Australia Telescope Users Committee Report
The second meeting of the Australia Telescope Users Committee for 2001 was held on 13-14 November 2001. There were 12 members in attendance and the meeting was chaired by Dr Anne Green. The committee welcomed the following new members: Dr Brad Gibson, Dr Martin Zwaan, Dr Tony Wong, Dr Steven Tingay, Ms Tracy Getts and Mr Daniel Mitchell.
In the Open session on the 13th the meeting received status reports from each facility and the AIPS++ project. Ray Norris announced the move of Warwick Wilson to head the Engineering Services Group, and the resignation of Dave McConnell as Narrabri OiC. He forecast ATNF will be looking to increase staff numbers, as part of the CSIRO-wide "go for growth" strategy.
Graham Moorey outlined the timeline for the mm upgrade project. Currently there are three antennas with prototype 3-mm/12-mm frontends. By 30 December 2002, an additional three antennas should be equipped with "final production" frontends, working at 12 mm. Exactly how to proceed with retrofitting the 3-mm receivers is unclear, but the target date for five final 3-mm frontends and six final 12-mm receivers is 30 April 2003. The longstanding question of improving polarisation purity of the 13-cm receivers was discussed, and ATUC requested a timescale for completing this upgrade, in conjunction with the 20-cm receiver upgrade. Jim Lovell outlined a proposal for a new downconversion system at Tidbinbilla, to work between 18 and 22 GHz. The current downconversion system is greatly reducing sensitivity, and thus the use that can be made of our Host Country time allocation. The committee recommended that a comprehensive dialogue take place between the scientific and engineering communities, with the goal of identifying SKA demonstrator technologies which will yield the best scientific returns in addition to significant engineering advances.
ATUC congratulated the organisers of the very successful Synthesis Workshop and Parkes Open Day. During the meeting Bob Sault gave a rundown of the workshop and outlined plans for the next, in 2003. The members expressed support for the establishment of small groups to test AIPS++ intensively, involving outside institutions and the ATNF.
There was a discussion lead by Tony Wong on the options for weather-dependent scheduling of the ATCA. The next 12 months will be a trial period for capturing statistics on mm observing conditions. ATUC suggested trialling a system of two duty astronomers during scheduled mm time, to ensure full use of good weather. The committee also made some recommendations of how the mm system should be advertised to the user community during the commissioning period.
ATUC also recommended a limited trial of overseas remote observing be conducted, with at least the same conditions and restrictions as for current remote observing.
In response to the issues raised through discussion of the science outcomes expected from the SKA Demonstrators, ATUC organised a session during the University of Sydney Workshop, held 3-4 December, 2001, and titled "Next-Generation Astronomical surveys: Opportunities and Science Drivers". Ideas for science goals with the SKA Demonstrators were discussed.
The next ATUC meeting will be held on11-12 April 2002.
Vince McIntyre
ATUC Secretary
(Vincent.McIntyre@csiro.au)