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Radio school participants

Radio Astronomy School 2017

CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science is holding the 2017 Radio Astronomy School at the Australia Telescope Compact Array near Narrabri, NSW from Monday 25th September to Friday 29th September 2017. The format of the school will be similar to previous Radio Astronomy Schools, with a mix of lectures and practical hands-on sessions. Material will be presented by both radio astronomers and engineers. The lectures will cover both single dish telescopes and interferometers, however, the emphasis of this year's school will be on interferometry. The intended audience is postgraduate students and other interested researchers. No prior experience with radio astronomy is required. Participants are encouraged to present a poster describing their research.

Key Topics

  • Introduction to the Compact Array
  • Fundamentals of Radio Astronomy
  • Synthesis Imaging
  • Scheduling and Performing Observations
  • Calibrating Techniques
  • Data Reduction and Analysis
  • Tools of Radio Astronomy
  • Interpreting and Calibrating Polarisation Measurements
  • Wideband, widefield imaging
  • Observations at Millimetre Wavelengths
  • Specialised Observing Modes
  • Practical Sessions: Observing and Data Reduction
  • Very Long Baseline Interferometry
  • Introduction to Next Generation Radio Telescopes

A preliminary programme is now available here.

Information on the hands-on tutorial sessions is available here. We will continue updating this information page as we get closer to the start of the school.

Important dates

  • June 2017: First announcement
  • end of June: Registration opens
  • 25 September 2017: School Starts

Venue

Australia Telescope Compact Array, Narrabri, NSW Australia

BUS TIMETABLE TO OBSERVATORY

Please keep an eye out for a white bus.

Morning pickups from Narrabri to Australia Telescope Compact Array Visitors Centre
From Mon 25 Sep to Fri 29 Sep

  • 7.45 am: Centre of Town - meet at rear entrance of motel - Tibbereena Street
  • 7.50 am: Mid Town Inn - meet at rear entrance of motel - Tibbereena Street
  • 7.55 am: Southern Cross Motel - cross Fitzroy Street - cnr of Maitland Street and Fitzroy Street
  • 8.05 am: Club Motor Inn - front entrance - 115 Barwan Street
  • 8.10 am: Adelong Motel - front entrance - 174 Maitland Street

Map

DEPARTURE: Australia Telescope Visitors Centre to Narrabri as per daily programme

Registration

The registration is closed now.

People who contacted us for financial support have their places reserved.

Registration is on a first come, first serve basis as places are limited. The registration fee is $260 for students and $320 for non students. The registration fee covers all lunches as well as two dinner events, but not accommodation and travel. Registration is only complete on receipt of full payment. Please make sure to also book your accommodation (see below).

We have limited financial support available for a few students. If you would like to apply for financial support pleas contact us before you fill out the registration form. Please send us your details and the justification for financial support. The deadline to apply for financial support is 15/08/2017.

Catering

Included in the registration fees are all lunches, morning and afternoon teas, and two evening functions. Please make sure to let the organising committee know about any dietary requirements.

Accommodation Advice

While we have not made any block bookings for accommodation in Narrabri, we do encourage you to stay at one of the following:

Establishments close to Maitland Street offer easy access to food venues and pick-up points for the Radio School bus for travel to and from the telescope each day.

Participants are encouraged to ring establishments rather than "book on line" to secure the best deal. Mention you are attending the CSIRO Radio School and you may be able to secure a better deal (with any venue). Be aware that being the long weekend, some accommodation venues are already unavailable for the night of Friday, 29 September.

Please note that there will be no on-site accommodation available at the Radio School.

Transport

Participants are responsible for organising their own transport to and from Narrabri. See here for information on how to get to Narrabri.

There will be a shuttle bus every day to transport participants from Narrabri to the Telescope and back to Narrabri in the evening. We will send details about this to all participants closer to the start of the school.

When organising your travel, please be mindful of the following dates:

  • NSW Labour Day Holiday Weekend: Saturday, 30 September to Monday, 2 October 2017
  • NSW School Holidays: Saturday, 23 September 2017 to Sunday, 8 October 2017
  • Siding Spring Observatory's annual StarFest celebration will be held on the weekend of 30 September 2017

Post-school events

An evening BBQ on-site at the Compact Array will be held on Wednesday, 27 September. This will be followed by an astronomy talk.

For those participants leaving Narrabri on Saturday, there will be an optional trip to Sawn Rocks in Mt. Kaputar National Park on Friday afternoon. A bus will depart the telescope at ~2pm and return participants to the town in the late afternoon/early evening. If you wish to attend this excursion please remember to pack appropriate footware, a hat and a drink bottle.

Some images from this year:

ATCA RAS2017 group photo

Sawn Rocks:

Sawn rocks Sawn rocks Sawn rocks

Contact Information

For further enquiries, contact the school organisation team at radio-school-2017@atnf.csiro.au

Organising Committee

SOC: Wasim Raja (chair), Helga Denes, Philip Edwards, Jamie Stevens, Mark Wieringa

LOC: Margaret McFee, Robin Wark, Jordan Collier, Amanda Gray

Code of Conduct

The organizers are committed to making this meeting productive and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, nationality or religion. We will not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Please follow these guidelines:

  • Behave professionally. Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate. Harassment includes sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, sexual attention or innuendo, deliberate intimidation, stalking, and photography or recording of an individual without consent. It also includes offensive comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion.
  • All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate.
  • Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other attendees.

Participants asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately. Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the event at the sole discretion of the organizers without a refund of any charge.

Any participant who wishes to report a violation of this policy is asked to speak, in confidence, to any of the LOC or SOC members.

This code of conduct is based on the "London Code of Conduct", as originally designed for the conference "Accurate Astrophysics. Correct Cosmology", held in London in July 2015. The London Code of Conduct was adapted with permission by Andrew Pontzen and Hiranya Peiris from a document by Software Carpentry, which itself derives from original Creative Commons documents by PyCon and Geek Feminism. It is released under a CC-Zero licence for reuse. To help track people's improvements and best practice, please retain this acknowledgement, and log your re-use or modification of this policy at https://github.com/apontzen/london_cc.

PDF version of the Code of Conduct