WS1 - Exploring the ultraviolet Universe with UVIT Science, observation planning and data analysis workshop

Details: Ultraviolet Violet Imaging Telescope, the ultraviolet eye of ASTROSAT is observing the Universe at a resolution better than 1.5 arcsec in Far-UV to Near- UV wavelength region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelength region is of unique astrophysical significance to study the hot ionised plasma, young and evolved stellar population and ongoing star formation. The observations using UVIT are expected to yield more insights into the ongoing star formation in galactic and extra galactic systems, properties of ionized regions such as planetray nebulae, evolved stellar population, stellar activity and emission mechanism in active galactic nuclei to name a few science areas. The UVIT detectors are operated in photon counting mode where UV photons are registered as events which is subjected to the satellite drift along with a series of systematics which needs to be properly corrected for creating the two dimensional image of the UV sky. The UVIT payload onboard ASTROSAT is completing two years of successful operation in November 2017.

The first UVIT Science meeting held at IIA, Bangalore on 6-7 July 2017, had several presentations based on UVIT observations. The meeting was well received and there were about 70 participants. This meeting brought out the requirement for making the UVIT instrument, data processing as well as observation planning familiar to a larger audience. 

The three main goals of the proposed workshop are:

1. To present recent science results to the astronomical community.
2. Familiarise the larger community with UVIT observing proposal preparation, the instrument and mission constraints, prepare the community for the next call for ASTROSAT proposal which will due in the first half of 2018,
3. Hands on data analysis using the pipeline software.

The plan is to have an intense half day session on selected interesting results from UVIT along with a discussion on planning for good science. The second half will be devoted to a session of preparation of UVIT observing proposal where we plan to explain the observing modes, instrument and mission constrains which need to be kept in mind while choosing the targets. This will be followed by a hands on session on UVIT data analysis. The team members proposing for this workshop are part of the UVIT payload operation center at IIA and are core members of UVIT team involved in the payload development, calibration, observations, pipeline development and science.