Astronomy Infrastructure Portfolio

AAL receives funding from the Australian Commonwealth Government to support Australian-based astronomers to access a range of world-class national and international astronomical facilities and to support various development projects to upgrade or develop future national and international astronomical infrastructure.

Optical

Giant Magellan Telescope
Credit: GMTO Corperation
The GMT is a next generation optical/infra-red telescope, with first light anticipated in 2024. At 25 metres in diameter, it will have over six times the collecting area of the largest telescopes currently in existence.
ESO Strategic Partnership
Credit: ESO
The Australian Government has committed $120 million to enable Australia to enter into a 10 year Strategic Partnership with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) from 2017 to secure access to, and develop instrumentation for, the telescopes of the La Silla Paranal Observatories in Chile.

eResearch

ADACS
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Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS) aims to assist astronomers in maximizing the scientific return from data and computing infrastructure, through training, support and expertise.
All Sky Virtual Observatory
Click to read more on the ASVO website.
ASVO is part of AAL's longer-term vision to develop a Federation of National Astronomy Datasets, in which a central facility will house an infrastructure development and research support team.
OzSTAR Supercomputing
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The OzSTAR supercomputer at Swinburne University is a GPU-focussed facility with up to 2,000 kSUs per semester available to Australian astronomers through the Astronomy Supercomputer Time Allocation Committee.

Radio

Australian SKA Pathfinder
Credit: Alex Cherney
ASKAP is a world-class radio telescope being constructed by CSIRO in outback Western Australia as a powerful survey instrument and test-bed for the Square Kilometer Array (SKA).
Murchison Widefield Array
Credit: Curtin University/MWA Collaboration
MWA is a radically new type of radio telescope, with no moving parts, and dependent on prodigious computer power to create exquisite real-time wide-field images of the radio sky.

Multi-Messenger

Cherenkov Telescope Array
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CTA is a $200M-Euro project to build the next generation ground-based very high energy gamma-ray instrument. It aims to investigate cosmic rays, black holes and the nature of matter.

Previous AAL-supported facilities and projects

Gemini Telescopes
Credit: Gemini Observatory
The international Gemini Partnership operates the two 8-metre Gemini telescopes located in Chile and Hawaii. Australia's partnership in the Gemini Observatory concluded in 2017.
PLATO
Click to read more on the PLATO website.
The three PLATOs (PLATeau Observatories) are robotic astronomical observatories for Antarctica that support scientific instruments for astronomy and atmospheric site testing on Dome A, Ridge A and Dome F.
ITSO
Credit: AAO ITSO Office
The International Telescopes Support Office (ITSO) at the AAO provided support and training to astronomers to maximise access to, and science output from, large overseas optical telescopes from 2008-2018.
Pierre Auger Observatory
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The Pierre Auger Observatory, located in Argentina, is devoted to the study of ultra-high energy cosmic rays with water tanks fitted with 1600 detectors that detect Cherenkov light.
HERMES
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The High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph (HERMES) is a new instrument on the Anglo-Australian Telescope now being used by the GALAH team to conduct a survey of our Milky Way Galaxy.
Magellan Telescopes
Click to read more on the Magellan website.
The Carnegie Institution for Science operates the 6.5-metre Baade and Clay telescopes on Las Campanas in Chile. AAL secured access to 15 nights/year on these telescopes from 2007-2018.
2dF fibre upgrade
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The HERMES and AAOmega spectrographs on the Anglo-Australian Telescope are fed by the 2 degree Field (2dF) fibre system, which was recently upgraded to improve performance.
Subaru Telescope
Credit: Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan manages the 8.2-metre Subaru telescope located on Maunakea in Hawaii. AAL has secured 10 nights for Australian astronomers during 2018, while contributing to technology development for Subaru.