Australian Collaboration with eROSITA_DEWe would like to draw your attention to the renewed partnership between the Australian astronomers, represented by the AAL (Australian Astronomy Limited) and the German eROSITA Consortium (eROSITA_DE), which will provide exciting new opportunities for multi-wavelength astronomy projects across the southern sky.
Following on the footsteps of our cooperation with the CAASTRO Consortium, a new MoU between AAL and eROSITA_DE has been signed, an agreement that covers all astronomers at Australian Institutions. With the successful launch of eROSITA onboard the SRG satellite on July 13, 2019, we are now looking forward to the first Calibration and Performance Verification observations until the end of November, with the eROSITA all-sky survey planned to start soon after that. Here we also provide the list of current and planned Australian surveys on the national and international facilites that provide data, which can be used for multi-wavelength collaborative projects. Such projects will be formally proposed to, approved by and monitored by a joint AAL/eROSITA_DE Management Committee, appointed according to the MoU agreement. The proposal template can be downloaded from this link. Current members of the AAL/eROSITA_DE Management Committee are: Kirpal Nandra (MPE), Thomas Reiprich (Bonn), Mara Salvato (MPE), with more members to be appointed. eROSITA project updates: eROSITA provides all-sky X-ray imaging at 0.3-8 keV with 15"-30" angular resolution. eROSITA_DE covers Galactic longitudes 180 < l < 360.
Calibration and Performance Verification Observations have officially started on October 13, and was completed on December 8th. The CalPV data will be released to the public at the end of 2020 (TBC). The first all-sky survey should then be completed in Summer 2020, and it is anticipated that seven more passes of the whole sky will be completed by end of 2023. The full list of approved (German-Led) Performance Verification proposals, with PIs and relevant leading Working Groups is available under below. We also include a schematic of the footprints of the eFEDS equatorial mini-survey, that will cover the equatorial GAMA09 regions down to the full eRASS:8 all-sky survey depth. Approved eRosita_DE PV observations
eROSITA_DE Contacts:
eROSITA PI: Peter Predehl (MPE) eROSITA Project Scientist: Andrea Merloni (MPE) eROSITA_DE Science Working Group Chairs: Clusters and Cosmology: T. Reiprich (AIfA, Bonn) AGN, Blazars: K. Nandra (MPE) Normal Galaxies: F. Haberl (MPE) Compact objects: A. Schwope (AIP) Stars: J. Robrade (UH) Solar System: K. Dennerl (MPE) Participating Australian Astronomical FacilitiesAnglo-Australian Telescope (AAT)
AAT is fully operational, 3.9m telescope located at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, focus on wide-field multi-fibre and multi-IFU spectroscopy, 1"-2" angular resolution. Contact: Jenny Riding and Lucyna Chudczer SkyMapper SkyMapper is a 1.35m state-of-the-art automated wide-field survey telescope located under the dark skies of Siding Spring Observatory. The majority of SkyMapper time is taken by the SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey (see below), however, 5% of the overall observing time is available to Australian astronomers through regular Calls for Proposals. A further 20% is available to astronomers within ANU. Contact: Christian Wolf The ANU 2.3m Telescope The 2.3m telescope is located at Siding Spring Observatory and has instruments available for imaging, echelle spectroscopy, and IFU spectroscopy (see Instruments). Contact: Paul Francis The UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST) The UKST is a survey telescope with an aperture of 1.2 metres and a very wide-angle field of view. The UKST was recently refurbished to enable remote observations and will focus on two surveys (Taipan and FunnelWeb; see below) using the TAIPAN instrument. The TAIPAN instrument consists of a new spectrograph and the innovative 150-fibre “starbug” robotic positioning system. Contact: Matthew Colless Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP)
ASKAP is an all-sky (decl < +30) survey radio telescope that operates with 288 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth that can be placed anywhere between 700 MHz and 1800 MHz. It consists of 36 antennas , each 12m in diameter. These antennas are fitted with phased array feeds that give the array a 30 square degree instantaneous field of view, with 15” spatial resolution. The Tsys/efficiency is roughly 75K. Most of ASKAP’s observing time is pre-allocated to large survey campaigns, but some (~25%) may be available for specific projects in conjunction with eROSITA. Contact: Aidan Hotan The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) MWA is fully operational; all-sky (decl < +30) radio imaging, 80-240 MHz, ~2.5' resolution, very large instantaneous field-of-view (30 degs), fast imaging cadence (timescale seconds) capable. Contact: Randall Wayth Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) ATCA is fully operational, baselines of 30m to 6km; radio imaging (full synthesis) and spectroscopy, 1.3-105 GHz, ~8" to ~0.1'' max. angular resolution respectively. Contact: Jamie Stevens PARKES Radio Telescope PARKES antenna is a fully operational dish; radio imaging (pointed and scanned), spectroscopy, high-time resolution observing (e.g. pulsars and FRBs), 0.7-22 GHz, ~23' to ~0.7' angular resolution respectively. Contact: Jimi Green
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