Observing modes at the ATATUC Presentations October 2000

Ray Norris

CSIRO Australia Telescope

National Facility

Overview

• Service Observing mode?

• SEST MOU status

• Queue scheduling

• Millimetre workshop

Service Observing (1)

We currently allow two modes of observing:• Observer travels to Narrabri and does

observing• (In some cases) expert observer observes

remotely from within Australia

There is a de facto third mode:• You get a friend/collaborator/student to do

the observing for you

Service Observing (2)We have received requests from some users for a fourth mode:• User pays someone to do the observing for them

If there was sufficient support and interest in this mode, we could perhaps offer this as a part-time/casual job to astronomy students, or to employ someone at a postdoc level.

Question to ATUC: how would you feel about setting up this mode. (NB: AAO already does something like it)

SEST (Swedish-European Submillimetre Telescope)

• ATNF has built a new correlator for SEST

• Australia (RIEFP) has provided support (Kate!)

• In return, all Australians had access to SEST in 1998-2000

• Travel costs covered by ANSTO/DISR

SEST MOU status• MOU will be renewed for a further two years - continued

access by Australian astronomers in 2000-2002

• We have already partly paid in kind via correlator

• JBW requesting funding for a further 6-month support person from MNRF international

• MOU not actually signed yet (took effect from April 2000)!

• Situation beyond 2002 unclear because of ALMA

Queue Scheduling (1) Overview of earlier discussion (19 September 1997) on

http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rnorris/mm_scheduling.htm See also subsequent discussion on

http://www.atnf.csiro.au/_Mail_Archives/MNRF/ ~50% (?) of the observing time will be suitable for millimetre

operation. How do we make efficient use of the telescope?• Assumption: we will have a atmospheric seeing monitor, which

will give us an objective, unambiguous guide as to whether the weather is suitable for mm observing.

Queue Scheduling (2):Options discussed previously

• Just allocate the time and let the observers take the risk– no, because inefficient use of telescope time

• Hire staff to do all the observing– no, because costs too much + other problems

• Observers propose backup programs– no, because such backup programs are of little value

Queue Scheduling (3):In previous discussions, consensus was

for some of form of override queue scheduling

Some compromise between the options above. Observers come for their observations

• If bad weather then switch to a cm project (selected from a backup list)

• In return, extra time is allocated for mm observations and either they or someone* else observes their mm sources for them

Issue 1:What are the backup cm observations?

Backup cm observations proposed by mm observers and suitably ranked in their own right by TAC

Other long-running projects proposed by others

• “Key” projects adopted by ATNF, data from which are public domain, including:– calibrators/system tests

– Magellanic stream HI survey

– Galactic plane HI survey

– CBR/SZ/etc observations

– deep fields (HDF, Chandra, SIRTF, Phoenix, etc.)

– HIPASS follow-up

– etc.

Issue 2:How do you schedule it?

• E.g. schedule 2 week to mm followed by 1 week to cm observing• If all mm time is good then cm observing goes as planned• Otherwise mm time is spread through the three-week period as

weather allows• Details will clearly need more discussion + experience• Need

– reliable objective indicator of mm weather

– good scheduling tools

– modifications to schedule format

– break up schedules into 1 or 2 hour “units”

Issue 3:Who does the re-scheduled mm

observing?• Original mm observers if they’re still at Narrabri• People who propose the fill-in cm observations

Possibly also:• ATNF astronomers/Narrabri staff/DA?• Casual student labour?

Issue 4:Why are we re-inventing wheels?

• Several optical observatories with queue scheduling experience

• But their constraints are sufficiently different that cannot just plug in their model

• Also some experience with BIMA, IRAM• See also ALMA memo #282• Advice has been sought from these other institutions, but only

limited usefulness• Most institutions (e.g. Gemini) still figuring it out.