From john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au Mon Nov 4 15:36:08 2013 From: john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au (John O'Byrne) Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2013 15:36:08 +1100 Subject: [ASA] Powerful AGN and Their Host Galaxies Across Cosmic Time: First Announcement Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to send out the first announcement for: `Powerful AGN and Their Host Galaxies Across Cosmic Time' (http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/workshops/2014/SouthernCrossVII/) to be held in Port Douglas, QLD, Australia, 16-20 June 2014. This is the seventh Southern Cross Series of conferences to be organising jointly by CASS and the AAO. Please mark your calendars. Registration will open early next year. Invited Speakers include: Dave Alexander Amy Barger Mike Dopita Sarah Ellison* Chiara Feruglio* Ryan Hickox* Stephanie Juneau Roberto Maiolino Ran Wang Please forward this to other colleagues. regards, Nick Seymour (for the SOC) SOC: Nick Seymour, Amy Kimball, Caroline Foster, Mark Lacy, Franz Bauer, Stephanie Juneau, Jeff Wagg (*TBC) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR JOHN O?BYRNE Associate Head (Teaching & Learning) Chair, School Teaching & Learning Committee Secretary, Astronomical Society of Australia Inc. Sydney Institute for Astronomy School of Physics | Faculty of Science THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Rm 222, 44-70 Rosehill St Redfern H90 (see map) | (alternate: Rm 205, Physics Building A28) Postal address: School of Physics | The University of Sydney | NSW | Australia | 2006 T +61 2 9351 3184 | F +61 2 9351 7726 E john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au | W http://sydney.edu.au/science/physics/~obyrne CRICOS 00026A This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email uses 100% recycled words and ideas. Do you really need to print it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Warrick.Couch at aao.gov.au Wed Nov 6 18:00:48 2013 From: Warrick.Couch at aao.gov.au (Warrick Couch) Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2013 18:00:48 +1100 Subject: [ASA] HERMES achieves first light Message-ID: Dear colleagues: I am very pleased to report that on 19 October (2013), after more than 5 years in the making, the AAO's High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph (HERMES) saw its first light on the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope. HERMES is a A$12M investment in the future of Australian astronomy, being a facility class instrument that will be available for all AAT users. Together with the existing 2dF positioning system, HERMES will provide Australian astronomers with the unique opportunity to carry out multi-object spectroscopy of up to 392 objects at high spectral resolution. No such facility is currently available on any other optical telescope! The first stellar observations with HERMES were of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, a well known southern hemisphere target. The data collected in 2 arcsec seeing conditions demonstrated that in an exposure time of 1 hour, HERMES provides a signal-to-noise ratio of 100 per resolution element at the following magnitude limits: B = 14.2 in the blue HERMES band V = 13.8 in the green HERMES band R = 14.0 in the red HERMES band I = 13.8 in the infrared HERMES band In median seeing of 1.5 arc sec, we can expect the count rates to be a factor of ~1.2 higher. HERMES was also found to deliver an average spectral resolution of R ~ 28,000 across the detector for the nominal resolution mode. A higher resolution mask mode will be commissioned in the upcoming commissioning runs in November and December, which will also include more detailed tests to characterise the full functionality of HERMES. I will provide further updates on progress towards HERMES being fully commissioned, and more detailed information will also be made available on the AAO website (www.aao.gov.au) and in the AAO Observer. Regards, Warrick Couch (AAO Director) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Professor Warrick Couch Phone: +61 2 9372 4811 Director, Australian Astronomical Observatory Fax: +61 2 9372 4880 P.O. Box 915, North Ryde, NSW 1760 Email: warrick.couch at aao.gov.au ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From smaddison at swin.edu.au Fri Nov 8 15:30:41 2013 From: smaddison at swin.edu.au (Sarah Maddison) Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2013 15:30:41 +1100 Subject: [ASA] 3rd Australian Exoplanet Workshop - second annoucement Message-ID: Reminder: registration deadline for the 3rd Australian Exoplanet Workshop is 22 November 2013 *3rd Australian Exoplanet Workshop* *5-6 December 2013* *Swinburne University, Melbourne* *http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/planets/ThirdWorkshop2013/ * We invite you to attend the 3rd Australian Exoplanet Workshop held 5-6 December 2013, hosted by the Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing. The meeting aims to bring together Australian researchers working on exoplanets, from both observational and theoretical perspectives. The workshop will cover exoplanet surveys, characterisation and theoretical modelling of planet formation and evolution - anything related to the science of planets orbiting other stars. Participants are encouraged to give a short presentation on a specific research issue, or to brief the workshop on the current research capabilities in exoplanetary science in their departments. There will also be an opportunity to discuss important questions and strategies for increasing linkages and collaborations as a means to expanding this critical research area into the future. Friday afternoon will also include a discussion session on championing exoplanet research in the up coming decadal review process. There is no registration fee to attend the workshop. However, please indicate your attendance via the registration page, which includes the option to submit a title and abstract of the talk. Registration deadline is 22 November 2013. *http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/planets/ThirdWorkshop2013/registration.html * Kind regards, Sarah Maddison (Swinburne) (chair) Daniel Bayliss (ANU) Charley Lineweaver (ANU) Elodie Thilliez (Swinburne) Mark Hutchison (Swinburne) -- A/Prof Sarah Maddison Associate Professor of Astrophysics and Deputy Director http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/ Guest Editor Special Issue of *Life* "Planet Formation and the Rise of Life" http://www.mdpi.com/journal/life/special_issues/planet Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing Swinburne University of Technology H30, PO BOX 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, AUSTRALIA t: 61-3-9214 5971 f: 61-3-9214 8797 e: smaddison at swin.edu.au w: http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/maddison/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au Sun Nov 10 23:47:46 2013 From: john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au (John O'Byrne) Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 23:47:46 +1100 Subject: [ASA] AusGO 2014 Observational Techniques Workshop Message-ID: <056E8F5F-B3DF-49EF-B272-A0BD80556516@sydney.edu.au> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AusGO 2014 Observational Techniques Workshop 1-4 April 2014 The Australian Astronomical Observatory, North Ryde, NSW INITIAL ANNOUNCEMENT - Save the date ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Australian Gemini Office and the Australian Astronomical Observatory are pleased to announce the Observational Techniques Workshop 2014 to take place at the AAO North Ryde offices, NSW. Topics will include: * Overview of data acquisition, telescopes and calibrations * Imaging and spectroscopy data reduction * Hands-on tutorials and reduction demos Full program, website and registration to be available shortly. Please mark the dates in your calendars. The workshop will be open to all but places are limited, so preference will be given to students and early-career researchers. On behalf of the Program Organising Committee (Caroline Foster, Kyler Kuehn, Chris Lidman, Richard McDermid, Simon O'Toole and Stuart Ryder) -- Dr. Caroline Foster AusGO Research Fellow - AAO Email: cfoster at aao.gov.au Homepage: www.carofoster.com Telephone: +61 (02) 9372 4894 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: