From yeshefenner at swin.edu.au Mon Feb 18 11:59:28 2019 From: yeshefenner at swin.edu.au (Yeshe Fenner) Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2019 00:59:28 +0000 Subject: [ASA] ASA membership updates Message-ID: To ASA members, Thanks to all the ASA members who have renewed their membership for 2019. If you haven?t yet, please remember that a discount applies to payments made by the end of February, so renew now! Also encourage your colleagues and students to join and support the astronomical community. Note: we have introduced the following new membership initiatives: * If you are working overseas, please remember that this year we have introduced a new ASA membership status for International members to recognise your lesser ability to engage in ASA-supported activities. It will reduce the cost of membership to encourage members who leave Australia, especially recent PhD graduates, to stay engaged with the ASA and the Australian astronomical community. The membership fee is now the same as the Student membership, less the 10% GST. * An extra new initiative is the introduction of alumni status. If you are dropping your membership (hopefully not, but?) you can now elect to remain as a (free) member of the alumni of the ASA. You will not receive regular ASA emails or other benefits of ASA membership but you may receive occasional updates on ASA activities and invitations to share the story of your career path with our ECR members - especially if it is outside of astronomy. This is one step to improve the awareness of all our members of the broad career opportunities that astronomy may offer. If either of these are of interest, please update your address details in the membership system and send an email to asa.secretary at sydney.edu.au to request a move to a new status. Retired members are now also handled the same way. Any questions about membership or payments should go to the membership Secretary, John O?Byrne, at asa.secretary at sydney.edu.au, or the Treasurer, Yeshe Fenner, at asa.treasurer at sydney.edu.au Best wishes for the year ahead, John O'Byrne and Yeshe Fenner P.S. When renewing your membership, don?t forget the Foundation for the Advancement of Astronomy (FAA) (https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/UtZWCP7yOZt1loD6UzBrXk?domain=asa.astronomy.org.au) which is the ASA?s channel for accepting tax-deductible donations. Donations allow us to consider new initiatives to support the astronomical community. Dr Yeshe Fenner, PhD | Chief Operating Officer ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) Faculty of Science Engineering and Technology Swinburne University of Technology PO Box 218 Hawthorn Vic 3122 Ph +61 3 9214 8302 | Mobile: 0430 708 995 [1497405341108_Email-sig-logos-small.png] (CRICOS Provider 00111D) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Outlook-1497405341.png Type: image/png Size: 17057 bytes Desc: Outlook-1497405341.png URL: From robert.shen at astronomyaustralia.org.au Fri Feb 22 14:41:36 2019 From: robert.shen at astronomyaustralia.org.au (Robert Shen) Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2019 14:41:36 +1100 Subject: [ASA] Final Reminder: ACAMAR5 registration closes on 28 February 2019 Message-ID: Dear All, Apologies for cross-posting. The 5th ACAMAR Workshop will be held from 2-4, April 2019 at the RACV Healesville Country Club, near Melbourne. *ACAMAR5 workshop registration:* https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/yGRxCxnMRvt5NnOAi82BMO?domain=acamar.org.au Note: The workshop registration *closes on 28 February 2019*. *ACAMAR5 workshop program: * https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/LOMmCyoNVrcPVqnMiMlnIO?domain=acamar.org.au *Accommodation* *Please reserve your accommodation at **the RACV Healesville Country Club **before 1 March 2019. *There will be no guarantee of room availability after that. The price is: - Deluxe Queen Room: $225 per room/night - Deluxe Twin Room: $255 per room/night Prices include a full buffet breakfast and ten per cent (10%) government tax (GST). *To make an accommodation reservation, please*: - Call RACV reservation team directly on +61 (3) 5962 4899 and quote ?ACAMAR5?. - Or email healesville at racv.com.au and quote ?ACAMAR5? (please include your name, check-in date, check-out date, and your contact phone number) Note: a deposit of $100 via credit card will be processed at the time of booking. Should you have any questions regarding ACAMAR5, please feel free to contact us. Best regards, Robert on behalf of ACAMAR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lucyna.chudczer at astronomyaustralia.org.au Sat Feb 23 11:27:53 2019 From: lucyna.chudczer at astronomyaustralia.org.au (Lucyna Chudczer) Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2019 11:27:53 +1100 Subject: [ASA] 2019B Blanco telescope (CTIO) Call for Proposals for Australian Community Message-ID: <000501d4cb0e$9ead86a0$dc0893e0$@astronomyaustralia.org.au> 2019B Blanco Telescope (CTIO) Call for Proposals The proposal deadline for the Blanco Telescope in Semester 2019B (August 2019 - January 2020) is: 23 March 2019, at 17:00 Australian Eastern Daylight Time (UTC + 11 hrs) The AAL and NOAO/CTIO are continuing a time-swap arrangement between the AAT and the 4m Blanco Telescope to allow our respective communities to maximise their scientific opportunities through access to a broader range of facilities. This semester, there will be 5 nights of CTIO time on the Blanco Telescope available to Australian community. Proposals will be assessed by the Australian Time Allocation Committee (ATAC), and as such they must follow the new ATAC Policies and Procedures (see https://aat.anu.edu.au/science/observing/policies) and be submitted before the deadline using the Lens proposal form ( https://www.aao.gov.au/lens/). All graded proposals will be provided to CTIO for scheduling. The Blanco telescope offers two instruments, the wide-field imaging camera DECam and the CTIO Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph (COSMOS). The purpose-built Dark Energy Camera (DECam) was used for the Dark Energy Survey that imaged nearly a billion galaxies over the past 6 years. Note that DECam can produce useful imaging in the reddest filters (izY) on all but the very brightest nights. The COSMOS instrument can be used in imaging, long-slit and multi-object spectroscopy modes. In 2019B, there will be approximately 70 nights available for allocation of new proposals by the NOAO and Australian TACs. This includes 18 dark time (defined as less than 7 days from new Moon). A total of 5 nights with a balanced distribution of lunations will be available to the Australian community. Further details about the available nights and instruments can be found from the last NOAO's 2019A Call for Proposals (https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/By8gCvl0PoCn8rKjSz25AV?domain=ast.noao.edu ). The NOAO 2019B Call for Proposals is due for release 01-Mar-2019 (MST; UTC-7:00) with the updated information. All scheduled observations will be carried out in classical mode, with observers required to travel to the telescope at their own expense. How to apply for Blanco time All ATAC applicants should check the ATAC Policies and Procedures (see https://aat.anu.edu.au/science/observing/policies ), and recent Policy Announcements (https://aat.anu.edu.au/science/observing/policies ). For further clarification on any issue, please contact the ATAC Technical Secretary (aat - at - astronomyaustralia.org.au ). Those who wish to apply for Blanco time should do so using the Lens proposal system ( https://www.aao.gov.au/lens/home ) described below, selecting "CTIO 4m" from the telescopes menu on the first page of the proposal form. Lens proposal submission system All proposals should be submitted with the AAT's online application system Lens (https://www.aao.gov.au/lens/home ), which will open on the day this call is made. This system is a user account based system, which allows for improved security and better tracking of past and current proposals. There is a FAQ available for Lens online (www.aao.gov.au/lens/faq ), or available via the FAQ tab in Lens itself. All new users must register (https://www.aao.gov.au/lens/register ) with the system. Note that users cannot be added to proposals if they are not registered in Lens. Please ensure that all investigators on a proposal have registered well before the deadline! For any queries or comments, please email: lens - at - aao.gov.au Proposal content Full technical details, outlining how you derived your time estimates, observing constraints, and any special requests should be included in the scientific case (preferably under a separate section heading). Proposers should demonstrate that their team has the skills and experience with the required observing modes to effectively conduct the proposed observations. Proposals should be written so that the content and significance is understandable by astronomers with different backgrounds. If the observations are essential to the completion of a student's PhD thesis, then a full explanation must be given in the science case. No special consideration is given to proposals involving PhD students, except when attempting to schedule proposals near the scientific ranking cut-off, when some priority may be given. A list of the principal targets should be prepared as a separate PDF document. The target list should contain target name, RA (h m s), Dec (d m s), target brightness, and priority. There is a 2-page limit for this target list PDF file. Other document formats will not be accepted. Proposal submission details Prepare your main proposal offline, including an abstract, target list, science case, and technical justification. The science case and technical justification together should be in PDF format, no more than three pages total, with two pages for the science case and one page for technical justification. Those three pages should include all references and figures, use 11pt font (or larger), and have at least 10mm margins. Numerical referencing should be used (e.g. "as shown by [1].", instead of "as shown by Smith et al. (2017)" ). Colour figures are accepted. Other document formats will not be accepted. Submitting your proposal When your proposal details are ready, submit your application to ATAC through Lens, the AAT's online proposal submission system. As noted above, this is a user-account-based system and all investigators on a proposal must be registered. Contacting the ATAC Secretariat Postal Address: PO Box 2100 Hawthorn VIC 3122 Street Address: Dept. Physics & Astronomy Macquarie University North Ryde NSW 2109 Phone: +61 (0)2 9850 6379 E-mail: aat - at - astronomyaustralia.org.au Web: www.astronomyaustralia.org.au/aat.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: