Australia Telescope Users Committee report
The second meeting of the Australia Telescope Users Committee (ATUC) for 2002 was held on 5 - 6 November 2002. There were 13 members in attendance and the meeting was chaired by Dr Carole Jackson. The committee recorded a warm vote of thanks to the previous chair, Dr Anne Green, for an excellent job. The committee welcomed the following new members: Prof Frank Briggs, Dr Maria Hunt, Dr Simon Johnston and Dr Naomi McClure-Griffiths, plus student representatives Mr Dion Lewis and Mr Martin Meyer.
In the open session on the morning of 5 November, status reports from the observatories were presented. There was also a presentation on the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBI) including usage, proposal statistics and staffing by Dr Tasso Tzioumis.
Dr Jessica Chapman presented data on the citation rates of ATNF publications and cross-CSIRO publications numbers. ATUC was asked to discuss the possibility of changing the AT observing terms from four to six months and Jessica gave a short overview of the likely impacts of this change. Warrick Wilson summarised the future development plans at ATNF.
The afternoon session was devoted to a status report on the Australian SKA and LOFAR efforts, arranged in conjunction with the Australian SKA Committee and convened by Drs Peter Hall, Carole Jackson and Elaine Sadler. Presentations at this session covered the recent SKA progress on the international front, focusing on the discussions at the meeting in July 2002 in Groningen and the status of MNRF2 developments. Interested readers are referred to www.skatelescope.org/ where full information can be found about the international SKA effort. The submission by the Western Australian government as a potential LOFAR site was presented by Dr Michelle Storey. This prompted a LOFAR science workshop in January 2003 ( www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~simonj/lofar.html).
The business session of ATUC was held on 6 November. Full details of deliberations can be found at the ATUC web page at www.atnf.csiro.au/management/atuc/ .
The main issues were the request by ATUC that the "Future Developments" document be kept updated for both current and potential projects at the ATNF, as this is very useful for ATUC and the wider user community. ATUC expressed strong concerns regarding the slippage of the 3-mm system at the Compact Array.
ATUC suggested a strategy for the next mm-observing season, which has since been adopted. The committee discussed the merits of four or six-month observing terms. A majority agreed that the current four-month terms gave the best flexibility and planning options for observers.
The committee recommended that the 10/50-cm receiver be completed such that it might be operational during the NASA Mars tracking period. This matter will be reviewed at the next meeting. Potential users of this new receiver should convey their views to an ATUC member or come along to the next meeting. ATUC also recommended that paper copies of on-line journals could be terminated at the observatories (Narrabri, Parkes and Epping) to save money.
Carole Jackson
ATUC Chair
(cjackson@mso.anu.edu.au)