Apply now for:

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

Mark your calendars: the deadline for all proposals is 06:00 UT (17:00 Sydney local time) on Tuesday, 16 December 2025.

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

Submit via OPAL

Important updates for 2026APR:

  • Details for applying for time using the CryoPAF are given on the ATNF telescope status page under ‘Parkes’.
  • 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).  BIGCAT will be offered in a shared-risk observing mode for the upcoming semester while we continue to verify that BIGCAT is performing as expected.
  • All ATCA proposals will need to create new observations tables to reflect the new BIGCAT correlator modes (see a description of offered modes on the ATNF telescope status page). If you have an existing observations table that specifies CABB observing modes, you may upload it to the OPAL observations table editor and update it with the new BIGCAT modes.
  • The ATCA schedule for the remainder of 2025OCT semester is planned for release on 1 December 2025.
  • 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’ on the ATNF telescope status 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.
  • ATNF long-term proposals are only accepted once per year at the December deadline. As such, new long-term proposals will be accepted this semester. For previous long-term proposals please submit a coversheet and observation table. All existing LTPs are required to submit a status report as per Ivy Wong’s email sent to the relevant teams on 4 November 2025.

We encourage OPAL users to report any issues via email (atnf-datasup@csiro.au). The file format for cover sheets and observations tables was changed in 2022OCT. 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. 

Head to the dedicated page for more details on updates, upgrades, how to apply for each instrument and meet anonymisation criteria:

More information
A large radio telescope looks out into a starry night sky

Murriyang, our Parkes radio telescope, peers into a starry sky. Credit: Alex Cherney