From ausgo at aao.gov.au Tue Sep 25 11:19:47 2012 From: ausgo at aao.gov.au (Australian Gemini Office) Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:19:47 +1000 Subject: [ASA] Announcement of Special Opportunity for T-ReCS Observations Sept 25-Oct 9 References: <1C88698F8A91C045B869B72CCE4F2681BAB81D0D@GS-MBS1.gemini.edu> Message-ID: To the Gemini Community: Dear friends, We have a small window of opportunity for additional T-ReCS observations to be taken at Gemini South between Sept 24 and Oct 9. To make effective use of this telescope time, we are soliciting suggestions from the community. As a result of a mechanical failure with GMOS-S*, we have a temporary hole in the GS queue for image quality conditions that are not sufficient for NICI observations (IQ85 or worse). T-ReCS is still available on the telescope for 2 more weeks, until October 9th. Therefore, Gemini invites the community to submit targets immediately, for observation with T-ReCS between September 24 and October 9. Targets must be visible now (~22 From john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au Thu Sep 27 09:08:39 2012 From: john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au (John O'Byrne) Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:08:39 +1000 Subject: [ASA] Workshop 1st announcement Message-ID: <00B973D8-9D1C-478F-9FCC-950596DAF307@sydney.edu.au> First Announcement Workshop on: The next generation of hemispheric redshift surveys and the prospects for TAIPAN, 10th-12th Dec 2012 http://physics.mq.edu.au/astronomy/workshop_2012/ The 2nd annual workshop of the Macquarie University Research Centre for Astronomy, Astrophysics and Astrophotonics (MQAAAstro) will be held on MQ campus from December 10th-12th 2012. Rationale: The workshop is designed to bring together experts and researchers to discuss the science prospects and goals of the proposed TAIPAN survey. What is TAIPAN? TAIPAN (Transforming Astronomical Imaging surveys through Polychromatic Analysis of Nebulae) is a major new galaxy redshift survey planned for the UK Schmidt Telescope using innovative starbugs fibre positioning technology that allows for several hundred fibres across the UKST?s focal surface. TAIPAN is intended to build on the legacy and extend the highly successful 6dF Galaxy Redshift Survey by adding 4x the number of new spectra for fainter galaxies to r~17 over the entire southern sky and amounting to ~500,000 additional redshifts. Key survey features of TAIPAN: 500,000 Redshifts to z ~ 0.2 with r ? 17 K ? 14 Implementation of new "star bug" fibre probes 3 year survey starting in 2015 Major topics: Synergies with ASKAP galaxy surveys, precision cosmology, Galaxy evolution, the connection between gas and stars, the impact of environment and mergers, large scale structure, stellar and halo mass functions, star formation and AGN and the intergalactic magnetic field. Invited speakers include: Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Simon Driver, Lister Stavely-Smith, Baerbel Koribalski, Matthew Colless, Tom Jarrett, Jon Lawrence, Fred Watson, Florian Beutler, and Ray Norris Registration is limited to 80 so it is recommended to register as soon as possible Attendance is restricted to the first 80 registrants so early registration is recommended. The registration fee is only $130 for regular attendees and $50 for PhD students- Morning/afternoon teas and lunches provided with a subsidized workshop dinner. For further details see: http://physics.mq.edu.au/astronomy/workshop_2012/ -- Prof. Quentin A Parker Joint MQ/AAO lecturer in Astronomy Director, MQ Research Centre in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics Director "Space to Grow" Member MQ teaching Excellence Academy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au Fri Sep 28 11:44:07 2012 From: john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au (John O'Byrne) Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2012 11:44:07 +1000 Subject: [ASA] SKA: Modern Radio Universe 2013 Message-ID: ################################################################################ - - - - - T H E M O D E R N R A D I O U N I V E R S E 2013 - - - - - - ################################################################################ 22 - 26 April 2013, Bonn, Germany PLEASE PRE-REGISTER ON: https://indico.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/indico/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=21 80 years ago, in spring 1933, Karl Jansky published his discovery of cosmic radio emission. This paved the way not only for a new discipline, radio astronomy, but also for an exploration of the universe that now encompasses almost the entire electromagnetic window. Nowadays, radio astronomy is about to enter into yet another "golden era" with a number of new or upgraded radio facilities coming online and major new initiatives, like the SKA, are starting up. This conference will try to highlight the original and exciting science currently being produced by radio astronomical facilities, such as the Effelsberg telescope, the GBT, LOFAR, ALMA, the Karl Jansky VLA, eMERLIN, EVN, VLBA, as well as the pathfinder experiments of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), and others. The advanced science delivered by the radio astronomical community will improve our current knowledge of the universe, highlight new trends, and address key questions in modern astrophysics that may lead us to even more ambitious science goals to be targeted by future radio facilities like the SKA. Science areas that will be discussed are among others: Cosmology, galaxy evolution, AGN and compact objects, star formation, interstellar medium, The Milky Way and Galactic science, radio transients, fundamental and astroparticle physics, extreme physics and associated theory. In particular: * From the dark ages to cosmic large scale structure (EoR, dark energy, HI web) * Galaxies and galaxy evolution (HI, radio continuum, magnetic fields) * Stars and star formation (masers, radio stars, planetary radio emission, disks) * Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium (physical processes in the ISM and IGM) * Compact Objects (AGN, X-ray binaries, neutron stars, radio transients) * Tests of fundamental physics (pulsars, fundamental constants) The last Modern Radio Universe took place 2007 in Manchester commemorating 50 years of the Lovell telescope and looking forward towards the SKA. This issue of the conference commemorates the groundbreaking work of Karl Jansky 80 years ago and comes 40 years after the Effelsberg 100m telescope started operations. The conference will consist of invited talks (approx. 20 min) and 15 min contributed talks (potentially a few 30 min review talks) plus posters. In short, combining past and future of radio astronomy, the main focus of the science presentations, will be to make an inventory of outstanding science results that are presently being obtained by the newly upgraded or constructed facilities. SOC: M. Kramer (chair; MPIfR), H. Falcke (chair; Radboud Uni Nijmegen), F. Bertoldi (AIfA), F. Combes (Paris), T. de Graauw (ALMA), P. Diamond (SKA), A. Eckart (Uni Cologne), B. Fanaroff (SA SKA), R. Fender (Uni Southampton), L. Feretti (INAF), T. Fieseler (Juelich), D. Frail (NRAO), M. Garrett (ASTRON), R. Laing (ESO), K. Menten (MPIfR), L. V. Montenegro (IAA), M. Reid (CfA Harvard-Smithsonian), A. Zensus (MPIfR) LOC: H.-R. Kloeckner (chair), G. Breuer, S. Bruschi, H. Falcke, M. Huynh, M. Kramer, J. Lazio, M. Zwaan Sponsors: MPIfR, MPG, SKA Organisation, European SKA Consortium, SKA project office, RadioNet 3 Supported by: German Long Wavelength Consortium, Argelander-Institute for Astronomy University of Bonn, Astronomical Institute University of Bochum, I. Physikalisches Institut University of Cologne, Radboud University Nijmegen Social activities: Boat trip on the Rhine, reception, soccer match, conference dinner, free visit to the museum, trip to Effelsberg. Conference fee: The conference fee of 250 Euro will include coffee, lunch and social activities. An additional fee of 50 Euro for the conference dinner is needed to cover the cost. Venue: Rheinisches Landes Museum Bonn Colmant Strasse 14-16 53115 Bonn The museum is located right next to the Bonn train station and is in short walking distance to the Bonn downtown area. The museum displays the history of the Rhineland area (prehistoric, Roman, medieval) and holds the original remains of the Neanderthal man. http://www.rlmb.lvr.de/ Accommodation: A contingent of about 150 rooms has been made available in various hotels via a "Tourismus & Congress" company. Included in the room bookings is a public transport ticket directly usable from the Bonn/Cologne airport. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Important dates: Registration open: September 25th, 2013 Registration deadline: April 1st, 2013 Abstracts deadline: February 15th, 2013 Conference dates: April 22nd - 26th , 2013 Conference website: https://indico.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/indico/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=21 Conference email: mru2013 at lists.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dr Minh Huynh Tel: +61 8 6488 4594 Fax: +61 8 6488 7755 International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research University of Western Australia M468, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley WA 6009, Australia Deputy International SKA Project Scientist Registered Address: SKA Organisation Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, The University of Manchester Manchester, M13 9PL, UK Registered in England & Wales, Company Number: 07881918