At the kind invitation of Dr. Chas Beichman, Director of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, members of the CHARA collaboration gathered at Caltech in Pasadena for a three-day review of scientific and technical progress made during 2009. That year was a particularly significant one for CHARA as well as for Mount Wilson Observatory as a result of the dire threat posed by the Station Fire during August and September followed by extensive road closures resulting from rock and mud slides. Although CHARA science operations were significantly interrupted by those events, 2009 was still a productive year with significant advances on a number of fronts including new beam combiners and imaging achievements.
The scientific program was organized by Dr. Theo ten Brummelaar, CHARA's Associate Director. We particularly thank Dr. Rachel Akeson of NExScI for her efforts in providing the excellent local support enjoyed by the participants in this meeting.
The participants in "CHARA Year Six" are shown in the photograph and key below. We were pleased to see additional Caltech and JPL people dropping in during the course of the meeting.
Copies of the presentation materials, arranged according to the meeting agenda, are linked below.
Group photo
List of talks
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 | CHARA Instrumentation and Observing Updates
| Topic | Speaker |
| CHARA Classic Throughput | Theo ten Brummelaar, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson |
| Developments in the CHARA Lab | Judit Sturmann, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson |
| Telescope Alignment | Laszlo Sturmann, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson |
| Weather and Seeing Statistics | Nils Turner, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson |
| MIRC/CHAMP Status and Uptdates | Fabien Baron, UM, Ann Arbor |
| FLUOR Instrumentation | Benjamin Mollier, Paris Obs., Meudon |
| VEGA: Status and Future Plans | Denis Mourard, OCA, Nice |
| VLTI Update and A Proposal for Optical 'Self-Cal' | Gerard van Belle, ESO, Garching |
| Keck Interferometer: Status and Update | Sam Ragland, KI, Waimaia |
| Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer | Michelle Creech-Eakman, MRO, Socorro |
| SUSI Update | Michael Ireland, U. Sydney, Sydney |
| NPOI Progress Since SPIE 2008 | Don Hutter, USNO, Flagstaff |
| Station Fire | Larry Webster, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson |
| Observers Reports 2009 | P.J. Goldfinger, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson |
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | CHARA Instrumentation and Observing Updates (cont.):
| Topic | Speaker |
| CHARA Community Access Experiment | Steve Ridgway, NOAO, Tucson |
| CHARA Future Directions | Steve Ridgway, NOAO, Tucson |
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | Science from the CHARA Array:
| Topic | Speaker |
| FLUOR Science | Vincent Foresto, Paris Obs., Meudon |
| PAVO Science and Instrument Review | Michael Ireland, U. Sydney, Sydney |
| VEGA Science Update: Fundamental Parameters | Nicolas Nardette, OCA, Nice |
| MIRC Closure Phase Studies for Detection of Hot Jupiters | Ming Zhao, JPL, Pasadena |
| Exoplanet Host and K Giant Star Project Status | Ellyn Baines, NRL, Washington |
| lambda Andromedae Imaging Status | Rob Parks, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta |
| Algol with MIRC | Fabien Baron, UM, Ann Arbor |
| Masses and Radii of Young Stars | Russel White, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta |
| Self-Calibrating Multiple Systems | David O'Brien, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta |
| A Survey of Stellar Families Multiplicity of Solar-Type Stars | Deepak Raghavan, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta |
| Separated Fringe Packet Binary Star Program | Chris Farrington, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson |
| CHARA/MIRC Imaging: Recent Progress in Understanding &epsilon Aurigae | Robert Stencel, U. Denver |
Thursday, March 11, 2010 | Science from the CHARA Array (cont.):
| Topic | Speaker |
| Be Star Observations with CLASSIC and MIRC | Yamina Touhami, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta |
| Monitoring Changes in Be Star Disks Using MIRC | Gail Schaefer, GSU/CHARA, Mount Wilson |
| Be Star Observations with VEGA/CHARA | Omar, Delaa, OCA, Nice |
| Infrared Observations of Young Stellar Objects at CHARA | Rafael Millan-Gabet, NExScI, Pasadena |
| TW Hya: Where's the Gap? | Rachel Akeson, NExScI, Pasadena |
| Fundamental Parameters of Low-Mass Stars | Kaspar von Braun, NExScI, Pasadena |
| Mass Loss Constraints for Massive Stars with the CHARA Array | Noel Richardson, GSU/CHARA, Atlanta |