CTAO School - 3rd edition

12 May 2026, 09:00 → 22 May 2026, 18:00 Europe/London

Tuesday 12 May

11:00 → 12:00 Travel: Travel from SPC to ORM

12:30 → 14:00 Meals: Lunch at ORM

14:00 → 16:00 Introduction

Introduction and Icebreakers

Convener: David Green (CTAO)

14:00 Student Introductions and Flash Talks

15:00 Break

15:15 Introduction to VHE Astronomy

Speaker: David Green (CTAO)

16:00 → 16:15 Break

16:15 → 18:00 Technical: Fundamentals, EAS, Atmosphere

Technical Sessions relating to CTAO and IACTs

Convener: Kathrin Egberts (Institut fur Physik & Astronomie, Universitat Potsdam)

MaterialForIACTInstrumentation_2026.pdf

16:15 Fundamentals, EAS, Atmosphere - Part 1

Speaker: Kathrin Egberts (Institut fur Physik & Astronomie, Universitat Potsdam)

17:00 Break

17:15 Fundamentals, EAS, Atmosphere - Part 2

Speaker: Kathrin Egberts (Institut fur Physik & Astronomie, Universitat Potsdam)

18:00 → 20:00 Meals: Dinner

22:00 → 00:00 Observing: MAGIC + LST Observing

Wednesday 13 May

08:00 → 10:00 Meals: Breakfast + Coffee

10:00 → 12:30 Technical: Fundamentals, EAS, Atmosphere

Technical Sessions relating to CTAO and IACTs

Convener: Kathrin Egberts (Institut fur Physik & Astronomie, Universitat Potsdam)

MaterialForIACTInstrumentation_2026.pdf

10:00 Fundamentals, EAS, Atmosphere - Part 3

Speaker: Kathrin Egberts (Institut fur Physik & Astronomie, Universitat Potsdam)

11:00 Break

11:15 Fundamentals, EAS, Atmosphere - Part 4

Speaker: Kathrin Egberts (Institut fur Physik & Astronomie, Universitat Potsdam)

12:30 → 14:00 Meals: Lunch

14:00 → 15:45 Technical: IACT Camera + Calibration

Technical Sessions relating to CTAO and IACTs

Convener: Daniel Kerszberg (LPNHE, CNRS/IN2P3)

MaterialForIACTInstrumentation_2026.pdf

16:00 → 18:00 Visits: Day visits to MAGIC, LSTs, GTC, and TNG

Visits to telescopes

18:00 → 20:00 Meals: Dinner

Thursday 14 May

08:00 → 10:00 Meals: Breakfast + Coffee

10:00 → 12:30 Technical: Fundamentals, EAS, Atmosphere

Technical Sessions relating to CTAO and IACTs

Convener: Kathrin Egberts (Institut fur Physik & Astronomie, Universitat Potsdam)

MaterialForIACTInstrumentation_2026.pdf

10:00 Fundamentals, EAS, Atmosphere - Part 5

Speaker: Kathrin Egberts (Institut fur Physik & Astronomie, Universitat Potsdam)

11:00 Break

11:15 Fundamentals, EAS, Atmosphere - Part 6

Speaker: Kathrin Egberts (Institut fur Physik & Astronomie, Universitat Potsdam)

12:30 → 14:00 Meals: Lunch

14:00 → 15:45 Technical: Optics + Mechanics

Technical Sessions relating to CTAO and IACTs

Convener: Martin Will (Telescope Engineer)

MaterialForIACTInstrumentation_2026.pdf

16:00 → 18:00 Visits: Day visits to MAGIC, LSTs, GTC, and TNG

Visits to telescopes

18:00 → 20:00 Meals: Dinner

22:00 → 00:00 Observing: Observing with MAGIC/LST

Friday 15 May

08:00 → 10:00 Meals: Breakfast + Coffee

11:00 → 12:30 Travel: Travel from ORM to H10 Hotel

13:00 → 13:30 Meals: Lunch

13:30 → 15:00 Analysis: Low Level Analysis

Analysis blocks for the school

Convener: Dr Maximilian Linhoff (CTAO)

15:00 → 15:30 Meals: Coffee

15:30 → 19:00 Technical: How to Design an IACT

Technical Sessions relating to CTAO and IACTs

Conveners: Oscar Blanch Bigas (Institut de Fisica d'Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology), Dr Roberta Zanin (CTAO)

MaterialForIACTInstrumentation_2026.pdf

15:30 How to Design an IACT - Group 1

Speaker: Oscar Blanch Bigas (Institut de Fisica d'Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology)

15:30 How to Design an IACT - Group 2

Speaker: Dr Roberta Zanin (CTAO)

19:00 → 22:00 Meals: Dinner

Saturday 16 May

08:00 → 20:00 Free Day

Sunday 17 May

07:00 → 09:00 Meals: Breakfast

09:00 → 13:00 Science: Gamma-ray Theory

Scientific blocks for the school

Convener: Giada Peron (Inaf Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri)

13:00 → 14:00 Meals: Lunch

14:00 → 16:00 Analysis: Intro to Stats

Analysis blocks for the school

Convener: Giacomo D'Amico (Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE))

16:00 → 16:30 Meals: Coffee

16:30 → 19:30 Mini-projects: Work on Mini-projects

Mini-projects blocks

16:30 → 17:30 Outreach: Outreach and Public Presentation

Convener: Alba Fernández Barral (Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory)

19:30 → 22:00 Meals: Dinner

Monday 18 May

07:00 → 09:00 Meals: Breakfast

09:00 → 11:00 Science: Time Domain Astronomy

Scientific blocks for the school

Convener: Dr Sylvia Zhu (DESY)

09:00 Time Domain Astronomy - Part 1

Speaker: Sylvia Zhu (DESY)

10:50 Break

11:00 → 13:00 Science: Non-jetted Galactic Science

Scientific blocks for the school

Convener: Dr Rubén López Coto (IAA-CSIC)

11:00 Break

11:10 Non-Jetted Galactic Physics - Part 1

Speaker: Dr Rubén López Coto (IAA-CSIC)

13:00 → 14:00 Meals: Lunch

14:00 → 16:00 Analysis: How to Build IRFs and High-level Analysis

Analysis blocks for the school

Convener: Dr Maximilian Linhoff (CTAO)

14:00 How to Build IRFs

Speaker: Dr Maximilian Linhoff (CTAO)

15:00 Break

15:15 Exploring DL3 Data

Speaker: Dr Maximilian Linhoff (CTAO)

16:00 → 16:30 Meals: Coffee

16:30 → 19:30 Mini-projects: Work on Mini-projects

Mini-projects blocks

16:30 → 17:30 Outreach: Outreach and Public Presentation

Convener: Alba Fernández Barral (Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory)

19:30 → 22:00 Meals: Dinner

Tuesday 19 May

07:00 → 09:00 Meals: Breakfast

09:00 → 11:00 Science: Time-domain Astronomy

Scientific blocks for the school

Convener: Sylvia Zhu (DESY)

09:00 Time Domain Astronomy - Part 2

Speaker: Sylvia Zhu (DESY)

10:50 Break

11:00 → 13:00 Science: Non-jetted Galactic Science

Scientific blocks for the school

Convener: Dr Rubén López Coto (IAA-CSIC)

11:00 Break

11:10 Non-Jetted Galactic Physics - Part 2

Speaker: Dr Rubén López Coto (IAA-CSIC)

13:00 → 14:00 Meals: Lunch

14:00 → 16:00 Analysis: High-level Analysis

Analysis blocks for the school

Conveners: Fabio Acero (AIM, CEA, CNRS, Universite Paris-Saclay, Universite Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cite, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France), Dr Kirsty Feijen (The Astroparticle and Cosmology laboratory)

16:00 → 16:30 Meals: Coffee

16:30 → 19:30 Mini-projects: Work on Mini-projects

Mini-projects blocks

16:30 → 17:30 Outreach: Outreach and Public Presentation

Convener: Alba Fernández Barral (Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory)

19:30 → 22:00 Meals: Dinner

Wednesday 20 May

07:00 → 09:00 Meals: Breakfast

09:00 → 11:00 Science: Time Domain Astronomy

Scientific blocks for the school

Convener: Sylvia Zhu (DESY)

09:00 Time Domain Astronomy - Part 3

Speaker: Sylvia Zhu (DESY)

10:50 Break

11:00 → 13:00 Science: Non-jetted Galactic Science

Scientific blocks for the school

Convener: Dr Rubén López Coto (IAA-CSIC)

11:00 Break

11:10 Non-jetted Galactic Science - Part 3

Speaker: Dr Rubén López Coto (IAA-CSIC)

13:00 → 14:00 Meals: Lunch

14:00 → 16:00 Analysis: High-level analysis

Analysis blocks for the school

Conveners: Fabio Acero (AIM, CEA, CNRS, Universite Paris-Saclay, Universite Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cite, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France), Dr Kirsty Feijen (The Astroparticle and Cosmology laboratory)

16:00 → 16:30 Meals: Coffee

16:30 → 19:30 Mini-projects: Work on Mini-projects

Mini-projects blocks

19:30 → 22:00 Meals: Dinner

Thursday 21 May

07:00 → 09:00 Meals: Breakfast

09:00 → 11:00 Science: Time Domain + Multi Messenger

Scientific blocks for the school

Conveners: Lea Heckmann (APC CNRS / MPP), Sylvia Zhu (DESY)

09:00 Time Domain + Multi Messenger

Speakers: Lea Heckmann (APC CNRS / MPP), Sylvia Zhu (DESY)

10:50 Break

11:00 → 13:00 Science: Galactic + Multi-wavelength connections

Scientific blocks for the school

Conveners: Lea Heckmann (APC CNRS / MPP), Dr Rubén López Coto (IAA-CSIC)

11:00 Break

11:10 Galactic + Multi-wavelength connections

Speakers: Dr Rubén López Coto (IAA-CSIC), Sylvia Zhu (DESY)

13:00 → 14:00 Meals: Lunch

14:00 → 16:00 Analysis: Finding MWL data

Analysis blocks for the school

Convener: Lea Heckmann (APC CNRS / MPP)

14:00 Multi-wavelength Analysis

Speaker: Lea Heckmann (APC CNRS / MPP)

16:00 → 16:30 Meals: Coffee

16:30 → 19:30 Mini-projects: Work on Mini-projects

Mini-projects blocks

20:00 → 22:30 Meals: Dinner at L'Osteria del Geco

Friday 22 May

07:00 → 09:00 Meals: Breakfast

09:00 → 13:00 Mini-projects: Group Presentations

Mini-projects blocks

13:00 → 14:00 Meals: Lunch