The Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) Consortium is currently seeking expressions of interest from international groups to engage with the AAT facility through pay-for-access arrangements from July 2022. 
 
The AAT is a 3.9m equatorially-mounted Cassegrain reflector, located at Siding Spring Observatory in NSW, Australia. It can be accessed via remote observing from nodes around the world. The telescope is operated by the Australian National University on behalf of the funding Consortium, which at present comprises 13 Australian universities.
 
The AAT currently offers four facility-class spectrographic instruments: AAOmega (with 2dF or Koala), Hermes and Veloce. The new Hector spectrograph is expected to come online in 2021. This flyer gives more details about these instruments and their capabilities. Requests for the use of visitor instruments on the AAT will also be considered. 
 
As part of this call, we welcome proposals and are open to conversations regarding conditions of access, including joining the Consortium as a full partner, medium-to-long-term paid-time contracts, data-sharing or access, or other innovative arrangements. These may also include potential public outreach components. 
 
If you are interested in seeking access on the AAT, please contact Dr Lucyna Chudczer, AAL’s Program Manager for the AAT (lucyna.chudczer@astronomyaustralia.org.au), by May 31 2021. Please include an expression of interest (up to 2 pages) detailing how you wish to use the telescope; this may involve instruments of interest, length/time of proposed use, research details or the outreach component, and level and source of potential funding support. 
 
For more information regarding the AAT, including available instruments and capabilities, please visit: 
​https://aat.anu.edu.au/science

 

We are pleased to invite you to the Astronomy Data Workshop 2021, hosted online by Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL). This is a one-day online event scheduled for 29 April 2021, between 10am and 3pm (AEST).

The workshop will include presentations and group discussions designed to:

• inform Australian-based astronomers on the development of data-related projects, and
• seek feedback on the usefulness of these projects to the Australian astronomy community. 

The workshop will include discussions regarding large and small scale datasets in both the theoretical and observational domains. 

For more information please see our dedicated event webpage. 

For registration please see the following link (also available from the event webpage): https://aaldata.eventbrite.com.au

If you wish to know more, please contact Dr Robert Shen, AAL Director of eResearch: robert.shen@astronomyaustralia.org.au ​

The GMTO Corporation have announced the fabrication of the sixth of seven mirrors for the future Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT).

The 8.4m mirror is being fabricated by the University of Arizona’s Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab. It will take nearly four years to complete and use nearly 20 tons of glass. During the casting process, this specialised glass will be melted in a furnace, reaching 1,165 degrees Celsius until it liquefies. The furnace will then spin the glass to create the right parabolic shape for the mirror, and once cooled, it will be polished for two years to reach an optical surface precision less than one thousandth the width of a human hair.

The GMT's primary design consists of seven of the world’s largest mirrors. This casting is a major step toward completion of the GMT, which will be one of three next-generation extremely large optical telescopes, designed to have a resolving power ten times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope.  

The GMTO has 12 founder institutions, including AAL and the Australian National University (ANU) – overall, Australia has approximately a 10% partnership in the GMT. 

​For more information on the GMT project, visit this link.

​For more on AAL's role as a founding partner, please contact AAL's CEO Mark McAuley, or AAL's Chief Business Officer, ​Mita Brierley.

AAL is pleased to announce a new Call for Proposals at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) for observations in Semester 2021B (1 August 2021 – 31 January 2022). 

​The deadline for the proposals is 16 March 2021, at 17:00 AEDT. Proposals to the Australian Time Allocation Committee (ATAC) must follow the ATAC Policies and Procedures and be submitted before the deadline using the AAT's online application system Lens, which will open on 1 March 2021. 

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. 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. 

Enquiries regarding the terms and conditions for AAT Paid Time can be made to Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL). Other general enquiries can be directed to the AAL Program Manager for the AAT, Dr Lucyna Kedziora-Chudczer.

​

AAL is pleased to announce a new Call for Large Program Proposals at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), to commence from Semester 2021B onwards receiving an initial allocation of time up to the end of 2025A, but noting that allocations may need to be reviewed subject to the funding available to the AAT Council after June 2022.

All proposals should be submitted to ATAC by 16 March 2021 at 17:00 (AEDT; UTC + 11 hrs) using AAT's online application system Lens, which will open on 1 March 2021. The Lens system has recently been transitioned into Data Central. Any issues should be reported to Simon O'Toole. For additional user support please contact Shona Madoc, AAL Program Administrator.

Ambitious projects are encouraged – in past semesters, Large Programs have been allocated almost 50% of the available time. Existing AAT Large Program commitments are listed here. 
​Proposers should also familiarise themselves with ATAC's Policies and Procedures, listed here. 

Those interested in submitting a Large Program should contact the SSO Director. Other general enquiries can be directed to the AAL Program Manager for the AAT, Dr Lucyna Kedziora-Chudczer.