[ASA] Funding available for travel to AST3/KDUST collaboration meeting, Nanjing June 5-8; also, AST3 data is available

[Michael Ashley]

ASA exploder message from Michael Ashley <m.ashley at unsw.edu.au>

Dear colleagues,

If you are interesting in optical/IR astronomy from Antarctica, you might consider attending the AST3/KDUST collaboration meeting in Nanjing, China, from June 5-8.

I have some funding from the Department of Industry to provide airfares and accommodation. If you would like to make use of this funding, please let me know ASAP, preferably by return email.

The AST3 collaboration meeting follows on from a similar meeting in November last year in Nanjing, and the earlier AAL meeting at Swinburne:

http://www.astronomyaustralia.org.au/ast3-science-planning-workshop-feb-13

The meeting will cover the following topics:

1) AST3 (two 0.5m optical telescopes with 5k x 10k CCDs, one is at Dome A now, the other will be sent down at the end of this year).

2) Results from testing the 2nd AST3 telescope at Mohe, China.

3) The 2014/2015 Antarctic traverse plan.

4) The proposed near-infrared AST3 (0.5m aperture, 2k x 2k H2RG array from Teledyne, 2.36 micron filter). An ARC LIEF application for the camera was submitted two weeks ago by Jeremy Mould, with partners from Swinburne, Macquarie, ANU, UNSW, Sydney, Purple Mountain Observatory, Texas A&M, and Caltech. The telescope is already funded.

5) AST3 and ASKAP surveys of transients.

6) KDUST (a proposed 2.5m optical/IR telescope, very close to being funded), engineering, science, international collaborations.

7) Future opportunities: a) EU 2020 vision, b) z Equals 20 from Antarctica (zETA) (KDUST leading to a 4m telescope to detect objects at z=20).

If you wish to give a talk, please send me a short abstract.

Meanwhile, AST3-1 data from 2012 is available to Australian astronomers. If you are interested, please contact the leader of the relevant science panel:

SNe and gamma ray bursts:
    Fang Yuan <yuanfang at mso.anu.edu.au>
Synoptic universe (transients at radio wavelengths):
    Paul Hancock <hancock at physics.usyd.edu.au> 
Exoplanets:
    Chris Tinney <c.tinney at unsw.edu.au>
Variable stars: 
    Charles Kuehn <kuehn at physics.usyd.edu.au>

There is about 1.7TB of data available. Please note that it is mostly of engineering quality.

Regards,
Michael Ashley
-- 
Professor Michael Ashley                   Department of Astrophysics
University of New South Wales       http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~mcba