Status for 2026OCT

For 2026OCT, ATNF proposals will be accepted for ASKAP, the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), Murriyang, the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope, Tidbinbilla 70-m (DSS-43) and 34-m (DSS-34) antennas and the Long Baseline Array (LBA).

    All ATNF Telescope Applications for 2026OCT must be submitted using OPAL and proposal guidance is available here (including details on our Dual-anonymous Peer Review process).  

    General information on applying for time is available from here.

    The deadline for all proposals is 07:00 UT (17:00 Sydney local time) on Tuesday, 16 June 2026. 

    Summary of major changes and important notes for 2026OCT:

    • Details for applying for time using the CryoPAF on Murriyang are given here. 
    • Installation and commissioning of the full 8 GHz BIGCAT system on ATCA is currently underway. This means 4x2GHz bandwidth will be available for all projects (with the exception of L-band where the receiver is limited to 2 GHz bandwidth). 
    • Near the end of the 2026OCT semester we expect that the ultra-wide-bandwidth mid and high frequency receivers will be being commissioned on Murriyang. We expect shared-risk observing with these receivers to be available from the 2027APR semester.
    • ATNF proposals are fully anonymised. Proposals that reveal applicant identities will be penalised by a reduction of scores or outright rejection for blatant breaches of anonymity (e.g. self-citations where the first author is listed by name). Please check our Proposal Guidance page.
    • We strongly encourage proposers to use this LaTeX template for ATNF scientific justifications (with appropriate BibTeX setup to support anonymisation). This template is also now available in the Overleaf template gallery.

    We encourage OPAL users to report any issues via email (atnf-datasup@csiro.au).

    Detailed information for each facility is provided from the links below:

            For further information contact the ATNF Head of Science: George Hobbs (George.Hobbs [at] csiro.au). 

            Commonwealth sanctions

            As a Commonwealth agency, CSIRO is required to comply with Australia’s foreign policy settings and sanctions laws. Accordingly, CSIRO will not accept proposals for observing time on our Australia Telescope National Facility instruments from teams that include researchers at Russian or Belarussian state-owned or controlled institutions. CSIRO will continue to monitor and act in accordance with Australia’s evolving foreign policy settings and our assessment of the sanctions law compliance risks.