From s.brough at unsw.edu.au Mon Jul 1 11:53:36 2019 From: s.brough at unsw.edu.au (Sarah Brough) Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2019 01:53:36 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Australian involvement in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Message-ID: <9b83e9c0-557e-7792-cfe1-86adf16a8672@unsw.edu.au> Dear All, If you are interested in LSST and would like to know more, Rachel Webster will lead an LSST unconference session at the ASA Annual Science Meeting from 11.40am Thurs 11th July. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST; https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/zrdSC81Zj6tq2NWrCn1pSz?domain=lsst.org) is an 8.4m optical telescope under construction in Chile. Starting in 2023 it will conduct a 10-year imaging survey of the Southern hemisphere. International engagement with LSST has recently changed from a cash contribution of US$200,000 per PI to a, not-yet specified, in-kind contribution. At the moment, Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL) holds an MOU with the LSST Corporation for 10 (+40 junior) named researchers. The named PIs are given at the Australian LSST webpages, https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/2IBbC91ZkQtql4A1CE98FO?domain=astronomyaustralia.org.au. These researchers can join any of the 8 LSST Science Collaborations (https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/c8uYC0YZWVFB7NQ8f2tWYS?domain=lsstcorporation.org) and get involved with LSST science right now. With the change to the in-kind contribution, we would like to broaden the membership of LSST to any interested astronomer in Australia. There is also more information at the Australian LSST webpages: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/2IBbC91ZkQtql4A1CE98FO?domain=astronomyaustralia.org.au Regards, Sarah (Australian Science Lead for LSST) -- ---------------------- Assoc/Prof Sarah Brough Research Director School of Physics UNSW Sydney PH: 02 9385 5470 I am sending this message now because it suits me. I don?t expect that you will read, respond to, or action it outside of your regular working hours. ---------------------- From gavin.rowell at adelaide.edu.au Wed Jul 3 10:31:16 2019 From: gavin.rowell at adelaide.edu.au (Gavin Rowell) Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2019 00:31:16 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Australian astroparticle physics discussion paper Message-ID: Dear all, Following feedback received the past few months, a discussion paper was created to try to outline several topics - what defines Australian astroparticle physics, facilities involved, funding plans etc. Please find attached here this discussion paper. For those attending next week's ASA meeting in Brisbane, there will be a breakout session during Thursday's lunch break (room 07-234 is currently booked) where your direct feedback can be passed on. The session will be coordinated by Sabrina Einecke and Gary Hill and a videocon link (likely Zoom) is planned. In addition to this, you can provide feedback via the ozastroparticle physics list here ozastroparticle.physics at list.adelaide.edu.au To subscribe to this please and check the archive please go to: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/ajk2CYWL1viZkgrMc00Mib?domain=list.adelaide.edu.au The aim at this stage is to work this document into something broadly-accepted by the community to help enable the next steps (e.g. facilities, involvement, and funding for the next 5+ years.) Further discussion sessions (videocon or face-to-face) are earmarked for later in the year. all the best Gavin.. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gavin Rowell ph +61883138374 High Energy Astrophysics Group fax +61883134380 School of Physical Sciences gavin.rowell at adelaide.edu.au University of Adelaide 5005, AUSTRALIA web: http://www.physics.adelaide.edu.au/astrophysics/gpr/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Ozastropart-v1.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 59659 bytes Desc: Ozastropart-v1.pdf URL: From m.ashley at unsw.edu.au Wed Jul 3 21:35:55 2019 From: m.ashley at unsw.edu.au (Michael Ashley) Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2019 21:35:55 +1000 Subject: [ASA] Announcing the 2nd AST3-2 telescope data release: i-band images from Antarctica Message-ID: <20190703113555.GE791@mcba> Dear all, It is my pleasure to announce the availability of 221,731 images (totalling ~12 TB of compressed FITS files) obtained with the Chinese AST3-2 telescope during 2017, supported by NCRIS funding through AAL. AST3-2 is a 0.5m aperture optical telescope at Dome A, Antarctica (80.37S, 77.53E, 4093m altitude). It uses a Semiconductor Technology Associates CCD with 10,560 x 5,280 pixels covering a FOV of 4.3 square degrees at a scale of 1 arcsec/pixel. The telescope has a Sloan i-band filter. The data are primarily interesting since they are largely unaffected by diurnal aliasing (by virtue of the Antarctic location of the telescope), and will allow quite precise photometry due to low airmass variations, low scintillation noise, and low water vapour absorption. The source targets include: TESS CVZ: 91,064 images covering 32 fields (between 1100 and 4600 images per field) 10 sec exposures Proxima Cen: 27,373 images 10 sec Beta Pic: 68,742 0.1, 0.5, and 0.7 sec SN survey: 25,844 60 sec LMC: 2,274 60 sec IC2391: 2,745 10 sec MV Pav: 1,242 30 sec miscellaneous 2,447 Raw images are provided, together with pipeline software. The pipeline takes less than 5 seconds per image on a typical desktop computer and includes overscan correction/removal, fixed-pattern noise removal, flat-fielding, photometric calibration to better than 0.1 mag, astrometric calibration to GAIA DR2 (typically 0.05 arcsec residuals per star), and PSF characterisation. A sample image (a 2.7 MB png file) is available here: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/ijybCGvmB5ilLxKmcKTeHj?domain=mcba1.phys.unsw.edu.au. The full FITS file (223 MB) corresponding to this image is here: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/J650CJyp0qhzQG3RtGuARB?domain=mcba1.phys.unsw.edu.au. Note that the flat-fielding can be improved. An sqlite3 database of the FITS headers of the 221,731 images (278 MB) is here: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/T9LnCK1qJZtwrgzls3IQBb?domain=mcba1.phys.unsw.edu.au which allows you to easily explore the characteristics of the data release (e.g., RA, Dec coverage, extinction, sky background, FWHM of the PSF, etc). Example SQL queries and plots are given here: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/lZVQCL7rK8tOYxyAum4r58?domain=mcba1.phys.unsw.edu.au If you wish to publish papers using the data you should first engage with the AST3 consortium to check publication rules and to ensure that you aren't conflicting with an existing project. Projects currently being undertaken with 2017 AST3-2 data include: - exoplanet transits - supernovae, including spectra taken with WiFeS on the ANU 2.3m - observations of Beta Pic - pulsating variables and binaries - asteroseismology of red giants - Proxima Cen B - stellar flares - characterisation of the seeing at Dome A using precision astrometry (incidentally, we have some very exciting results from a DIMM this year; more details in a publication soon) To obtain a copy of the raw 2017 data on a 14TB hard disk, please email me. No charge, limit of one disk per institution. There is a Wiki for collaborators to share information about the AST3-2 data and pipeline; please email me if you would like to join. Best regards, Michael Ashley P.S. Sorry I will miss the ASA this year, it is during my busy teaching period. I hope that you all have a great time! -- Professor Michael Ashley Department of Astrophysics University of New South Wales http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~mcba From gavin.rowell at adelaide.edu.au Fri Jul 5 13:53:37 2019 From: gavin.rowell at adelaide.edu.au (Gavin Rowell) Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2019 03:53:37 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Fw: [Ozastroparticle.physics] Zoom URL for Ozastroparticle physics - Breakout session ASA meeting Thurs 11 July lunchtime In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Please see further info concerning the Ozastroparticle physics breakout below [sent to the ozastroparticle physics email list] thanks Gavin.. ________________________________ From: Gavin Rowell Sent: Friday, 5 July 2019 13:18 To: ozastroparticle.physics at list.adelaide.edu.au Subject: [Ozastroparticle.physics] Zoom URL for Ozastroparticle physics - Breakout session ASA meeting Thurs 11 July lunchtime Dear all, For our ozastroparticle breakout discussion at the ASA meeting Thurs 11 July, we'll use the following Zoom URL: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/9CzTCr8DLRtj4j7WU7AX1k?domain=adelaide.zoom.us The session will take place during the Thurs lunch break (12:40-2pm) but the exact timing will be announced soon. I'll connect into the meeting via Zoom (since I'll be away during the ASA) and briefly recap the key points and feedback. Thanks for the comments so far. They *broadly* suggest: - More details on the particle physics side Jeremy was referring to this document (US Particle Physics paper) https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/0VsuCvl0PoCgrgqRIXTA76?domain=usparticlephysics.org - Expand on dark matter studies/techniques - Expand on particle cosmology - Expand on nucleosynthesis issues and space/solar issues A further discussion point related to chapters or sub-groups that I think is looming: Should we aim for ASA and/or AIP chapter(s) on astroparticle physics? Given the strong interest from both camps, is a joint ASA-AIP chapter feasible? Note that particle physics and space physics already have an AIP group. https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/nkrcCwVLQmiQgQk2c94YHP?domain=aip.org.au https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/7uwgCxnMRvt0P0Dzcwe6Nu?domain=aip.org.au For reference the ASA meeting website is here: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/ij-YCyoNVrcWAWKpIN0Z4B?domain=research.smp.uq.edu.au Looking forward to the discussion on Thurs! cheers, Gavin... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gavin Rowell ph +61883138374 High Energy Astrophysics Group fax +61883134380 School of Physical Sciences gavin.rowell at adelaide.edu.au University of Adelaide 5005, AUSTRALIA web: http://www.physics.adelaide.edu.au/astrophysics/gpr/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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