejov, Czech Republic
• Heidi Korhonen, DARK, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chair)
• Elina Lindfors, Tuorla Observatory, University of Turku, Finland
• Alessandro Pizzella, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Padova, Italy
• Martin Ward, Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, UK

And our OPTICON contact: Gudrun Pebody, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK

Are you interested in learning about different astronomical observing techniques? Do you want to learn to observe with a professional telescope? Are you eager to try all the observing steps from preparation to data analysis?

If you answered yes to any of these questions NEON observing school is for you. During this intensive two week course you will learn all the steps of observations from planning and observing to data reduction and analysis. The hands-on experience will be combined with expert lectures on observational astronomy. As an added bonus you will get to know other young astronomers from all over Europe.

OPTICON will pay all your costs on site, and there is also a possibility for applying travel support from us. Note that there is a very high demand for these schools, and we only choose people with no earlier observing experience with professional 1-2 metre class telescopes.

The yearly NEON Observing Schools for 2017-2020:

1. 2017 NEON Observing School was hosted from September 3 to September 17 on La Palma by the Nordic Optical Telescope and Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes.
2. 2018 NEON Observing School was be hosted from September 9 to September 22 in Asiago Observatory, Italy.
3. 2019 NEON Observing School took place in September 15-29 in the Rozhen Observatory, Bulgaria.
4. Unfortunately the 2020 NEON Observing School that was planned to take place November 9-20 at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France has been postponed due to COVID-19. We will announce the new data for this school on these webpages.

Information on the past NEON Schools can be found here.

In addition to the yearly NEON Observing Schools OPTICON also organises other schools and workshops, which are meant for astronomers at all career stages. The main aim of these events is to advance the knowledge of astronomical instrumentation, observing techniques that are crucial for the up-coming state-of-the-art astronomical facilities, and enable equal participation of all EU member states in the new large scale facilities. The exact topic of these events changes yearly.

For the Horizon 2020 OPTICON grant period yearly schools are planned. These events include the first OPTICON Instrumentation School, telescope time application writing workshop and 'Hot Topics in Astronomy' conferences. ESO/Very Large Telescope Interferometer schools are also organized by OPTICON. You can find more information on these schools from the website of the European Interferometry Initiative.

On this page you can apply to the OPTICON organized schools. Currently we have no applications open.

The chair of OPTICON Work package 12 'Enhancing community skills, Integrating Communities', Heidi Korhonen, worked at DARK in the Niels Bohr Institute until December 2019. Currently she works at the European Southern Observatory in Chile..

Operations Staff Astronomer
Heidi Korhonen
E-mail: heidi.korhonen @ eso.org

European Southern Observatory - ESO
Alonso de Córdova 3107
Vitacura, Santiago, Chile