Invited Presentation

A Report on TANGO and the PTF/iPTF Project

Wing-Huen Ip and the TANGO Team

The TANGO (Taiwan New Generation OIR Astronomy) Project covers the scientific operation of the Lulin Observatory and international cooperation with the PTF/iPTF project led by Caltech as the main focus. The abbreviation “PTF” stands for Palomar Transient Factory and “iPTF” for intermediate PTF. The central pieces of the equipment are the P48 (1.2 m) Schmidt Telescope plus the P60 (1.5 m) telescope and the P200 (5 m) telescope at the Palomar Observatory. The wide-field surveys and science-oriented scheduling of the PTF project which started in 2009 have led to the detections of many different types of SNe at their early phases of brightening. In order to provide comprehensive follow-up observations, a new kind of IFU spectrograph called SED Machine will be installed on P60. The main thrusts of the TANGO consortium are on the study of solar system objects (i.e., asteroids and comets) variable stars and X-ray binaries in M31 and the Galaxy. Recent progress in these areas will be highlighted.