The Milano Polarimeter (MiPol), a correlation system with phasemodulation has been built for the studies of the CMB polarizationat large angular scales. At present the system is at the TestaGrigia Observatory on the Italian Alps (3480 m asl). We areready to bring it to Dome Concordia for observations during theAntarctic winter beginning in March 2006. We discuss the systemperformance, its sensitivity and the status of the searches forCMB polarization.

This contribution describes our solar project at theAntarctic sites of Baia Terranova, South Pole and Dome-C. The project is based on a multi-level helioseismology analysis, aimed to study, for the first time, the local properties of the solar atmosphere. In addition, we plan to detect the presence of Alfvèn waves in and around the active regions, as an energy transfer vehicle from sunspots towards the corona. The technology used is the well known compact, stable, relatively unexpensive and still improving MOF (Magneto-Optical Filter).

Classical Be stars – i.e. non-supergiants B stars with some emission – are very intriguing objects. They represent nearly 20% of B stars. Emission originates in a circumstellar envelope more or less concentrated around the equator, and whose origin is so far unexplained. Fast rotational velocity of Be stars does not attain break-up velocity and an additional process is needed to account for circumstellar region formation. Non-radial pulsations in Be stars were discovered for more than twenty years and asteroseismology is the only way to study the internal structure of these stars. It may also provide some clues to understand the “Be phenomenon”. The opportunity to observe Be stars during long times, without daily interruption, is specially important, considering non-radial pulsation periods of Be stars.

Four site testing campaigns have already been conducted at Dome Cduring the local summers. A very reasonable extrapolation of theknowledge acquired on the atmospheric properties shows that broadband photometry could be exploited there for developingasteroseismology of many pulsating stars, including the solar-typeones, despite their very small oscillation amplitudes. This paperfocuses more specifically on the usual limiting factor inphotometry which is the scintillation.

Seismology is the only way to investigate the internal structure ofthe giant planets, with a lot of scientific implications such ashigh pressure physics and huge constraints on the scenario of solarsystem formation. As compared to other existing possibilities(ground based network, spacecraft), seismology of Jupiter will takea maximum benefit from the peculiarities of the Concordia station asan astronomical observatory. Indeed, the continuous temporalcoverage for all the winter season, and the quality of theatmospheric seeing, are crucial parameters for this program. Thejovian seismometer SYMPA, already used for network observations, isperfectly suitable for Dome C conditions. With the alreadyexisting small telescopes deployed in the frame of site testingprogram, seismology of Jupiter will constitute a excellentintermediate project with high scientific return, before theinstallation of large telescopes. In a second step, such aninstrument could be a first light instrument for a 1.5 m classautomatic telescope, which is to be developed as an individual stonefor a large interferometer. With this diameter, the same scientificprogram on Saturn could also be achieved.


The Dome C should benefit from an outstanding atmospheric qualityduring the night due to catabatic wind conditions (wind speed ~ 2 m s-1, r0 ~ 0.3 m). From analytical and numericalsimulations, we show that these seeing conditions are veryadvantageous for high-contrast imaging and coronagraphic search ofexoplanets in the near-IR with adaptive optics (AO): from the DomeC, the planet SNR is 4 times greater than from Mauna-Kea.
For these reasons, the Dome C seems to be the natural site for aPlanet-Finder consisting in a 2–8 m (possibly off-axis) monolithictelescope equipped with a fast and extreme AO (f ~ 1–2 kHz, f ~ cm), a low-aliasing wave-front sensor (WFS), acoronagraph and a speckle-noise subtraction. In these optimalconditions, a 3.6 m and a 8.2 m-telescope can respectively detect aJupiter-size and an Earth-size planet at 10 pc in 10h in J band. Lastly, a 15–30 m ELT located at the Dome C could performfast spectral analysis of Earth-like planets for biomarkersearching.

PLANET, the Probing Lensing Anomaly NETwork, is an international teamconducting observations of on-going gravitational microlensingevents from five sites in the southern hemisphere. Our primary goal is todetect or to put constraints on sub-stellar companions of M dwarfs from the galactic disk. We report the current status and discuss the future prospects.A 2 m robotic telescope at Dome C which would benefit from continuous coverage and dream like seeing (median of 0.27 arcsec) is currently the best option for aground based aggressive search for Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone.

The Permanent All Sky Survey (PASS) is a project for a continuous photometric survey of the entire celestial sphere with a high temporal resolution. Its major objectives are the detection of all giant-planet transits (with periods up to some weeks) across stars up to mag 10.5, and the delivery of continuous time series photometry that is useful for the study of any variable stars. For a southern instrument of PASS, Dome C offers two major advantages over mid-latitude sites: lower noises and greatly improved observational coverage. The simplicity of the instrument should make it fairly easily adaptable to the extreme low temperatures at that site.

We present “A STEP”, a project dedicated to the search for planetarytransits from Antartica. The project consists of a fully automatic 40 cm telescope equipped with an 11-million-pixel CCD installed atDome C. The site offers crucial assets for a ground-based exoplanettransit search: uninterrupted phase coverage and excellentseeing. 
This system would be able to detect hot Jupiters transiting in frontof stars as faint as magnitude sixteen and could also detect smallerplanets in close-in period around brighter stars. Our estimations,based on results of previous surveys are an average of 6 detectionsper 60 days survey. Compared to existing surveys, this excellent yieldis due to the nearly-continuous phase coverage and excellent seiing.This short term project is meant to be a photometric qualifyer for thesite and the first stage of a massive detection campaign. A mid-termobjective of 1000 detections for 2012 could be achieved either with manysmall telescopes or with a large Schmidt telescope with a large fieldof view. 
The project is relatively simple and cost-effective, and has thedouble purpose of qualifying the site and obtaining first-classscientific results. Our team is already familiar with transitdetection with an automated telescope (BEST) and cold temperaturequalification.

Helioseismology and Asteroseismology have already given importantcontributions to stellar astrophysics, and they provide a powerfuldiagnostic method to improve our knowledge about the interior andevolution of star. Some experimental problems, however, such as theatmospheric scintillation, affect the precision of the measurements wecan achieve. This kind of noise can ultimately be eliminated onlythrough space-based observation, at the expense of high organizationand financial costs. In the framework of a collaboration between theSolar Physics Laboratory (G28) of University of Rome La Sapienza andthe Brera Astronomical Observatory of Milan-Merate, an experimentalset-up has been developed to increase the signal to noise ratio of ourphotometric observations and reduce the scintillation noise. Thissystem appears to be a great help in observational asteroseismology asit strongly rejects the scintillation noise while amplifies thestellar signals. Dome-C would be the best ground based site for ourmeasurements because of its low scintillation noise level and high atmospheric stability.

PILOT (Pathfinder for an International Large OpticalTelescope) isa proposed 2 m class optical/infrared telescope to be sited atDome C on the Antarctic plateau. Recent site testing results fromDome C have shown remarkable ground level seeing, a largeisoplanatic angle, and a long atmospheric coherence time. Thesefactors significantly improve the resolution and increase thecapabilities of adaptive optics systems. Additionally, the low skyemission at Dome C gives a significant increase in infraredsensitivity compared to typical mid-latitude sites. PILOT isenvisaged as a winterised version of a commercially available 2 mclass telescope, with a simple low cost dome (sufficient for thelow ground level wind speeds), and a tip-tilt and/or a deformablesecondary mirror. A number of science cameras covering the visibleto the sub-millimetre are being considered.

It is now evident that the exceptional seeing at Dome C willallow, in the next years, to pursue astronomical programs withconditions better than at any other observatory in the world, andvery close to space experiments.Considering a new type of wide-field telescope, particularastronomical programs could be well optimized for observations atDome C such as surveys for the discovery and follow up ofnear-Earth asteroids, search for extra-solar planets using transitor micro-lensing events, and stellar luminosity variations.We propose to build a 1.5–2 m class three-reflections telescope, with1–1.5 degree FOV, four times shorter than an equivalent Schmidttelescope, and providing a flat field without requiring atriplet- or quadruplet-lens corrector since its design isanastigmatic.We present the preliminary optical tests of such designs:MINITRUST 1 and 2 are two 45 cm identical prototypes based inFrance and Italy, and manufactured using active optics techniques.

Among the various recombination schemes devised for nulling interferometry, one is to use the Achromatic Interfero Coronograph (AIC) which basically is a modified Michelson-Fourier interferometer made compact by cementing together optical components. The principle of this AIC is based on the focus-crossing property, from which a wave of light experiences an achromatic π phase shift when crossing a focus. Operated up to now only on a single telescope, this device is able to accomodate several beams for nulling. We describe the use of AIC as an interferometric nuller for a two-aperture interferometer.

We report a preliminary study of the main focal plane instrumentfor the IRAIT telescope, currently being built atINAF-Astronomical Observatory of Teramo. The basic requirementsare those of a remotely-controlled camera aimed to perform 10- and20-μm photometry from Dome-C in the standard bandpasses N andQ. Starting from the site properties and the science goals, themain components of AMICA (Antarctic Mid-Infrared CAmera) aredescribed: a Si:As BIB array detector, sensitive in the range 2–28 μm; a fully reflective optical design; a cryostat modified inorder to work at the extreme environmental conditions of theantarctic plateau; a cryocooler maintaining the operatingtemperature of 4.2 K without external intervention; an automatizedand flexible control electronics.
AMICA is designed to fully exploit the unique mid-infrared observing conditions at Dome-C.

Accompanying the development of the PACS photometer camera (60–210 μm)on the Herschel Space Observatory, CEA/SAp and CEA/LETI have developed anew type of filled bolometer arrays. We present a camera using these “CCD-like”detectors for ground-based submillimeter applications. Such an instrument could potentially be operated in all atmospheric windows between 200 and 870 μmon a submillimetre-wave single-dish telescope at Dome C. A bolometer arraycould consist of several monolithic units of 16 × 16 pixels (as an example the blue and red PACS arrays consist of 4 × 2 and 2 × 1 units,respectively), providing a full sampling of the focal plane.

We present here a new result of ground-based asteroseismology obtained with the spectrograph HARPS. The exoplanets host star μ Arae was observed during an 8 nights campaign in order to understand the origin of the overmetallicity of planet-hosting stars. Thanks to very high precision Doppler measurements, we identified more than 20 p-modes in this star and compared it with different models. These results demonstrate the potential of ground-based Doppler asteroseismology and should be considered to be implemented in Dome C in the future in order to benefit of long and uninterrupted observations.