From stuart.ryder at astronomyaustralia.org.au Mon Feb 15 09:50:27 2021 From: stuart.ryder at astronomyaustralia.org.au (stuart.ryder at astronomyaustralia.org.au) Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2021 09:50:27 +1100 Subject: [ASA] ESO La Silla Paranal Users Workshop: Optimising Phase I Proposal Planning and Submission Message-ID: <001801d70323$ca179200$5e46b600$@astronomyaustralia.org.au> ESO La Silla Paranal Users Workshop 2020/21 Part 2: "Optimising Phase I Proposal Planning and Submission" Date: Wednesday 3 March 2021 Time: 7:00pm-10:00pm AEDT 4:00pm-7:00pm AWST ESO is organising the 2020/21 La Silla Paranal Users Workshop as a series of online events. Part 1 took place on 7-8 September 2020, and covered "Optimising data exploitation ". Part 2 will focus on preparing, executing and reaping the scientific harvest from ESO observing proposals. If you are a La Silla Paranal Observatory user and are interested in the most up-to-date information, learning how to write competitive observing proposals and to use associated Phase 1 tools, e.g. the Exposure Time Calculator and the new p1 proposal submission tool, this second instalment of the workshop is for you! We invite you to register for this 2nd instalment which will take place online in a single 3hr session on Wednesday March 3rd (just after the anticipated release of the Call for Proposals for P108), starting at the relatively convenient times of 7pm AEDT = 4pm AWST. You can find out more at this Science Announcement , or go directly to the workshop website . If you have any questions please contact lpousers at eso.org . The registration deadline is 26 February 2021 and there are no registration fees. Participants who register by this deadline will be updated about possible changes in the program and they will have the possibility to request which instruments will be used for the hands-on sessions. However, the link for the meeting will be available on the website also for non-registered participants. ______________________________ Dr. Stuart Ryder Program Manager (Mon, Wed, Fri) Astronomy Australia Ltd. T: +61 (02) 9372 4843 M: +61 (0419) 970834 E: stuart.ryder at astronomyaustralia.org.au W: www.astronomyaustralia.org.au O: c/o AAO, 105 Delhi Rd, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia AAL is committed to equity and diversity and endeavours to create an environment in which every individual is treated with dignity and respect. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 1036 bytes Desc: not available URL: From lucyna.chudczer at astronomyaustralia.org.au Tue Feb 16 20:56:34 2021 From: lucyna.chudczer at astronomyaustralia.org.au (lucyna.chudczer at astronomyaustralia.org.au) Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2021 20:56:34 +1100 Subject: [ASA] 2021B Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) Call for Proposals Message-ID: <011a01d7044a$02aa1170$07fe3450$@astronomyaustralia.org.au> 2021B Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) Call for Proposals The main proposal deadline for the AAT in Semester 2021B (1 August 2021 - 31 January 2022) is: 16 March 2021, at 17:00 Australian Eastern Daylight Time (UTC + 11 hrs) Proposals to the Australian Time Allocation Committee (ATAC) must follow the ATAC Policies and Procedures and should be submitted with the AAT's online application system Lens ( https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/UETMC81V0PT2Zq2Au1r2OF?domain=lens.datacentral.org.au ), which will open on 1 March 2021. Applying for AAT Telescope Time through ATAC ATAC accepts Australian and non-Australian proposals and allocates both Open Time and Paid Time on the AAT. A proposal is Australian if at least half of the proposers and the lead proposer are based at Australian institutions; otherwise it is non-Australian. Open Time is only available to Australian proposals. There is no charge to Australian astronomers for the use of Open Time. Paid Time is available to both Australian and non-Australian proposals. Inquiries regarding the terms and conditions for AAT Paid Time can be made to Astronomy Australia Limited ( info at astronomyaustralia.org.au). ATAC will rank all Open Time proposals by scientific merit, and time will be allocated on this basis (subject to practical constraints) until the available Open Time is fully allocated. More details are available in the ATAC Policies and Procedures document. Important information: 1. COVID-19 pandemic update We anticipate that all astronomers will need to observe remotely using one of the remote observing stations or from home. The latter is restricted to experienced observers and requires a good internet connection. Exceptions to observe in person from SSO will be granted on a case-by-case basis. Any changes to this policy will be advertised on the AAT web pages. 2. AAT is operated by a consortium of Australian universities Since 1 July 2018, AAT operations have been managed and funded through a consortium of Australian universities, led by the Australian National University (ANU). Operating procedures for AAT observations following the transition have changed little, with the exceptions that successful applicants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation costs to the observatory and will have more limited expert assistance on site. 3. Proposal preparation * Time available for new proposals: accounting for existing Large Programs, Director's time, instrument commissioning and Paid Time allocations, there are expected to be at least 90 nights available for new proposals in Semester 21B (31 dark, 24 grey, 35 bright). * Due to the reduction in expert assistance at the telescope, proposers are required to describe the relevant experience and expertise of the team with the instrument(s) being applied for. Observers are encouraged to liaise with the Observatory staff sufficiently in advance of their run to gain such training as is needed for their run. * There are currently two Large AAT Programs: the DEVILS survey and the GALAH survey. DEVILS has been allocated 11.5 dark nights at certain RAs, and GALAH has been allocated 35 bright nights. New programs with targets outside of these RAs are more likely to be scheduled. The RA information for Large AAT Programs is available at https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/Y_qqCgZ0N1ioxyojFEGuaK?domain=aat.anu.edu.au. * Based upon historical weather trends, about 33% of time is lost to bad weather. Proposers are therefore required to multiply their time requirement by a factor of 1.5 to allow for time lost to weather. 4. Anonymous proposal review trial The AAT Consortium places a high value on equity and integrity and it commenced a trial of an implementation of the dual-anonymous proposal review process for regular proposals in 2020B. The trial will continue in 2021B. In this process, the identities of the proposing team are concealed from reviewers. The goal is to enable reviewers to focus on the science, not the scientist. Several studies have shown that a reviewer's attitude toward a submission may be affected, even unconsciously, by the identity of the lead author or principal investigator (see the Anonymous-Double Blind Review Annotated Bibliography). Proposers are required to anonymise their proposals following the guidelines below. Sufficient care should be used, especially if resubmitting a proposal from a previous cycle or other submission. Lead investigators should avoid directly disclosing their identity in the science or technical justification sections. Names and affiliations will not be included in the proposals generated for the ATAC reviews. * Anonymity Guidelines for Proposers. These guidelines will help conceal the identities of the proposers and ensure a fairer proposal evaluation process. a. Do not include author names or affiliations anywhere in the proposal text. This includes but is not limited to page headers, footers, diagrams, figures, or watermarks. This does not include references to past work, which should be included whenever relevant (see below). b. Referencing is an essential part of demonstrating knowledge of the field and progress. When citing references within the proposal, use third person neutral wording. This especially applies to self-referencing. For example, replace phrases like "as we have shown in our previous work (Doe et al. 2010)" with "as Doe et al. (2010) showed..." Do not refer to previous projects using AAT or other observatories in an identifying fashion. For instance, rather than write "we observed another cluster, similar to the one we are proposing under AAT program #XXXXX," instead write "AAT program #XXXXX has observed this target in the past..." c. We encourage references to published work, including work citable by a DOI. It may be occasionally important to cite exclusive access datasets or non-public software that may reveal (or strongly imply) the investigators on the proposal. We suggest proposers use language like "obtained in private communication" or "from private consultation" when referring to such potentially revealing work. d. Do not include acknowledgements, or the source of any grant funding. Examples of re-worked text can be found on the The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) website. A strict compliance with these guidelines is required. Feedback on these changes are welcome and should be sent to the ATAC Technical Secretary (aat - at - astronomyaustralia.org.au). 5. Instrument availability and upgrades * Available AAT instruments include: 2dF+AAOmega, 2dF+HERMES, KOALA and Veloce. Veloce was provisionally accepted in 2020 and will be offered on a shared-risk basis until it reaches full acceptance. * Target of Opportunity mode is available with 2dF+AAOmega, 2dF+HERMES and KOALA. The Target of Opportunity policy is available at https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/uYtiCnx1jniPqDP1CP388h?domain=aat.anu.edu.au. Semester 2021B will be the last semester ToO observations will be offered. * Additional instrumentation status information is available at https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/NQDACp81lrtVNoVJt32g3l?domain=aat.anu.edu.au. 6. Lens proposal submission system All proposals should be submitted with the AAT's online application system Lens, which will be opened on 1 March 2021. 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, or available via the FAQ tab in Lens itself. Lens system has recently been transitioned into Data Central. Any issues or bugs encountered by proposers should be reported to Simon O'Toole ( simon.otoole at mq.edu.au ). All new users must 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, and the additional user support please contact Shona Madoc, AAL Program Administrator at lens_support at astronomyaustralia.org.au. 7. Remote observing All observations are now done remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions. Observers who are not experienced with their requested instrument may need to find additional help or prior training, which may require eavesdropping on other observations that use the same instrument. If a visit to the Observatory is required, it must be approved by the RSAA Director. Remote observing stations are available at ANU, ICRAR, Swinburne, UNSW, USQ, UQ and Australian Astronomical Optics (North Ryde). The Observatory is open to establishing new remote observing stations. How to Apply for AAT Time 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. Instrument status and policies All ATAC applicants should check the latest version of ATAC Policies and Procedures, the latest Instrumentation Status for the AAT and recent Policy Announcements. Those seeking long term status should refer to the Long-term Programs page. For further clarification on any issue, please contact the ATAC Technical Secretary (aat - at - astronomyaustralia.org.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). Important: Proposers should demonstrate that their team has the skills and experience with the required observing modes to effectively conduct the proposed observations. Please include this information under a separate heading "Team Expertise and Background". Note that ATAC will conduct their pre-grading without access to this section. Once the ranked list is set, ATAC will be given access to the "Team Expertise and Background" information associated with each proposal recommended for implementation. At this point, proposals may only be flagged for downgrade (resulting in a non-selection of the proposal), if a team is clearly unqualified to undertake the work proposed. Proposals should be written so that the content and significance is understandable by astronomers with different backgrounds. Proposals should also be written using the Anonymity Guidelines. If your proposal seeks time on two instruments, outline carefully the relative requirements of the different instrument set-ups, including the split in observing time between the instruments. 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. Special consideration may be given to proposals involving PhD students when attempting to schedule proposals near the scientific ranking cut-off. After including overheads (detector readout, calibrations and telescope slewing), observers are required to multiply their time request by 1.5 to account for bad weather. A list of the principal targets (field centres for 2dF programs) 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. If feasible, please provide a list of backup targets that can be observed in the weather conditions that are worse than required for the principal targets. Any backup project must use the same instrument as the main project. More information on backup considerations can be found in Guidelines for AAT Observers. 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. Acknowledgements The AAT Consortium requests all publications based upon data obtained through the AAT include the following acknowledgement: Based [in part] on data obtained at Siding Spring Observatory [via program XXX]. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which the AAT stands, the Gamilaroi people, and pay our respects to elders past and present. Dr Lucyna Kedziora-Chudczer | Program Manager ATAC Technical Secretary Astronomy Australia Ltd (Sydney Office) P: +61 2 9372 4842 E: lucyna.chudczer at astronomyaustralia.org.au https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/WLxoCxngwOf74v7gFBzFLe?domain=astronomyaustralia.org.au/ AAL is committed to equity and diversity and endeavours to create an environment in which every individual is treated with dignity and respect. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 5319 bytes Desc: not available URL: From simon.otoole at mq.edu.au Wed Feb 17 14:48:13 2021 From: simon.otoole at mq.edu.au (Simon O'Toole) Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2021 03:48:13 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Optical Data Centre new features! Message-ID: <8E8E65EF-72BA-40BE-BD42-6B8906CCA3A8@mq.edu.au> We are pleased to announce an important new feature in the Optical Data Centre, released today! These features are powered by Data Central. The Optical Data Centre (ODC) is a collaboration between AAO-Macquarie University, Australian National University and NCI. It is funded under the Astronomy National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Program via Astronomy Australia Ltd (AAL). The feature is the Simple Spectrum Access service, an IVOA standard which allows you query for spectra held within the ODC. You can filter your queries using a large range of parameters. Documentation can be found here: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/bDDFC91WPRTlYRBXToSAuv?domain=docs.datacentral.org.au We have put together a set of detailed examples, including python scripts that use the new SSA service, as well as the existing Simple Image Access service and the Data Central API. See these pages for details: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/ZAatC0YKPvi7rJ35fD0zf8?domain=docs.datacentral.org.au Some examples include: 1. An interactive GALAH DR3 plot with selected star and its spectra (link). [cid:0DC79F4D-2F76-42A9-BF5E-5FA0FF70223D at aao.gov.au] 2. Example output of the example script to access Wigglez spectra (link) [cid:82A3D941-3FA4-48F9-AC96-AF68EE15F618 at aao.gov.au] 3. Gaussian fits to the emission line CIV 1550 in SVA1_COADD-2939691708 (link) [cid:C647A1EF-38CF-40DC-8676-00DDE19547D1 at aao.gov.au] We are also progressively adding new data, including: the WiggleZ final data release and the Millennium Galaxy Catalogue (latter coming soon). A reminder also, that the Optical Data Centre can host private data, so you can share and query data within your team, or test out a new data release before it becomes public! We are working on several other great new features to be released in the coming months! Thanks, Simon [Data Central] Simon O'Toole ? Head of Data & IT ? Data Central Project Scientist datacentral.org.au ? Australian Astronomical Optics, Macquarie University ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: galah_medZ.original.png Type: image/png Size: 151976 bytes Desc: galah_medZ.original.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: wigglez_example.original.png Type: image/png Size: 210251 bytes Desc: wigglez_example.original.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Screenshot_2020-12-30_at_12.23.06.original.png Type: image/png Size: 185900 bytes Desc: Screenshot_2020-12-30_at_12.23.06.original.png URL: From clancy.james at curtin.edu.au Fri Feb 19 14:48:27 2021 From: clancy.james at curtin.edu.au (Clancy James) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2021 03:48:27 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Curtin postdoc position available: cosmic rays Message-ID: Dear all, A postdoctoral position on ?Detecting cosmic rays using precision radio imaging? is open for applications at the Curtin Institute of radio Astronomy, part of ICRAR. Applicants can apply through the Curtin University website here: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/foxfCJyBrGf60xnZfVhJfd?domain=staff.curtin.edu.au The job is also posted on the AAS job register here: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/LK1MCK1DvKTX3L1OIv6dM3?domain=jobregister.aas.org Research Associate | AAS Job Register Research Associate - Cosmic Rays. 3 year, fixed term contract - Full time CIRA comprises over 80 staff and PhD students, primarily focused on radio astronomy research, but also spanning many other aspects of observational astronomy, radio astronomy engineering, applications of high-performance computing in astronomy, and astrophysics theory. jobregister.aas.org ? Applications close at 9PM (Australian Western Standard Time) on Monday March 15th. Please feel free to forward this advert to suitable candidates and networks. Regards, Dr Clancy James Clancy W. James Research Fellow | Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy Curtin University Tel | +61 8 9266 9473 Fax | +61 8 9266 9246 Email | clancy.james at curtin.edu.au Web | https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/BW9SCL7EwMfGEL3KiPB5wN?domain=curtin.edu.au [1515375853904_PastedImage] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Outlook-1515375853.png Type: image/png Size: 19097 bytes Desc: Outlook-1515375853.png URL: