24 – 30 April 2018
Chiang Mai, Thailand
The 3rd NARIT International Astronomical Training Workshop commenced successfully with its 2018 sequel at NARIT’s very own operating headquarters.
NIATW 2018 was held under the International Training Centre in Astronomy under the auspices of UNESCO or ITCA, hosted by NARIT. This year, it welcomed 20 participants from 6 countries namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, India and Thailand. So as 4 invited lecturers from Xinglong Observatory, National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC).
NIATW 2018 provided a hands-on experience on how to use the facilities and modern instrumentation available at NARIT and Xinglong. The participants learned how to prepare an observing run, how to use the instruments and how to analyze the data. It encouraged participants to further conduct and carry out their own research in these areas with the same or similar instrumentation.
This third NIATW revolved around main subjects of high resolution spectroscopy and high time resolution photometry. The lectures and tutorials will cover theory, data analysis, and observations in imaging and spectroscopy with the Thai National 2.4-m Telescope (TNT). In case of bad weather, the participants will be able to use archival data already obtained from the Thai National Observatory and Xinglong Observatory.
Upon the first night, participants were brought to the ground of Thai National Observatory located on Doi Inthanon Mountain at somewhat 2,600 metres above mean sea level. They were amazed by the state-of-the-art facility which houses 2.4 optical telescope, combined with introductory information about the instrument, operation, control system and maintenance. The following days were packed with informative lectures from both NAOC and NARIT including Installation of IRAF and data reduction of high resolution spectra, ULTRASPEC/MRES, High resolution spectroscopic study of young solar type stars, RR Lyrae, White dwarf binaries, Chemical abundance analysis based on high resolution spectra and ultimately report writing. Participants spent a considerate amount of time each day analyzing data and knowledge learned in which they connected remotely to the instruments and to the data reduction computers set up by NARIT for the whole week.