We’re pleased to announce that proposals for ATNF observing time are now open for the 2025APR semester. Grab your chance to use one of the world’s most advanced radio astronomy facilities.

Apply now for:

• ASKAP radio telescope:
• Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA)
• Murriyang, the 64-m Parkes radio telescope
• Tidbinbilla radio antennas: the 70-m antenna Ballima (DSS-43) , and the 34-m (DSS-34) antenna;
• Long Baseline Array

Mark your calendars: the deadline for all proposals is 06:00 UT (17:00 Sydney local time) on Monday, 16 December 2023.

To submit your proposal, visit our online proposal application system, OPAL.

Important updates for 2025APR:

• ATNF long-term proposals are invited for the 2025APR semester. These proposals are accepted once per year (at the December deadline) and can combine observations from multiple ATNF facilities. More information can be found in the OPAL Users Guide under “3.5 Long Term Projects”.
• We carried out an initial installation of the Cryogenically Cooled Phased Array Feed (CryoPAF) on Murriyang, the 64-m Parkes radio telescope, during Q4 2024.  It will be reinstalled in Q1 2025. Details for applying for time using the CryoPAF are given below in the section for Parkes.
• We expect to replace CABB with the BIGCAT upgrade by April 2025. Observers should expect that only BIGCAT will be available during the 2025APR semester, although it may still be in the commissioning stage in April.
• 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 under “Proposal Guidance” below.
• We strongly encourage proposers to use this LaTeX template for ATNF scientific justifications (with appropriate BibTeX setup to support anonymisation).

We encourage OPAL users to report any issues via email (atnf-datasup@csiro.au). The file format for cover sheets and observations tables changed from 2022OCT onward. If you have files (in OXML format) from 2022APR and previous semesters please reload them into the OPAL editors, carefully re-check and update them, and save them in the new JSON format.