Summary
We
plan to start building an astronomical observatory at Tay Nguyen University,
Daklak Province, Vietnam. This province is in one of the mountain region of
Vietnam which have peaks up to 1500m - 2500m.
The
university has approximately 20000 students, among which 2000 students are in
the Science and Technology department. A constant flux of 200 students in
Physics attend the courses here annually. The department have two astronomers:
one is working in solar physics and one is working for a Master - PhD degree.
The
main audience of the observatory is the students to conduct experiments and
exercise. In return, the students will conduct public shows to draw the
attention of the public to science and to increase the awareness of science.
We
foresee that the observatory will contain a 40cm - 60cm optical telescope, 1m
hydrogen line radio telescope, very low frequency telescope, an exhibition room
for the public.
This
project will be a long term (3 - 5 years) project that involves several
parties: Tay Nguyen university will provide land and maintenance cost, Japanese
observatories and colleagues will help with donating instrumentation and
expertise, IAU - OAD will provide support for planning and development.
We
break the project into three phases: development, construction, and operation.
For phase 1, we request support of approximately 10000 USD from OAD - IAU to
enhance our plan that includes paying for architectural planning, organizing
the development workshop, increasing the public and institutional awareness. At
this moment we have our staffs trained at Nishi-Harima Astronomical
Observatory, NARIT, and NAOJ. We also have frequent visit from NAOJ staffs and
other international researchers. Agreement from local university is also
granted if there is a viable plan for the future. Therefore, we believe that
phase 1 will be finished within a year if it is funded by IAU - OAD. The
project is led by Quang Nguyen Luong.
Co-I
Le Minh Tan (Tay Nguyen
University)
Nguyen Dang Thanh Nhan
(Tay Nguyen University)
Tran
Quoc Lam (Tay Nguyen University)
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