Australia Telescope Time Assignment Committee
The Australia Telescope Time Assignment Committee (TAC) is advisory to the ATNF Director. The TAC members are appointed by the ATNF Steering Committee .
The TAC assesses proposals submitted for observing time with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), Murriyang; the Parkes radio telescope, the Long Baseline Array (LBA) and the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP). Service proposals for the Tidbinbilla 70-m antenna are also assessed. Time is allocated on the basis of scientific merit.
The TAC members meet twice a year to consider telescope applications for two six-month semesters that begin in October and March. The TAC normally has 11 voting members, including the Chair. In additional, a group of approximately 12 external readers review the proposals and send input to the TAC. Members and Readers serve for a period of three years. The Senior System Scientists for the ATCA (Jamie Stevens) and Parkes (Jane Kaczmarek), and the TAC Executive Officer (Elizabeth Mahony) also attend the TAC meetings as non-voting members. The telescope schedules are prepared after the TAC meetings by the schedulers.
TAC information and queries
After the TAC grades and comments are finalised, an email is sent to all proposers for that semester (that have valid email addresses in OPAL) informing them that the grade and comments can be viewed in OPAL. A second email is sent to all proposers once the telescope schedules are released.
For assistance with scheduling related matters, contact the ATCA or Parkes Senior System Scientists (Jamie.Stevens [at] csiro.au and Jane.Kaczmarek [at] csiro.au respectively).
For queries on the TAC grades or comments contact the TAC Chair, Dr Tessa Vernstrom (tessa.vernstro [at] uwa.edu.au).
If you wish to discuss a scientific or scheduling-related issue, after consultation with the TAC Chair and/or Program Director for ATNF Science (George.Heald [at] csiro.au), please contact the ATNF Director, Douglas Bock (Douglas.Bock [at] csiro.au).
For some time assignment performance indicators, see the ATNF Annual Reports.
Time Assignment Policies and Procedures
- ATNF TAC procedures
- Target of Opportunity (ToO) and Non A-priori Assignable (NAPA) proposals.
- ATNF Large Projects (Projects that require at least 400 hours of telescope time over the lifetime of the project)
- ATNF data access policy and information
- Director's Time
- Replacing Lost Time
Current TAC Members
| Voting Members | |
| Arash Bahramian | ICRAR/Curtin University |
| Nichole Barry | ICRAR/Curtin University |
| Manisha Caleb | University of Sydney |
| Andrew Cameron | Swinburne University of Technology |
| Shi Dai | Western Sydney University |
| Karl Glazebrook | Swinburne University of Technology |
| Kelly Gourdji | Swinburne University of Technology |
| Kathryn Grasha | Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, ANU |
| Jonghwan Rhee | ICRAR/University of Western Australia |
| Tessa Vernstrom | ICRAR/University of Western Australia |
| Hyein Yoon | University of Sydney |
| Ex-Officio Members | |
| Douglas Bock | CSIRO Space and Astronomy |
| Elizabeth Mahony | CSIRO Space and Astronomy |
| Jane Kaczmarek | CSIRO Space and Astronomy |
| Jamie Stevens | CSIRO Space and Astronomy |
| Administration Support | |
| Amanda Gray | CSIRO Space and Astronomy |
Last update: 11-jun-2023 ekm