| Abstract |
At 75ºS and on 3250 m of ice thickness, the new italo-french
Concordia station will be open for winterover next year, in 2005.
This site is the world capital of negative superlatives: temperature,
cloud cover, humidity, wind speed are the lowest on our planet,
and consequently, coronal skies, IR transparency and astronomical
seeing are the best you can find on the same planet! The Nice university
astronomers (L.U.A.N.) has already organised 4 "summer"
site testing campaigns, and measured seeing parameters as incredible
as 0.1 arcsec at best in the visible, or 1 complete second for the
time constant. We will describe the site, the site testing campaigns,
the main results with real numbers and the main prospects as they
develop by now. We will also explain the political situation regarding
the possible important development of astronomy in this end-of-the-world
place, and the intention of expanding the italo-french cooperative
frame to a broader european structure, and very probably even much
more. The Jupiter seismology programme "SYMPA" for which
we are here observing at the 1.5 m Izaña telescope, is part
of the prospects at Concordia for 2007 and later. We will also briefly
describe this programme. SYMPA means "Sismometre Interferentiel
Imageur Monobloc a Prismes Acoles". It's an instrument dedicated
to Jovian oscillations measurements, a sort of natural extension
of helioseismology, a science well known at IAC. And of course,
you will see nice pictures of the trip to Antarctica, with icebergs,
penguins, and again much more....
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