Site testing at Dome C: history and present status

The idea of starting an astronomical site testing in Antarctica began during a congress organized by French Académie des Sciences, in 1992, and entitled ‘Recherches polaires-Une Stratégie pour l'an 2000’. At this time, one of us (Vernin 1994) gave a proposal for an astronomical site testing in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Main Authors: Vernin, Jean, Agabi, Abdelkrim, Aristidi, Eric, Azouit, Max, Chadid, Merieme, Fossat, Eric, Sadibekova, Tatiana, Trinquet, Hervé, Ziad, Aziz
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2006
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921307012288
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S1743921307012288
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Summary:The idea of starting an astronomical site testing in Antarctica began during a congress organized by French Académie des Sciences, in 1992, and entitled ‘Recherches polaires-Une Stratégie pour l'an 2000’. At this time, one of us (Vernin 1994) gave a proposal for an astronomical site testing in Antarctica. This proposal was rapidly followed by a meeting between Al Harper (from ‘Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica’, Chicago), Peter Gillingham (from the Anglo Australian Observatory, Australia) and Jean Vernin (from Nice University) at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in 1993. It was decided to investigate what was the astronomical quality of South Pole station, each institute bringing its own participation: CARA, the South Pole infrastructure, University of New South Wales, a PhD student and Nice University its expertise and instruments.