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:

  • Near the end of the 2026OCT semester we expect that the ultra-wide-bandwidth mid and high frequency receivers (UWM/H) will be being commissioned on Murriyang. As part of this upgrade the ultra-wide-bandwidth low (UWL) will not be available for a period of 6 to 8 weeks in the second half of the semester (Feb/Mar – Apr). Engineering commissioning for the UWL/M/H would follow this and be at the very end of the semester and likely into the start of the 2027APR semester. After the commissioning of these new receivers the legacy receivers may not be available. For 2026OCT semester proposals are accepted for the UWL and the CryoPAF, please contact Shi Dai (shi.dai [at] csiro.au) for more details on the receiver upgrades.
  • Details for applying for time using the CryoPAF on Murriyang are given here. 
  • 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.
  • For teams with approved Long Term Projects, a cover sheet and observation table should be submitted if observations are required in the 2026 October semester. A progress report will be requested at the next (December) deadline.

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.