The school will be articulated around three types of classes for a total of 30 hours and a poster session.

A) General lectures (30%)

The purpose of theses general lectures (10h) is to recall the basics of interferometry, to establish the fundamentals that are necessary to master interferometric techniques and to present the whereabouts of the VLTI and its instruments.

A1- Introduction to optical interferometry (2 × 2h) - Haniff
A2- Presentation of the VLTI and its subsystems (1h) - Glindemann
A3- AMBER the near-infrared instrument (1h30) - Petrov
A4- MIDI the thermal infrared instrument (1h30) - Perrin
A5- Introduction to data reduction (2h) - Chelli

B) Practice classes (50%)

Half the content of the school (15h) is devoted to practice, so that people not only know about interferometry, but also practise it. This part is organized in tutorials and computer practice sessions.

• Tutorials (5h30) on observing methods and softwares.

B1- Sources: models to visibilities (Berger)
B2- Observability and uv coverage of sources (Ségransan)
B3- Closure phase science (Monnier)
B4- Finding calibrator stars (Boden)
B5- Observing preparation sequences (Malbet)
B6- Introduction to the observing preparation tool ASPRO (Duvert) (30mn)
 
• PWS: Practice work sessions (10h) where attendants can practice the preparation of observation with available software by groups of 2 or 3 under the supervision of one of the lecturers or a member of the local organizing committee.

PWS1 - Introduction to ASPRO; from simple analytical models to visibilities; from user models to visibilities (3h)
PWS2 - Source observability, VLTI configuration, optimization of the configuration and planning of the observations (3h)
PWS3 - Finding calibrators stars (1h)
PWS4 - Sensitivity of the model parameters to the observation error bars (1h)
PWS5 - A complete preparation of the observations: all the phases of preparartion (2h)


C) Interactive seminars (20%)

Seminars from experienced interferometrists on some well-focused types of science topics and seminars from attendants on their particular subjects of interest

• Seminars/round tables from specialists with data reduction in real time (30mn each).

C1- From visibilities to science with simple models (Young)
C2- Disks broad-band observations (Berger)
C3- Stellar surface and closure phase (Buscher)
C4- Differential interferometry (Stee)
C5- Envelope spectral observations (Blöcker)
C6- Dust envelopes at 10 microns (Lopez)
 
• Seminars from participants (Ca) where they present their subject for future observations.
• Presentation of the practical work (Cb) performed during the school at the end of the week to allow exchanges and discussion.

D) Poster session

The poster session is aimed at a support for the practice course and also for questions/answers. The 30-mn pauses will take place near the poster room.