Over 40 participants attended on 16 June 2021 the ORP Workshop "Tailored Dispersing Elements for Astronomical Optical Spectrograph" that supported participants for the design and manufacturing of Volume Phase Holographic Gratings (VPHG) to improve the performances of astronomical spectrographs mounted especially in small and medium facilities in the European context.

In the framework of the ORP project and in particular of the WP4 JA3 Striving for Excellence a research line focuses on the improvement of observing spectroscopic facilities through the design and development of VPHGs, which are considered the best choice in the astronomical field.

In order to make this possible, an initial activity was the organization of this online workshop to present the VPHG design manufacturing capabilities and to have a feeling of the astronomical community about this possibility.

At the beginning of the workshop, Jean-Gabriel Cuby (LAM, France) introduced the ORP project and Gerry Gilmore (University of Cambridge, UK) showed the aims of WP4. After that, Francisco Garzón (IAC, Spain) and Andrea Bianco (INAF, Italy) went into the VPHGs details, reporting also the path that will end up with the commissioning of the dispersing elements. Finally, there were the presentations of different observing facilities that were very useful to understand the needs and the actual situation. Finally, a wrap-up discussion was carried out.

The workshop saw the participation of about 40 scientists worldwide from different European countries such as France, Italy, UK, Germany, Slovakia, Ukraine, Greece to participants overseas from Australia and the USA.

Contacts

Andrea Bianco
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera
andrea.bianco@inaf.it

Francisco Garzón
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
fgl@iac.es