St Andrews Astronomy: PATT linked travel and subsistence

We request travel and subsistence support in the form of a rolling grant, to enable observers in the Astronomy group at the University of St Andrews to take up telescope time awarded by peer review panels such as PATT, on major international facilities. We also seek approval for travel to other, smaller telescopes. In particular, we seek support for follow-up radial-velocity observations during Semester 2009A and Semester 2010A using the SOPHIE spectrograph on the 1.9-m telescope at Haute-Provence (OHP). This will enable us to measure the masses of extra-solar planets found by the SuperWASP Wide-Field Sky Patrol Camera, which is currently beginning its fourth year of operation on La Palma. We are active members of the PLANET collaboration, and seek approval for occasional travel to small telescopes in the southern hemisphere to assist in intensive observing campaigns on Galactic Bulge microlensing events. We are using telescopes at CTIO to measure fundamental properties of the lowest-mass stars, and interferometric imaging to map stellar surfaces. This is a continuation of PPARC PATT-linked grant PP/E000584/1