Äîêóìåíò âçÿò èç êýøà ïîèñêîâîé ìàøèíû. Àäðåñ îðèãèíàëüíîãî äîêóìåíòà : http://www.atnf.csiro.au/news/newsletter/oct09/ATNFnews_Oct09_lowres.pdf Äàòà èçìåíåíèÿ: Tue Nov 24 00:53:54 2009 Äàòà èíäåêñèðîâàíèÿ: Thu Apr 8 21:40:31 2010 Êîäèðîâêà: ISO8859-5 Ïîèñêîâûå ñëîâà: ionized hydrogen

Galaxy Pair NGC 1512 / NGC 1510

ATNF News
Issue No. 67, October 2009 ISSN 1323-6326


Ques tacon "a s tronaut" s treet per for mer and v i s i t o r s a t t h e P a r ke s Open Days 20 09. Credit : Shaun Amy, CSIRO.

Cover page image
Cover Figure : Multi-waveleng th color- composite image of the gala x y pair NGC 1512 /1510 obt ained using Digitised Sk y Sur vey R-band image (red) , the Aus tr alia Telescope Compac t Ar r ay HI dis tr ibu tion (green) Gala x y Evolu tion E xplorer N UV -band image (blue) . The Spit zer 24Åm image wa s over laid jus t in the cen the t wo gala xies . We note that in the ou ter disk the UV emission tr aces the regions of highes t HI column See ar ticle (page 28 ) for more infor mation. t he a nd t he ter of densit y.

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Contents
From the Direc tor ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 CSIRO Medal Winner s ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 CSIRO A s tronomy and Space Science Unit For med ........................................................................................................................ 6 ATNF Dis tinguished Visitor s Progr am ........................................................................................................................................................ 6 ATNF Gr aduate Student Progr am ................................................................................................................................................................ 7 Obituar y -- John Ma s ter son ............................................................................................................................................................................ 8 Aus tr alian Square K ilometre Ar r ay Pathfinder (ASK AP)................................................................................................................ 12 ASK AP Sur vey Science Projec t s enter Design Study Pha se ......................................................................................................... 16 20 09 CSIRO R adio A s tronomy School ..................................................................................................................................................... 19 CSIRO Par kes Obser vator y Open Days ................................................................................................................................................... 20 CSIRO ATNF says Farewell to Pat Sykes .................................................................................................................................................. 22 The Neares t Power ful R adio Gala x y NGC612 : Fir s t Science Result s with the C AB B C / X-band ....................... 25 Ga s Dynamics and St ar For mation in the Gala x y Pair NGC 1512 /1510................................................................................ 28 E xplor ing the R adio B imodalit y of QSOs with C AB B ...................................................................................................................... 32 National Facilit y Oper ations .............................................................................................................................................................................. 36 Time A ssignment Infor mation .......................................................................................................................................................................... 37 Changes to the ATNF Time A ssignment Commit tee ...................................................................................................................... 38 ATNF Publications Lis t .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 39 Education and Ou treach...................................................................................................................................................................................... 42

Editorial
Welcome to the Oc tober 20 09 edition of the ATNF News. In this issue we feature a number of ar ticles, with sever al referencing CSIRO's new Aus tr alia Telescope Compac t Ar r ay Broadband Backend upgr ade (or C ABB as it is popular ly k nown) . This includes an ar ticle by Elizabeth Mahoney and collabor ator s that employs C ABB to explore the r adio bimodalit y of QSOs while Bjor n Emonts and team examine our neares t power ful r adio gala x y NGC612 and provide fir s t science results with the C ABB C / Xband. Our final science ar ticle look s at gas dynamics and s tar for mation in the gala x y pair NGC 1512 /1510, contr ibuted by Ñngel L?pezSñnchez and Baer bel Kor ibalsk i. In other news, we repor t on the creation of the CSIRO As tronomy and Space Science business unit in which cur rent ATNF ac tivities will reside, and we ack nowledge ATNF's own War wick Wilson who was recently awarded the CSIRO Medal for Lifetime Achievement for his inspir ational contr ibutions to r adio as tronomy. We also provide a review of our ex tremely successful Par kes Open Days which at tr ac ted record number s, we repor t on the fir s t CSIRO R adio As tronomy School at the Par kes R adio Telescope, we chat with Pat Sykes who has recently retired from the ATNF following 36 year s of ser vice and we provide an update on recent changes relevant to the Time Assignment Commit tee ( TAC) . In addition to this, we present our regular ASK AP and SK A ac tivit y update. We also feature a special ar ticle by ASK AP Projec t Scientis ts I la n a F e a i n a n d S i m o n J o h ns t o n that look s at the ASK AP Sur vey Science Projec ts that have now entered the Design Study Phase. Finally, we feature the obituar y of J o h n M a s t e r s o n w h o d i e d o n 9 A p r il 20 09. John was an es teemed and highly respec ted photogr apher within the CSIRO Division of R adiophysics for over 40 year s. He leaves behind a magnificent photogr aphic archive that records the events, facilities and people that make up the his tor y of CSIRO R adiophysics and the ATNF since the ear lies t days. He will be greatly missed. Please note that if you would like to contr ibute to later editions of the ATNF News, you can contac t the newslet ter team. We hope you enjoy the issue.
Tony Cr awshaw, Joanne Houldswor th The ATNF Newslet ter Produc tion Team (newslet ter @ atnf.csiro.au)

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From the Director
Lewis Ball ATNF Ac ting Direc tor

This newslet ter comes at a time of significant achievement and change for the ATNF.
In recent months the Aus tr alian Commonwealth Gover nment has announced A $ 80 M of new funding for the Pawsey Centre for SK A supercomputing in Per th, A $ 88M in funding for Aus tr alia's member ship of the Giant Magellan Telescope progr am, and in announcements associated with the budget in May it identified Space Science and Astronomy as one of three Super Science areas which are its highes t pr ior ities. All of these announcements are tremendous news for Aus tr alian as tronomy, and continue to reinforce this as a decade of unprecedented political visibilit y and suppor t for as tronomy in Aus tr alia . CSIRO has recently announced that it will create a new business unit, to be k nown as CSIRO As tronomy and Space Science (C ASS) incor por ating the ATNF and its NASA Oper ations a c t i v i t i e s , t h e m os t s i g n i fi c a n t of which is the Canber r a Deep Space Communications Centre (CDSCC or Tidbinbilla) . At the end of Febr uar y 2010 the CDSCC ac tivities will sit entirely within CSIRO, concluding a ver y successful per iod dur ing which R ay theon Aus tr alia have oper ated Tidbinbilla for CSIRO under a subcontr ac ting ar r angement . CSIRO As tronomy and Space Science will come into being on 1 December 20 09, and the process to recr uit the per son who will be Chief of C ASS and ATNF Direc tor is under way.

In July the Aus tr alia Telescope Steer ing Commit tee (ATSC) met at Mar sfield and provided timely advice to the CSIRO E xecutive -- represented by Alex Zelinsk y, and to myself in my role as the ATNF Ac ting Direc tor. Af ter a per iod of some uncer taint y regarding the s tatus of the Steer ing Commit tee, Minis ter Car r reaf fir med the role of the ATSC in providing s tr ategic advice to CSIRO on its r adio as tronomy ac tivities, and appointed five new member s. While CSIRO had already deter mined its intention to br ing the ATNF and NASA Oper ations together and create the new C ASS Division, the Steer ing Commit tee provided ver y valuable advice regarding the need to continue to focus on the key challenges of deliver ing ASK AP, res tr uc tur ing Oper ations to position the ATNF for the future, and ma ximising Aus tr alia's role in the SK A , including promoting its candidate SK A site in Wes ter n Aus tr alia . A per sonal highlight over recent months has been the selec tion of the 10 ASK AP Sur vey Science Projec ts that has been so ably led by the ASK AP Projec t Scientis ts, I la n a F e a i n a n d S i m o n J o h ns t o n . T h e engagement and commitment of such a lar ge inter national communit y in ASK AP science provides tremendous incentive for ATNF s taf f to maintain their ener g y over the nex t three year s as we deliver this innovative wor ld-class ins tr ument . The successful fac tor y acceptance of the fir s t ASK AP antenna , a bare 10 months af ter CSIRO signed

the contr ac t with CE TC54 to design and build the 36 antennas r e q u i r e d , m a r k s t h e s u b s t a n t i ve shif t from planning to cons tr uc tion and rollout . Spare a thought for the CE TC54 and ATNF s taf f who will wor k through Chr is tmas and New Year at the Murchison R adioas tronomy Obser vator y to ins tall Antenna 1 as soon as possible af ter its deliver y at the end of November. The science highlights in this newslet ter include ear ly results from the Compac t Ar r ay's new Broadband Backend sys tem, the br ainchild of War wick Wilson and a tr ibute to the ver y talented team from ATNF's Engineer ing group that have wor ked tirelessly over recent year s on this major projec t . It is fit ting that on the day that I am wr iting this War wick will receive a CSIRO Medal for Lifetime Achievement, a token of recognition for his outs tanding contr ibutions to r adio as tronomy.

4 ATNF Ne ws , Issue 67, October 2009


CSIRO Medal Winner s
Tony Cr awshaw (ATNF )

ATNF's Senior Pr incipal Research Engineer Dr War wick Wilson was recently awarded the CSIRO Medal for Lifetime Achievement for his inspir ational contr ibutions to r adio as tronomy at a special CSIRO event in Melbour ne. The Lifetime Achievement Medal is awarded to an individual who has a record of sus tained and mer itor ious achievement over a prolonged per iod of CSIRO ser vice. War wick , recognised inter nationally for his outs tanding contr ibutions to the field of r adio as tronomy, especially for his wor k in cor relator development and in receiver sys tems design and development has been par t of CSIRO for 27 year s. His ef for ts have not only kept CSIRO obser vator ies at the forefront of the wor ld's r adio as tronomy ins tr uments but have also enhanced the capabilities of other obser vator ies around the wor ld. Of par ticular note is the pioneer ing wor k that he under took in the design and cons tr uc tion of the "AT Cor relator" an innovative wideband cor relator for the Aus tr alia Telescope Compac t Ar r ay (ATC A) that received its fir s t signal in 1988. War wick has also played a major role in the development of the ATC A Compac t Ar r ay Broadband Backend (C ABB ) upgr ade. Ably leading the C ABB projec t team, the recently ins talled upgr ade has maintained ATC A's position at the forefront of r adioas tronomy instrumentation by vastly

Gr aeme Car r ad, War wick Wilson and Lewis Ball at the CSIRO Awards event in Melbour ne. Credit : Meg R ive, CSIRO

increasing the ins tr ument's bandwidth and sensitivit y. The legacy of War wick 's wor k is an assembly of advanced r adio telescopes that are, on a daily basis, gener ating new research results by a lar ge inter national communit y of r adio as tronomer s. Also recognised at the Melbour ne event were the Wireless L AN ( WL AN ) team who were awarded the major CSIRO pr ize, the Chair man's Medal. The team received this medal for deliver ing major technical benefits to Aus tr alia and the wor ld via wireless local area net wor k ing technolog y now under pinning wireless

communication sys tems in over 80 0 million produc ts wor ldwide. Interes tingly, the A4 chip which for med a key enabling s tep in the development of the WL AN technolog y was closely aligned with the development of the AT cor relator chip. R adiophysics s taf f collabor ated on both projec ts with both chips going through a similar design process. John O' Sullivan who led the or iginal WL AN research team played a n im p o r t a n t e a r l y r ole in t h e initial conception of the Aus tr alia Telescope receiving sys tems within the Division of R adiophysics.

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CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science Unit Formed
Tony Cr awshaw (ATNF )

CSIRO has recently announced the creation of the CSIRO As tronomy and Space Science (C ASS) business unit which will reside within the Infor mation Sciences Group. This new Business Unit br ings together CSIRO's r adio as tronomy capabilities (the ATNF ) and other space science ac tivities (notably the oper ation of the Canber r a Deep Space Communications Complex or Tidbinbilla) , as well as CSIRO Space Sciences and Technolog y (for mer ly k nown as COSSA) . The enlar ged business unit will encompass r adio as tronomy, space science coordination, advanced aerospace business development and national /inter national facilities

management . It is consis tent with CSIRO's s tr ateg y of consolidating its s tr uc tur al units to achieve appropr iate scale and also mir ror s the increasing alignment of as tronomy and space science within Aus tr alia . The new business unit will -- together with the IC T Centre -- provide the s taf f responsible for commissioning the Aus tr alian SK A Pathfinder, and will facilitate relationships with major par tner s in the space domain, including space agencies and member s of the Aus tr alian and inter national space indus tr y. For the meantime CSIRO's intention is to maintain the oper ation

of Tidbinbilla as a separ ate entit y from its r adio as tronomy ac tivities. Oppor tunities for syner gies bet ween space science ac tivities and as tronomy will be explored in the longer ter m. Cur rently, a process is tak ing place to recr uit the per son who will lead the ATNF and C ASS with the open adver tisement of the role of Chief of CSIRO As tronomy and Space Science - ATNF Direc tor. The Chief of C ASS will be responsible for both r adio as tronomy ac tivities and space science, will repor t to the Group E xecutive for Infor mation Sciences, and will wor k closely with the CSIRO SK A Direc tor, Br ian Boyle.

ATNF Distinguished Visitor s Program
Rober t B r aun (ATNF )

Over the pas t months we have enjoyed wor k ing visits from Leo Blit z ( Univer sit y of Califor nia Ber keley, USA) , Phil K ronber g ( Los Alamos National L abor ator y / Univer sit y of Toronto) , Alber to Sesana ( Pennsylvania State Univer sit y, USA) , R ick Jenet ( Univer sit y of Texas Brownsville, USA) , Mar tin Cohen ( Univer sit y of Califor nia Ber keley, USA) , Jayanne English ( Univer sit y of Manitoba , Canada) , Lordes VerdesMontenegro ( Ins tituto de As trofýsica de Andalucýa , Spain) , Daniel Espada Fer nandez ( Har vard-Smithsonian
6 ATNF Ne ws , Issue 67, October 2009

Center for As trophysics , USA) , R avi Subr ahmanyan ( R aman Research Ins titute, India) , Marcella Massardi ( Inter national School for Advanced Studies, Italy) and Joel Weisber g (Car leton College, USA) . Cur rent visitor s include DJ Saik ia ( Tata Ins titute of Fundamental Research, India) . Upcoming visitor s we expec t include Paula Benaglia ( Ins tituto Ar gentino de R adioas tronomýa) , Jean- Luc Starck (CE A Saclay, Fr ance) and Daniel P fenniger ( Univer sit y of Geneva , Swit zer land) .

The Dis tinguished Visitor s progr am remains a ver y produc tive means of enabling collabor ative research projec ts with local s taf f, adding subs tantially to the vitalit y of the ATNF research environment . Visits can be or ganised for per iods r anging from only a few week s up to one year. For more infor mation please see www.atnf. csiro.au /people /distinguished_visitor s. html. Prospec tive visitor s should contac t the local s taf f member with the mos t similar interes ts.


ATNF Graduate Student Program
Baer bel Kor ibalsk i (ATNF )

We welcome the following s tudents into the ATNF cosuper vision progr am :
Ç Jay Blanchard ( Univer sit y of Tasmania) -- Link ing the Radio and Gamma-ray proper ties of Blazar s with super visor s Dr Jim Lovell, Prof John Dickey (both Univer sit y of Tasmania) and Dr Phil Edwards (ATNF ) ; Ç Jus tin Br ay ( Univer sit y of Adelaide) -- Ultrahigh- ener g y neutr inos and their detection with the lunar Cherenkov technique with super visor s Prof R ay Protheroe ( Univer sit y of Adelaide) and Prof Ron Eker s (ATNF ) ; Ç Stefan Oslowsk y ( Univer sit y of Swinbur ne) -- High- precision pulsar timing and the for mation and evolution of binar y pulsar s with super visor s Prof Mat thew Bailes, Dr Willem van Str aten (both Univer sit y of Swinbur ne) , and Dr Geor ge Hobbs (ATNF ) ; Ç Mar ion Wienen ( Univer sit y of Bonn, Ger many) -- Under standing the ear liest , cold phases of high-mass star for mation with super visor s Prof Kar l Menten, Dr Fr iedr ich Wyrowsk i (both Ma x- Planck- Ins titut f ? r R ad ioa s t r o n o m i e B o n n , Ger many) , Prof Pavel K roupa ( Univer sit y of Bonn, Ger many) and Dr Baer bel Kor ibalsk i (ATNF ) ;

Ç Kit t y Lo ( Univer sit y of Sydney) -- Star for mation and magnetic fields in near by galaxies with super visor s Dr Br yan Gaensler ( Univer sit y of Bonn) and Dr Baer bel Kor ibalsk i (ATNF ) ; Ç Vick y Lowe ( Univer sit y of NSW ) -- The environment s of massive star for mation with super visor s Dr Mar ia Cunningham, Prof Michael Bur ton (both Univer sit y of NSW ) and Dr James Urquhar t (ATNF ) .

Dr Aaron Chippendale continues to wor k at ATNF, Dr Nadia Lo is now a pos tdoc tor al fellow at Saclay, Fr ance, Dr Jor is Ver bies t is a pos tdoc tor al fellow at the Univer sit y of Wes t Vir ginia , USA , a n d D r K a t h e r i n e N e w to n McGee now wor k s in Canber r a .

The following s tudents recently submit ted their PhD Thesis :
Ç Leith Godfrey (Aus tr alian National Univer sit y) -- Multiwaveleng th Studies of X-ray Br ight E xtragalactic Jet s ; Ç At tila Popping ( Univer sit y of Groningen) -- Dif fuse Neutral Hydrogen in the Local Univer se ; Ç Rebecca McFadden ( Univer sit y of Melbour ne) -- UHE Neutr ino Detection using the Lunar Cherenkov Technique. Well done !

Congr atulations to :
Ç A a r o n C hip p e nd a le o n t he successful submission of his Univer sit y of Sydney PhD thesis on Detecting Cosmological Reionisation on Lar ge Scales through the 21 cm HI Line ; Ç Nadia Lo on the successful submission of her Univer sit y of NSW PhD thesis on A Multi-molecular Line Study of an Entire Giant Molecular Cloud ; Ç Kather ine New ton- McGee on the successful submission of her Univer sit y of Sydney PhD thesis on Radio Polar imetr y as a Probe of Inter stellar Magnetism ; and Ç Jor is Ver bies t on the successful submission of his Univer sit y of Swinbur ne PhD thesis on LongTer m Timing of Millisecond Pulsar s and Gravitational Wave Detection.

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Obituar y -- John Master son
Helen Sim (ATNF )

The photogr aphic collec tion of the Radiophysics Labor ator y contains more than 13,0 0 0 sets of items. Although the names of the photogr apher s were not always recorded, many,

per haps mos t, were the wor k of photogr apher John Mas ter son, who died in Apr il this year, aged 73. For ty of those 73 year s were spent wor king for the CSIRO Radiophysics Labor ator y and

its of fshoots, the Division of Cloud Physics, the ATNF and the precur sor s of the IC T Centre. And they were for ty year s of, not jus t wor k , but of ser vice.

John Mas ter son in 1982. Credit : CSIRO

John joined the L abor ator y in June 1957, at the age of 22. The R adiophysics L abor ator y, created in 1940, was then s till in its or iginal home, the Madsen building at the Univer sit y of Sydney. Dur ing the war, ever y piece of equipment the L abor ator y produced had been photogr aphed, says Phil Shar p, site coordinator for Proper t y Ser vices at Mar sfield. The pr ac tice per sis ted into peacetime, and there was enough wor k for four photogr apher s a n d a n a s s is t a n t . J o h n s t a r t e d wor k as a Technical Assis tant, level 1. He had completed the only photogr aphic cour se available at the time, that of the School of Applied Photogr aphy in Sydney. One of the at tr ac tions of the R adiophysics position was that the L abor ator y's Senior Photogr apher, Ken Nash, of fered a sys tem of tr aining similar to that for newspaper cadets : a mix ture of technical reading, pr ac tical ins tr uc tion, and on-thejob tr aining. Dur ing 1960 -1963 John was called up to do a wider r ange of task s for R adiophysics and, increasingly, for other CSIRO Divisions. In this per iod he was awarded The Sun Trophy at the Sydney Inter national E xhibition of Photogr aphy, for the bes t entr y by

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A DC3 used by the Division of R adiophysics for exper iment s on clouds . The photogr apher is not recorded, bu t John Ma s ter son wa s responsible for photogr aphing R adiophysics' cloud seeding and cloud physics exper iment s . Notice how the photogr apher ha s captured the sun shining through t wo aligned windows of the plane.

an Aus tr alian. By 1963 John was second-in-char ge of the depar tment, and had sole responsibilit y for the photogr aphic cover age of the new o b s e r v a t o r y a n d r a d i o h e li o g r a p h near Nar r abr i, now the home of the Compac t Ar r ay. When R adiophysics moved to its Mar sfield site in 1968, the photolab was located in what is now Wing G . Ken Nash's health was deter ior ating, and John took increasing responsibilit y for r unning the photolab, finally becoming its head in 1974 when Nash retired. With respec t to his cr af t, John was a professional from beginning to

end. Ken Nash -- an "ar tsy" t ype, according to for mer ATNF Assis tant Direc tor John Brook s -- believed in mak ing images that were beautiful as well as technically infor mative : J o h n l e a r n e d a l ot f r o m h i m , a n d was influenced by his s t yle. He always k new what was wanted, what a photogr aph needed to show, according to Phil Shar p. " Some of the s tuf f we had photogr aphed was ver y tr ick y, with small components. He'd spend hour s wor k ing on that," said Mal Sinclair, a for mer head of the ATNF Receiver Group. "The wor k John did for the Division of Cloud Physics, photogr aphing exper iments in cloud chamber s, was

ex tremely dif ficult ." In the cour se of his career John had to devise photogr aphic solutions to a diver se r ange of problems, from counting and gr ading ice cr ys tals to mak ing high-speed s tudies of cut ting tools on exper imental lathes, 24 -hour monitor ing of weather r adar results, and the pr inting of complex colour o u t p u t s f r o m s p e c t r o g r a p hs . A n impor tant par t of his wor k in the 1980s was reduc tion photogr aphy of circuit layouts for solid-s tate devices. In its ear ly days, R adiophysics had oper ated a number of field s tations, such as the one at Dapto, and John made frequent tr ips to those. He wor ked with Ken Nash to capture

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the cons tr uc tion and ear ly days of the Par kes telescope. L ater, when the Compac t Ar r ay was being built, he took essentially all of the s till photogr aphs recording its cons tr uc tion. For the Compac t Ar r ay, he was called upon to record engineer ing techniques such as s tretch for ming, panel fabr ication and feed hor n cons tr uc tion in black and white, on colour slides, negatives, and video tape. The ar t wor k for elec tronics had to be photogr aphically reproduced with great accur acy, to exac t reduc tion r atios. As well as all the technical and recording photogr aphy he needed to produce a cons tant s tream of illus tr ation for the media , displays and presentations. "John would wor k 20 hour s a day if he had to," said Phil Shar p. John's own descr iption of photogr aphing at night antennas three, four and five of the Compac t Ar r ay dur ing their cons tr uc tion indicates the amount of trouble he took : The aim was to isolate the antennas from the mass of cable dr ums, compressor s, container s and generally confusing items at ground level, give a good view of the profile and the under-str ucture of the dish, and produce a good stand- alone illustration of the progress on site. The site was in total dar k ness except for a single bulb mounted on a pole adjacent to antenna five. Because of the lar ge areas and long distances involved I elected to wait until late evening and "paint" the t wo front dishes and

Dr Har r y Minnet t sur veying the sur face of the Par kes telescope in 196 4. John Ma s ter son and Ken Na sh shared the wor k of photogr aphing Par kes in it s ear ly days , and it's not recorded which of them took this photo. The image is t ypical of the beau tifully composed black and white photogr aphs of Par kes in the R adiophysics photo archives .

some of the background using a single handheld electronic flash unit. With the camera lens open and set to an appropr iate aper ture I was able to traver se a carefully calculated path around the dishes and expose them to many individual flashes to achieve the result desired. This single exposure is made up of over 130 flashes. The photograph was just what I had anticipated and has been in great demand. (See back page image.) This care and at tention to detail were appreciated : Despite the fact that CSIRO and this Division have only recently paid m u c h h e e d t o p e r s o na l c r e d i t s o n published photographs quite a few people sought me out by name and congratulated us on the qualit y and obvious professionalism of the wor k coming from the Radiophysics' Communication Group.

"John was not an empire builder," said Shaun Amy, Head of Computing Infr as tr uc ture for the ATNF, and himself a keen photogr apher. " He recognised he was in a ser vice role, and dedicated himself to that ." J o h n k n e w a l ot , a n d w a s p l e a s e d to share that k nowledge, Shaun says. Over the year s John's ser vices and advice were called upon not only by R adiophysics but also by sever al other CSIRO Divisions, a r ange of depar tments at the Univer sit y of Sydney (Civil, Elec tr ical and Aeronautical Engineer ing ; Geogr aphy and Tropical Medicine) , Lewisham Hospital, and even the NSW Fores tr y Depar tment . In the mid 1970s John was ins tr umental in for ming the NSW Photogr apher s Group, and helped or ganise the fir s t national conference for CSIRO photogr apher s.

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The photomont age of Dr Dick McGee refer red to in the tex t . McGee had over sight of the Photolab.

his family : his wife Clare, whom he'd met when they both wor ked at the Univer sit y of Sydney, and their children -- Kather ine, Michael, Peter, Sean, Paul, Ber nadet te and Mat thew. Tr agically, Sean was k illed as a young man. It was af ter that that an incident occur red which was " the only time I ever k new John to lose his temper", said Gr aham Moorey, another for mer head of the Receiver Group. At a r ailway s tation, someone had tr ied to s teal John's wallet : he put the bloke in a headlock and lef t him the wor se for wear. That incident was an exception, however. John retired in September 1997. For the R adiophysics L abor ator y, he had created a body of wor k recording four decades of its his tor y : for himself, he had at tained [l] ong exper ience in micro /macro / scientific/industr ial /por trait /field / aer ial and illustrative photography, cine and video techniques including editing and audio mixing [,] and ... exper ience in what the Division needs in the application of these techniques while s till retaining an openness to and keen interest in the need for constant reappraisal and change where necessar y. In his communit y, John wor ked for many, and made himself k nown and loved : more than 20 0 people came to his funer al. His mos t impor tant legacy, however, is in the lives of his family : his wife, children, gr andchildren and great-gr and-children.

Photogr aphy was one vehicle for John's sly sense of humour. John Brook s recalls the time he and colleague Bob Batchelor had asked John to take head shots to accompany a paper they were submit ting for publication. When Brook s was supplied with his photo, s o m e t h i ng a b o u t i t p u z z l e d h i m : " It was me alr ight, but he'd made me look really ugly". When he compared notes with Batchelor, the penny dropped : Brook s' photo had been subtly dis tor ted by s tretching it ver tically, while Batchelor's had been s tretched hor izontally. " We went round to tell Mas ter son what a bas tard he was," said Brook s. John would jus t have gr inned. A more over t joke was his photomontage that put the face of Dick McGee, who over saw the Photolab, on the body of an or ang-utan. When this appeared on the noticeboard,

McGee is said to have quipped "Ah, but that was when I had a full body of hair ! " According to Brook s, John was able to photogr aphically tur n an innocuous technical item such as a feedhor n "into a UFO about to disgor ge aliens". J oh n w a s a q uie t ma n , b u t e x t r e m e l y sociable : "he k new ever yone, could talk to ever yone", said Phil Shar p. He liked a dr ink , liked his ja z z -- he used to frequent the Sydney Ja z z Club, then housed in the Ironwor ker s Building in Sydney's Geor ge Street -- and was a fanatical suppor t of the R abbitohs (the South Sydney Rugby League team) . He was dog ged -- for ins tance, as a union representative in the mid 1970s -- and he was generous, devoting great time and ener g y to char itable causes associated with his church. And, above all, he was devoted to

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Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP)
Gabby Russell and Carole Jack son (ATNF )

Survey Science Projects Announced
Ten major science projec ts, representing 363 unique author s from 131 ins titutions, have been selec ted to use ASK AP dur ing the fir s t five year s of the telescope's oper ation. A full repor t can be seen on page 16 of this newslet ter.

First Antenna on Track
Manufac ture of ASK AP 's fir s t antenna has progressed well. CSIRO and contr ac tor CE TC54 have jointly finalised the full fac tor y and site acceptance tes t plan that descr ibes the procedures, tes ts and pass conditions for ever y aspec t of the antenna . The fac tor y

acceptance tes ts took place in late September to ensure timely deliver y of the antenna to the Murchison R adio-as tronomy Obser vator y in late November. In prepar ation for fac tor y and site acceptance tes ting t h e A S K A P a n te n na te a m ha s been tr ained to use the VSTAR S photogr ammetr y sys tem, which will be used to measure the par abolic sur face of the dish to ensure it meets the 10 GHz upper frequency specification. A full outline of the ASK AP antenna per for mance specifications can be found at www.atnf.csiro.au /project s/askap.

Technology Update
As the development of ASK AP progresses, the projec t has met sever al key technological miles tones :
T h e a na log s y s te m ha s p r og r e s s e d from concept to design phase. The elec tr ical and mechanical design of the phased ar r ay feed is well under way, as is the design of the conver sion modules and r ack that will be located in the pedes tal of the antenna .

Reflec tive dot s have been applied to the 12-metre antenna at the Par kes Tes tbed Facilit y, which ha s been used by the ASK AP team for tr aining in photogr ammetr y. Credit : Carole Jack son, CSIRO.

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Protot ype hardware has been delivered for the entire ASK AP beamfor mer, which includes digitiser, back plane, control and power boards (to be located at each antenna) and a digital signal processing and rear tr ansition board (to be ins talled in the centr al building as par t of the beamfor mer) . Sof t ware ver sion 1.0 for monitor ing and controlling the Par kes Tes tbed Facilit y's 12-metre antenna (used to tes t ASK AP 's sys tems) has been released. The fir s t simulated ASK AP 30 s q u a r e - d e g r e e i m a ge ha s b e e n made to the expec ted noise depth by using the SK A Design Studies' Simulated Sk ies model, which demons tr ates that the imaging and analysis sof t ware is wor k ing. S ig n i fi c a n t p r o g r e s s h a s b e e n m a d e with the development of sever al low-cos t synthesiser units required in each of ASK AP 's 36 antennas. Tes ting of ASK AP 's protot ype phased ar r ay feed has been under taken to char ac ter ise its per for mance when equipped with improved design low-noise amplifier s.

T h e n e x t s t a ge is for the ILUA r e g is t e r e d , a p r under way at th

in the process to be for mally ocess which is e time of wr iting.

A tender for the design of suppor t infr as tr uc ture at the MRO was published on the AusTender website in June 20 09 and, following evaluation, Aurecon was selec ted as the successful tenderer. Two fur ther reques ts for tender s, for a telehandler (a specialised t ype of cr ane) to be used for antenna assembly, tes ting, and maintenance, and tr anspor table building (donga) supply and ins tallation, were published on the AusTender website at the end of Augus t 20 09. Design of the Boolardy Homes tead accommodation improvements has s tar ted with a Ger aldton-based company, Eas tman Polet ti Sher wood Architec ts.

been introduced to keep indus tr y and other interes ted s takeholder s infor med on the progress of the ASK AP projec t . The fir s t t wo editions are available online at www.atnf.csiro.au /project s/askap.

Reaching Out in Geraldton
A recent visit to the MRO by a group of Indigenous ar tis ts and scientis ts (repor ted in ATNF News Apr il 20 09) has been the inspir ation for an ar t exhibition, Ilgar ijir i -- things belonging to the sk y. The group spent three days together and made a special visit to the MRO, located on Wajar r i Yamatji land, which produced a collec tion of more than 90 ar t wor k s connec ting the land, culture and as tronomy. Or ganised by the Inter national Centre for R adio As tronomy Research and Yamaji Ar t Indigenous ar t cooper ative, and sponsored by CSIRO, the exhibition was of ficially launched at the Ger aldton Regional Ar t Galler y on 12 June 20 09. More infor mation on the ar t wor k s and exhibition can be found at ht tp ://ilgar ijir i.wordpress.com. In Augus t, Ger aldton celebr ated National Science Week with a wide r ange of as tronomy-themed ac tivities for school s tudents and the wider local communit y. Coordinated by CSIRO's Pr iscilla Clay ton, highlights included Ger aldton amateur theatre club Theatre Eight's produc tion The Life of Galileo, exhibitions at the Wes ter n Aus tr alian Museum --

Industr y Engagement News
On 10 July 20 09, CSIRO hos ted its second special ASK AP and SK A technical discussion session. Over t wo and a half hour s, ASK AP computing leader s Tim Cor nwell and Ben Humphreys provided a thorough over view of ASK AP computing challenges and the development of SK A sys tems for the 12 indus tr y par ticipants. The third in the discussion ser ies is being planned and will focus on the development of sensitive, ultr a-wideband receiver s for r adio as tronomy. A n e w q u a r t e r l y p u b li c a t i o n , ASK AP Technical Update, has

Murchison Radioastronomy Obser vator y (MRO) Plans Progress
In June 20 09 CSIRO became the of ficial leaseholder of Boolardy Pas tor al Station and the MRO's Indigenous L and Use Agreement ( ILUA) was executed af ter all the required signatures were obtained.

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Ger aldton, and public lec tures by Wester n Australian Government A s t r o n o m e r D r J a m e s B ig g s a n d Aus tr alian National Univer sit y's Dr Char ley Lineweaver. The Murchison region also took par t with as tronomy outreach ac tivities held at Yalgoo Pr imar y School and Meek athar r a School of the Air.

visit a small display including a model of the focal plane ar r ay. A S K A P h a s a ls o b e e n r e p r e s e n t e d a t many as tronomy events in Aus tr alia and inter nationally. In ear ly June 20 09, a small delegation at tended the 214th Amer ican As tronomical Societ y meeting in Pasadena where t h e A S K A P e x h ib i t io n s t a n d w a s ver y successful in at tr ac ting interes t among the 160 0 as tronomer s and other meeting par ticipants. Presentations on ASK AP have been delivered at annual meetings of the As tronomical Societ y of Aus tr alia and the Royal As tronomical

Societ y of New Zealand, the I n te r na t io na l A s t r o n o m ic a l U n io n G e n e r a l A s s e m b l y i n R io d e Janeiro, the SK A Design Studies Tr aining School in Par is, and at a Panor amic R adio As tronomy meeting in The Nether lands.

SKA-related News
Aus tr alia's bid for the SK A was boos ted in Augus t 20 09 by the signing of a collabor ative ar r angement with New Zealand. The ar r angement was signed by New Zealand's Minis ter for Economic Development,

ASKAP on Display
Visitor s to the Par kes Open Days on 18 and 19 July were able to take the "ASK AP Walk " to the 12-m tes tbed antenna , talk with a n A S K A P te a m m e m b e r a n d

Ron Koenig at the ASK AP display dur ing the Par kes Open Days . Credit : Tony Cr awshaw, CSIRO.

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ATNF Ne ws , Issue 67, October 2009


Signing of the Aus tr alia - New Zealand ar r angement for a joint SK A bid by Senator K im Car r and Minis ter Ger r y B rownlee. CSIRO SK A Direc tor Professor B r ian B oyle (far lef t) and Scot t McHardy from the New Zealand High Commission (far r ight) are also pic tured. Credit : Photocall.

the Hon. Ger r y Brownlee, and Aus tr alia's Minis ter for Innovation, Indus tr y, Science and Research, Senator the Hon. Kim Car r. Under the ar r angement, Aus tr alia and New Zealand will together of fer the inter national communit y the oppor tunit y to develop the SK A across the t wo countr ies, with a ma ximum baseline of around 5,0 0 0 k m. CSIRO has engaged BAE Sys tems Aus tr alia to provide cr itical analyses that will help guide the design decisions for the SK A antennas. This is the fir s t engagement of a

major sys tem integr ation company to wor k on s tr ategic SK A design issues in Aus tr alia . A small team of engineer s at BAE Sys tems will wor k alongside CSIRO s taf f to analyse the per for mance of CSIRO's phased ar r ay feed receiver s within the proposed SK A antenna design. The fir s t phase of this analysis will be completed in time for a major PrepSK A Wor k Pack age 2 (SK A Design) wor k shop to be held at the Univer sit y of Manches ter, UK in Oc tober 20 09. As par t of PrepSK A Wor k Pack age 3 ( S i t e C h a r a c t e r is a t i o n a n d

Selec tion) ac tivit y, CSIRO has continued wor k ing with Aurecon on geogr aphic infor mation sys tem analysis to help deter mine SK A ar r ay s tation placement and s tandards for site char ac ter isation. CSIRO s taf f have also continued to ac tively par ticipate in SK A design and development discussions, r anging from sys tem engineer ing, antenna optics design, front-end receiver options, digital sys tems and SK A outreach ac tivities, led by the SK A Projec t Development Of fice.

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ASKAP Sur vey Science Projects enter Design Study Phase
Ilana Feain and Simon Johns ton (ATNF )

Since 20 08, an open and inter national process to deter mine the major Sur vey Science Projec ts (SSP) to be conduc ted by the Aus tr alian SK A Pathfinder (ASK AP) telescope has been proceeding. The results of this process were announced on Fr iday 4 September 20 09.
This follows recommendations provided by the ASK AP Sur vey Science Projec t Assignment Commit tee, a commit tee made up of a broad r ange of inter national exper ts. Projec ts that were successful were chosen according to their scientific mer it and oper ational feasibilit y. Ten Sur vey Science Projec t proposals were successful. These projec ts were pr ior itised into one of three categor ies : an A

group for which the ATNF will provide full suppor t, an A- group for which the ATNF will make all reasonable ef for ts to suppor t and a Str ategic Pr ior ities (SP) Group for which the ATNF will wor k to ensure that capabilities are enabled to the ex tent possible. A breakdown of the member ship of the 10 Sur vey Science Projec ts illus tr ates the inter national interes t i n t h e A S K A P p r og r a m . T h e r e a r e 363 unique team member s from 131 ins titutions. The breakdown of team member s by region is 33 % Aus tr alia and New Zealand, 30 % Nor th Amer ica , 28 % Europe and 9 % res t of wor ld. Successful Pr incipal Inves tigator s ( PIs) were invited to a one-day SSP Design Study k ick-of f meeting held at the ATNF headquar ter s in Sydney on 21 Oc tober. The meeting brought PIs together with ASK AP engineer s and projec t scientis ts to

deter mine how the Design Studies should proceed over the nex t few year s, in ter ms of management, processes and wor k ing groups. The ASK AP Sur vey Science Projec ts are lis ted in Table 1 and each is br iefly descr ibed below :

EMU: Evolutionary Map of the Universe -- PI Norris
EMU is a deep (10 ÅJy /beam r ms) r adio continuum sur vey of 75% of the entire sk y. EMU will probe t ypical s tar for ming gala xies to redshif t 1, power ful s tar bur s ts to even greater redshif ts, Ac tive Galac tic Nuclei to the edge of the Univer se, as well as undoubtedly discover ing new classes of r are objec ts. The key science goals for EMU are to tr ace the evolution of s tar for ming gala xies and massive b la c k h o l e s t h r o u g h o u t t h e h is t o r y of the Univer se and to explore lar ge-scale s tr uc ture. EMU will

Table 1: The Eight ASK AP Sur vey Science Projec t s and Two Str ategic Pr ior ities

A A AAAAAASP SP

EM U WALL ABY FL A SH VAST G A SK AP P OSS U M CR A F T D I N GO VLBI COAST

Evolutionar y Map of the Univer se Widefield ASK AP L- Band Legacy All-Sk y Blind Sur vey Fir s t L ar ge Absor ption Sur vey in HI An ASK AP Sur vey for Var iables and Fas t Tr ansients The Galac tic ASK AP Spec tr al Line Sur vey Polar isation Sk y Sur vey of the Univer se's Magnetism The Commensal Real-Time ASK AP Fas t Tr ansients Sur vey Deep Inves tigations of Neutr al Gas Or igins The High Resolution Components of ASK AP: Meeting the Long Baseline Specifications for the SK A Compac t Objec ts with ASK AP: Sur veys and Timing

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create the mos t sensitive widefield atlas yet made, and provide a long-las ting legacy sur vey.

WALLABY: Widefield ASKAP L-Band Legacy AllSky Blind Sur vey -- PIs Koribalski & Staveley-Smith
WALL ABY is an ex tr agalac tic neutr al hydrogen sur vey over 75% of the entire sk y and will detec t up to 50 0,0 0 0 gala xies to a redshif t of 0.26 . The fundamental aims of WALL ABY are to examine the HI proper ties and lar ge-scale dis tr ibution of these gala xies in order to s tudy gala x y for mation and the missing satellite problem in the Local Group, evolution and s tar for mation of gala xies, the role of mer ger s and gala x y inter ac tions, the HI mass func tion and its var iation with gala x y densit y, the physical processes gover ning the dis tr ibution and evolution of cool gas at low redshif t, cosmological par ameter s relating to gas-r ich gala xies and the nature of the cosmic web. WALL ABY will provide the lar ges t, mos t homogeneous HI sample of gala xies yet made, and will be an impor tant pathfinder for key SK A science.

are focused on both the neutr al gas content of gala xies and the cosmic HI mass densit y in the redshif t r ange 0. 5 < z < 1.0 where the HI emission line is too weak to be detec table in individual gala xies. The obser vations will increase the total number of absor ption line sys tems by an es timated t wo order s of m a g n i t u d e , r e p r e s e n t i ng a s ig n i fi c a n t data set to s tudy gas assembly and gala x y for mation dur ing a time in the his tor y of the Univer se that is lar gely uns tudied thus far.

and OH lines in the Milk y Way and Magellanic Sys tems. Compared with exis ting data , GASK AP will achieve about an order of magnitude improvement in both br ightness sensitivit y and in angular resolution. GASK AP will detec t and map OH maser s from evolved s tar s and s tar for mation regions, dif fuse emission from molecular and atomic clouds, HI absor ption toward background continuum sources and the s tr uc tures in the gas that tr ace the ef fec ts of s tellar winds and super nova explosions. The Magellanic Clouds will show all these processes as they appear in t wo other, ver y dif ferent environments. GASK AP will provide s tunning images of the inter s tellar medium that will be indispensible for as tronomer s wor k ing at other waveleng ths.

An ASKAP Survey for Variables and Slow Transients (VAST) -- PIs Murphy & Chatterjee
VAST gives unprecedented oppor tunities to inves tigate the sk y at r adio waveleng ths for tr ansients with a timescale as shor t as five seconds. ASK AP 's wide-field sur vey capabilities will enable the discover y and inves tigation of var iable and t r a ns i e n t p h e n o m e n a f r o m t h e local to the cosmological including flare s tar s, inter mit tent pulsar s, X-r ay binar ies, magnetar s, ex treme scat ter ing events, intr a-day var iables, r adio super novae and the or phan af ter glows of gamma-r ay bur s ts. VAST will probe unexplored regions of phase space where new classes of tr ansient sources may be detec ted.

Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe's Magnetism (POSSUM) -- PIs Gaensler, Taylor & Landecker
Under s tanding the Univer se is i m p os s i b l e w i t h o u t u n d e r s t a n d i n g ma g n e t ic fi e ld s . M a g n e t ic fi e ld s a r e key to the non-ther mal Univer se, yet it is unclear how lar ge-scale magnetic fields are gener ated and maintained. POSSUM will use r adio source polar isation, in par ticular the technique of rotation measure ( R M ) synthesis, to per for m a widefield sur vey that will yield a gr id of R Ms over a subs tantial fr ac tion of the sk y. The science outcomes

First Large Absorption Survey in HI (FLASH) -- PI Sadler
FL ASH is a blind HI absor ption-line sur vey that uses background r adio continuum sources to identif y and char ac ter ise foreground neutr al hydrogen. FL ASH science outcomes

GASKAP, the Galactic ASKAP Spectral Line Survey -- PI Dickey
The GASK AP sur vey is a high spec tr al resolution s tudy of the HI

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of POSSUM will revolutionise our under s tanding of the ordered components of the Milk y Way's m a g n e t ic fi e ld , te s t d y na m o a n d other models of magnetic field gener ation in gala xies and clus ter s, and car r y out a comprehensive census of magnetic fields as a func tion of redshif t in gala xies, ac tive galac tic nuclei, gala x y clus ter s a n d t h e i n t e r g a la c t i c m e d i u m .

DINGO: Deep Investigation of Neutral Gas Origins -- PI Meyer
DINGO will s tudy the evolution of neutr al hydrogen ( HI ) from the cur rent epoch to redshif t about 0. 5, providing a legacy dataset spanning cosmologically representative volumes. Measurements will be made of key cosmological dis tr ibutions, including H I , t h e H I m a s s f u n c t io n a n d the halo occupation dis tr ibution func tion. ASK AP data will be combined with optical data to enable a thorough s tudy of the coevolution of the s tellar, bar yonic and dar k mat ter content of gala xies.

Compact Objects with ASKAP: Surveys and Timing (COAST) -- PI Stairs
COAST will under take an obser vational progr am of pulsar timing aimed at high profile issues in as trophysics. This includes limits on, or the detec tion of, a background of gr avitational waves, s tr ingent tes ts of the predic tions of Gener al Relativit y and other theor ies of s trong gr avit y and the s tudies of binar y s tellar evolution. In addition to pulsar timing, blind searches for pulsar s will also be car r ied out which will lead to a bet ter under s tanding of the Galac tic neutron s tar population, the pulsar emission mechanism and the s tr uc ture and magnetic field of the Gala x y.

The Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients Sur vey (CRAFT) -- PIs Dodson & Macquart
CR AF T is a purely commensal sur vey for tr ansient sources with time-scales shor ter than five seconds. Shor t-timescale tr ansients are associated with the mos t ener getic and br ightes t single events in the Univer se. They provide Nature's ultimate labor ator y ; their emission is gener ated by mat ter under ex treme conditions whose proper ties probe physical regimes far tr anscending the r ange achievable in ter res tr ial exper iments. Fas t timescale tr ansients open new vis tas on the physics of high br ightness temper ature objec ts, ex treme s tates of mat ter and the physics of s trong gr avitational fields. In addition, the detec tion of ex tr agalac tic tr ansients af fords us an entirely new and sensitive probe on the huge reser voir of bar yons i n t h e i n t e r g a la c t i c m e d i u m .

The High Resolution Components of ASKAP: Meeting the Long Baseline Specifications for the SKA - PI Tingay
ASK AP, in combination with the exis ting Aus tr alian Long Baseline Ar r ay, high speed data recording equipment, innovative sof t ware cor relation facilities and high speed data tr anspor t net wor k s provides a high resolution capabilit y that is unmatched in ter ms of SK A demons tr ator s around the wor ld. Science outcomes include proper motion and par alla x of pulsar s, high resolution imaging of Ac tive Galac tic Nuclei, follow-up of tr ansient r adio sources and dis tances and proper motions of OH maser s.

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2009 CSIRO Radio Astronomy School
Jimi Green and Mike Keith (ATNF )

The ATNF held a CSIRO R adio As tronomy School at the Par kes R adio Telescope for the fir s t time in the las t week of September. The ATNF has for many year s r un a Synthesis Imaging School at the Aus tr alia Telescope Compac t Ar r ay in Nar r abr i, t ypically ever y other year. However, this year the ATNF took the s tep of moving towards an a n n u a l s c h o o l , a l t e r n a t i n g b e t we e n t h e s y n t h e s is i m a g i ng t h e m e , h e l d in Nar r abr i, and a pr imar ily singledish r adio as tronomy focussed school, held at Par kes. The progr am featured a r ange of topics, including : details of the illus tr ious his tor y of Par kes ; the core pr inciples of r adio as tronomy ; the r ange of single-dish r adio as tronomy obser vations ; and placing r adio as tronomy in the wider contex t . It also contained one day dedicated to inter ferometr ic consider ations. Three af ter noon sessions were used for group tutor ials, consis ting of a site tour, an ATNF Spec tr al Analysis Pack age data reduc tion tutor ial, and an obser ving session. Unfor tunately, per sis tent s trong winds resulted in the dish being wind-s towed for the fir s t t wo tutor ial sessions and the "pr ac tical obser ving" tutor ial becoming a theoretical exercise ! For lighter enter tainment the school had t wo evening talk s, Mak ing Beer in Space by Andrew Walsh and Abor iginal Astronomy by R ay Nor r is, both proving ver y popular, and included tour s of "The Dish",

even allowing some s tudents to walk on the dish (although not to play cr icket ! ) . The school was well at tended by almos t 30 s tudents from across Aus tr alia as well as fur ther afield. The or ganising commit tee would like to hear tily

thank the local s taf f at Par kes and the s taf f at the Dish Cafe for helping make the week a success. Copies of the presentations given at the School have been pos ted on the webpage at www.atnf.csiro. au /research /radio-school /2009/.

The 20 09 CSIRO R adio A s tronomy School. Credit : John Sar k issian, CSIRO

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CSIRO Par kes Obser vator y Open Days
Chr is Hollingdake (ATNF )

The CSIRO Par kes Obser vator y celebr ated the Inter national Year of As tronomy and the 40 anniver sar y of the Apollo 11 moon landing by giving member s of the public a r are oppor tunity to tour the Par kes r adio telescope.
th

The open days, showcasing the achievements of the Obser vator y as a wor ld-leading as tronomical telescope as well as its roles in suppor ting some of the mos t significant space missions in his tor y, took place on the weekend of 18 - 19 July. A record crowd of more than 6 , 50 0 visitor s visited the Obser vator y over the weekend with ATNF volunteer s guiding 30 0 0 visitor s through the 64 -m telescope on tour s. This was 10 0 % more than previous records achieved on Open Weekends. Tak ings were also well up at the Visitor s Centre with each day's tak ings about t wice the previous record daily revenue. Notably, our mos t dis tant visitor s tr avelled from London for the event, while the fir s t visitor s in the queue on Saturday mor ning had dr iven especially from Townsville ! As well as telescope tour s of "The Dish", the future of r adio as tronomy was highlighted through tour s of the 12-m ASK AP tes tbed antenna , and t h r o u g h e x p e r t t a l k s , b r o ch u r e s a n d inter ac tions with s taf f. From a public relations per spec tive, the Open Days were also a resounding success with ex tensive media cover age gener ated on T V and r adio, and in pr int and online mediums. In total around one hundred s taf f and volunteer s were involved, and helped to make the weekend r un smoothly.

Par kes open days visitor s . Credit : Tony Cr awshaw, CSIRO

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More than 3,0 0 0 people toured the 6 4 -m telescope dur ing the CSIRO Par kes R adio Telescope Open Days 20 09. Credit : Shaun Amy, CSIRO.

The ATNF collabor ated with CSIRO Education, Ques tacon - The National Science and Technolog y Centre, the Centr al Wes t As tronomical Societ y, the Wireless Ins titute of Aus tr alia , HeliWes t, the NSW State Emer gency Ser vices and var ious other communit y groups. The diver sit y of groups present of fered a var iet y of ac tivities for families to enjoy. Feedback from these groups was ver y positive and it is likely we will be able to build on these relationships for future events. A wor ld-class line up of speaker s also featured and included the following presentations :

David Malin, As trophotogr apher, who spoke on Galileo's astronomical legacy. Jill Tar ter, Direc tor of the Centre for SE TI Research, whose talk was titled SETI : Science Fact , Not Fiction. Wayne Lee and Er issa Hines, NASA engineer s, who spoke on NASA's plans to retur n to the moon. David for me spoke of the Cooke and Neil Mason, r Par kes s taf f, who on their recollec tions Apollo missions.

gener ate is ver y impor tant in ensur ing that the great wor k conduc ted with our r adio telescopes is recognised throughout Aus tr alia . These days would not be possible without the suppor t of the ATNF s taf f and their families. Thank you, one and all !

T h e p u b li c a t t e n t i o n t h a t O p e n Days at the ATNF Obser vator ies

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CSIRO ATNF says Farewell to Pat Sykes
Tony Cr awshaw (ATNF )

ATNF News Editor Tony Cr awshaw spoke with Pat Sykes, ATNF's leading cr yogenics specialis t and Mar sfield research team leader of engineer ing, in the week s before h is r e t i r e m e n t . I n t h e t h i r t y - s i x year s that Pat spent wor k ing for CSIRO, he designed, developed and maintained a wide r ange of cr yogenic cooling sys tems and ancillar y technolog y, utilised by microwave receiving sys tems on both ATNF and inter national antenna sys tems. This is an edited tr anscr ipt of that conver sation.

What do you remember about these early years ? Well, I remember there was a fair amount of s tudy involved going to tech at night . I ac tually s tar ted a mechanical engineer ing cer tificate at the same time that I was completing

the apprenticeship. In those days, apprenticeships were Gover nment f u n d e d a n d t h e r e w a s n o g u a r a n te e that you'd get a full time job with the or ganisation that you'd apprenticed at . From what I could see within the Division it all looked

So Pat , you've been with the CSIRO for over 36 years. How did it all star t ? Well, it all goes back to my time at Kulnur a (30 miles wes t of Gosford) where I was brought up on a citr us f a r m . I t w a s p r e t t y r e m ot e . T h e neares t neighbour was t wo miles away and it was all dir t roads. I 'd s tar t the day wor k ing on the far m. Then I 'd make my way to school (a three mile bike r ide to the bus s top, and then a bus into town) . Then I 'd have the jour ney in rever se, and wor k some more on the far m. Well, that was where I got my interes t in machiner y. I enjoyed wor k ing with the tr ac tor s and all of the far ming implements so it seemed to make sense to apply for an apprenticeship. So, I did and was luck y enough to pick one up with CSIRO as a fit ter and machinis t . It wasn't the ATNF back then ; it was the Division of R adio Physics.

Pat Sykes with the Par kes 13 -beam multibeam receiver ready for final a ssembly in the Mar sfield cr yogenic lab.

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p r e t t y i n t e r e s t i ng , s o I t h o u g h t I ' d bet ter pick up as many sk ills as possible. I finished my apprenticeship and applied for my fir s t for mal CSIRO role (as dr af tsman) . That was in 197 7 and I wor ked on var ious projec ts at Mar sfield before moving to Par kes sever al year s later on.

What did you do at Parkes ? I was wor k ing on the T.E. S .T ( Two Element Synthesis Telescope) projec t under Jon Ables which involved the refur bishing of the 18 -m Telescope, modif ying a telescope ser vice tower to be a telescope tr anspor ter and the cons tr uc tion of t wo temper ature controlled receiver pack ages. I also did the sur veying for the 40 0 m of r ail tr ack and then super vised the laying as well. I did a bit of ever y thing at Par kes and have really fond memor ies of my time there. Then that projec t finished and I retur ned to Sydney to take up the position of Cr yogenic Technician.

t h e d i g i t a l e l e c t r o n i c s a r e a . T h a t l ef t me as responsible for Cr yogenics in the Division and I was for tunate enough to be able to create the fir s t cr yogenic lab in the basement h e r e a t M a r s fi e ld . I t w a s a p r o p e r leap for ward to have a proper lab. Initially the cr yogenics wor k had b e e n d o n e w i t h n o t h i ng m o r e t h a n an ordinar y bench top -- I was rebuilding compressor s on my desk !

You've been involved in a number of exciting projects. What stands out ? Well the AT (Aus tr alia Telescope) was a major projec t . The AT was a bicentennial projec t and my job was to fit out all the antennas with all the cr yogenics and to set up a wor ld class lab in Nar r abr i. That was a busy time, look ing af ter all the plumbing on the antennas, d e s ig n i ng e q u i p m e n t a n d r u n n i ng a team of people ins talling all of the machiner y. I was based in Nar r abr i for t wo and a half year s and to b e i n o n t h e g r o u n d fl o o r s e t t i ng it all up was a once in a life time o p p o r t u n i t y a n d a bs olu te l y f a n t a s t ic .

they needed a cr yogenic per son so I applied for the job. This was in the ear ly s tages and there were no antennas yet on site. CSIRO gave me a technical tr ansfer ; I took leave without pay and wor ked on all things cr yogenic. This was a real eye opener for me. Ever yone I wor ked with was a pure researcher. I w a s t h e ha n d s - o n p e r s o n w i t h t h e pr ac tical exper ience but I 'd never wor ked in a univer sit y before. To be sur rounded by the s tudents and the think ing and discussions that would take place was ama zing. At the antenna completion s tage I was wor k ing on site at Hat Creek ( Nor ther n Califor nia) . The summer s were hot and the winter s were blis ter ing cold. I remember tr ying to solder up connec tor s with three heater blower s on full blas t, jus t to get the solder to melt !

Then back to Sydney? This was the s tar t of designing and building a t wo-s tage Helium scroll compressor to r un the SIS mm receiver. It was a huge success and was the building block for our single s tage compressor s to follow, that have been r unning trouble free since 1997. A result I am ver y proud of. The nex t big projec t was wor k ing on the 13-beam multibeam receiver for Par kes. No one had ever built a receiver that big at that frequency. I designed the cr yogenic pack age and all the mechanical components

So this was where you got your cr yogenic grounding? Yes -- that was the commitment to building the K-band maser (which was about 60 % complete at the time) . The cons tr uc tion of the 4K receiver cr yogenic sys tem was done by John Gr if fiths to whom I was assigned for a tr aining in Cr yogenics. Af ter finishing the maser, John moved on to wor k in

And another project highlight ? Another was moving to the Univer sit y of Califor nia , Ber keley in the ear ly 1990s where I wor ked on the design and cons tr uc tion of the Ber keley- Illinois- Mar yland Ar r ay par ticular ly the 2. 5 - Kelvin receiver. Through R ick For s ter I found out

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that went into the receiver. The receiver was ins talled Febr uar y 1997 and is s till oper ational. We ac tually won the CSIRO medal for that . It tur ned out to be a huge success and I think , led direc tly, to ATNF get ting the contr ac t to create ALFA -- a 7-beam receiver in Arecibo [the Arecibo L-band Feed Ar r ay] .

You've obviously had a number of highlights in your career. What's the one thing that really stands out ? As air por t tr af fic co-ordinator at Nar r abr i for the opening of the Aus tr alia Telescope Compac t Ar r ay (ATC A) in 1988 I had to greet the Pr ime Minis ter Bob Hawke at the air por t . He was there to open the Aus tr alia Telescope. He emer ged from the plane sur rounded by minder s, read my name tag and said "G'day Pat let's go open this big thing". To represent CSIRO and to be involved in something that was wor th the PM coming out to see was an incredible exper ience. The whole opening went really well with the PM dr iving the telescope up and down the tr ack . We'd put 180 0 helium balloons into the telescopes so that they could all be released at the same time. It looked ver y spec tacular and then we had a huge par t y onsite. That was a ver y special day.

whether it was to discuss your issues or to celebr ate your successes. He was dedicated to his job and a pret t y inspir ing bloke that you didn't want to let down. I 'd also say Mal Sinclair who was in char ge of the receiver group. He was jus t a wealth of k nowledge and a great bloke as well. Both have played a major role in my wor k life.

Can you tell me a bit more about ALFA ? W h a t I r e m e m b e r m os t a b o u t ALFA was flying out to Arecibo in Puer to R ico with Gr aeme Car r ad, who was at that time the Projec t Manager. Gr aeme and myself went across there to do the ins tallations and commissioning. It was ver y exciting and an ordeal at the time but something pret t y special. We had to overcome a huge number of challenges -- the heat, the climate, language dif ficulties, living o ns i t e a n d t h e r e w a s a b s o l u t e l y n o escape from wor k . In one month we tr anspor ted, then totally rebuilt and ins talled the receiver, teaching the local technicians along the way. The receiver's been a huge success and has been vir tually trouble free. It was a pret t y satisf ying exper ience, due I think to the huge ef for t that we all had to put in i.e. the whole receiver group and wor k shop. It all wor ked out really well though -- an exper ience that I will always treasure.

Any final thoughts ? Jus t that CSIRO has been really good to me. I 'd never have a bad thing to say about the or ganisation. I 've always been proud to explain my cr yogenic wor k and people have always been fascinated with the projec ts that I 've wor ked on over the year s. I 've been quite chuf fed about that . I 'd have to say that look ing back , it's been a pret t y s teep lear ning cur ve. There's been a whole hos t of issues and challenges that have had to be overcome. These though, have been the ones that I 've enjoyed the mos t . It's the adventurous projec ts that have brought out my bes t wor k . I can hones tly say that I 've had the bes t job in the wor ld for me.

You've obviously worked with a huge range of people during your time with CSIRO. Who would you say has been the biggest influence on your career? Well it's been more than one per son. I 'd have to say John Brook s who went on to be projec t manager for the ATC A and then assis tant direc tor at the ATNF. John always had the time to spend with you

Thanks for your time Pat My pleasure and all the bes t for the ATNF in the upcoming year s !

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The Nearest Powerful Radio Galaxy NGC612: Fir st Science Results with the C ABB C/X-band
Bjor n Emont s , Minnie Mao and Jamie Stevens

NGC 612 is the neares t r adio gala x y in the souther n hemisphere with a tr uly power ful and ex tended r adio source. One of its r adio jets shows a clear hot-spot, typical for Fanarof f & Riley type- II r adio sources. The proximity of NGC 612 allows us to s tudy this r adio source and its hos t gala x y in great detail. This gives us a unique look into the physical processes associated with power ful r adio gala xies, which are of ten too far away to be s tudied in detail. We obser ved the r ich r adiocontinuum source of NGC 612 as par t of the commissioning of the 2 GHz Compac t Ar r ay Broadband Backend (C ABB) . Results obtained from these obser vations show the great potential of C ABB , as well as the challenges faced in the data reduc tion over a full 2- GHz frequency r ange.
Power ful r adio gala xies are among the mos t ac tive gala xies in the Univer se. Their br ight r adio continuum can of ten be tr aced out to ver y high redshif ts and ac t as beacons to tr ace the mos t massive gala xies in the Ear ly Univer se, which are of ten too faint to be s tudied

in detail at other waveleng ths. A thorough s tudy of power ful r adio gala xies in the near by Univer se -- although r are -- will provide cr ucial infor mation about the hos t gala x y proper ties and possible for mation his tor y of these ac tive sys tems. The neares t power ful r adio gala x y with ex tended r adio continuum jets in the souther n hemisphere is NGC 612 (z = 0.03 ; e.g. Eker s et al. 1978 ) . Although the hos t gala xies of near by r adio sources are gener ally elliptical sys tems, NGC 612 has been identified as an archet ypal S0 gala x y with a disc of optical emission-line gas ( Vùron- Cet t y & Vùron 20 01; Goss et al. 1980 ) . Star for mation has b e e n d e t e c t e d a l o ng i t s o p t i c a l d is c ( Holt et al. 20 07 ) . In collabor ation with scientis ts at ASTRON and the Univer sit y of Shef field, we recently discovered that NGC 612 contains an enor mous disc of neutr al hydrogen ( HI ) gas. Figure 1 shows the HI obser vations that we did with the Aus tr alia Telescope Compac t Ar r ay. The HI disc around NGC 612 has a diameter of 140 k pc and a total HI mass of 1.8 X 109 M ( Emonts et al. 20 08 ) . A medium-deep optical image of NGC 612 shows indications for faint shell-like s tr uc tures within the ex tent of the HI disc. In addition, a faint br idge-like s tr uc ture of HI gas s tretched from NGC 612 along a total dis tance of 40 0 k pc towards the near by gas-r ich gala x y NGC 619 (see Figure 1) . From optical s tudies, i t ha s b e e n sug ge s te d t ha t a t l e a s t a significant fr ac tion of power ful r adio gala xies are tr ig gered by gas-

r ich gala x y mer ger s or collisions and that the r adio source may be fuelled by the cold gas associated with these events (e.g. Heck man et al. 1986 , Baum et al, 1992 ; see also Hardcas tle et al. 20 07 ) . Our HI obser vations provide the fir s t direc t evidence that NGC 612 indeed contains a lar ge reser voir of cold gas, possibly deposited by a pas t gala x y mer ger or collision. NGC 612 is one of only a handful of power ful r adio gala xies for which we can s tudy direc tly the proper ties of the cold HI gas with the sensitivit y of cur rent-day telescopes.

First CABB results on NGC 612
The complex and br ight s tr uc ture of the r adio continuum source also makes NGC 612 an excellent tar get to image with the new 2- GHz Compac t Ar r ay Broadband Backend (C ABB ) . On 9 and 10 Apr il of this year, NGC612 was the fir s t science tar get obser ved with the C / X-band sys tem of the new C ABB sys tem, using the hybr id H168 ar r ay configur ation. Over the following months, we repeated these obser vations at three additional epochs in the t wo mos t compac t hybr id ar r ay configur ations ( H168 and H75) . C ABB provides t wo IFs, each with a 2- GHz bandwidth with 20 48 channels and full s tokes polar isation. In C / X-band, obser vations at 6 and 3 cm can be done simultaneously by tuning the individual 2- GHz bands across a total frequency r ange of 8 GHz.

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Figure 1: R adio Gala x y NGC 612 (from Emont s et al. 20 0 8 ) . Top -lef t : contour s of the 20 - cm r adio continuum of NGC 612 (also k nown a s PK S 0131-36) . B ot tom-lef t : HI -r ich environment of NGC 612 and it s companion NGC 619 (contour s represent the tot al intensit y of the HI ga s ; levels : 0. 2, 0.4, 0.7, 1.1, 1.7, 2.3, 3.4, 4. 5, 5.7ç1019 cm-2) . Middle : High-resolu tion contour plot of the HI disc around NGC 612 over laid on to an optical image of the S0 hos t gala x y (contour levels : 0.8 , 1.1, 1. 5, 1.9, 2.8 , 4.0, 5.1, 6 . 5, 7.8 ç1019 cm-2) . Lef t : Medium- deep VLT acquisition image of NGC 612 (10 sec integr ation time on an 8m VLT telescope) .

Figure 2 : R adio - continuum Spec tr al Index of NGC 612. Top -right : Preliminar y r adio continuum image of NGC 612 at 6 cm (greyscale) and 3 cm (contour s) with C AB B . Lef t : Spec tr al Index of the ea s ter n hot-spot (dot s) a s well a s the nucleus (tr iangles) of NGC 612 across the full 2 GHz r ange of the C- and X-band.

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Figure 2 shows preliminar y results o b t a ine d f r o m t hese C A B B obser vations. A total intensit y image of the r adio continuum of NGC612 is displayed at 6 cm (grey-scale) and 3 cm (contour s) . The diagr am in Figure 2 shows the spec tr al index of both the hotspot as well as the nucleus. Each individual data point was obtained by ex tr ac ting a 128 MHz par t of the 2- GHz C ABB band (i.e. the same width as the old pre- C ABB backend of the Compac t Ar r ay) . We per for med a full s tandard reduc tion on each separ ate 128 MHz par t of the d a t a ( ba n d pa s s , p ha s e a n d fl u x calibr ation) and der ived the flux from the cleaned image by fit ting a Gaussian to the hot-spot and nucleus. The same result is obtained when per for ming a reduc tion over the full 2- GHz band and split ting up the data only at the final s tage of imaging, provided that the bandpass is der ived from a calibr ator with k nown spec tr al index (such as PKS 1934 - 638 ) . The preliminar y image of the r adio continuum s tr uc ture in Figure 2 is obtained by combining the individual "128 MHz" images over the entire 2- GHz band at 6 and 3 cm (with only one obser ving epoch in both the H168 and H75 ar r ay configur ation included so far) . However, in realit y the continuum s tr uc ture changes significantly over the full 2 GHz r ange. Figure 2 clear ly shows the s teep spec tr al index of the r adio hotspot, while the nucleus shows a roughly flat spec tr um (note that at 6 cm the continuum of the inner r adio lobes becomes too br ight

to clear ly dis tinguish the resolved nucleus) . These results appear to be in agreement with continuum obser vations at 20 GHz by Bur keSpolaor et al. (20 09) and at 843 MHz by Jones & Mc Adam (1992) . T he s p e c t r a l ind e x p r op e r t ies of NGC 612 are t ypical for power ful r adio gala xies with an unresolved nuclear continuum source and br ight r adio hot-spot . We have also obtained polar isation data for NGC612. Preliminar y analysis of this data shows that the hotspot is highly polar ised (~25%) at 6 cm. This is the fir s t tes t of C ABB's polar isation capabilities, and it indicates that calibr ation is possible w i t h t h e n ew w id e - ba n d s y s te m . However, our under s tanding of the data reduc tion associated with the new C ABB sys tem is continuously progressing. Many new challenges are faced regarding the reduc tion of data over these lar ge bandwidths, which will become s tandard in the nex t gener ation r adio telescopes. A full under s tanding of the ef fec ts related to science obser vations using lar ge bandwidths is essential for assur ing the data q u a li t y o b t a i n e d w i t h t h e s e n e w ins tr uments. Never theless, our p r e li m i n a r y C A B B r e s u l t s i n d i c a t e the excellent per for mance of the n ew b r oad ba n d s y s te m a t t h e Compac t Ar r ay and show the great potential for broadband technolog y in r adio inter ferometr y. Ack nowledgement s : We to thank War wick Wilso team, the people in Nar all other s involved in the would like n and his r a br i a nd C A BB

project for their hard wor k to make C ABB a great success. Also thank s to Maxim Voronkov for his help with the obser vations dur ing the commissioning per iod of C ABB

References:
Eker s, R . D., Goss, W. M ., Kotanyi, C . G ., Skeller n, D. J . 1978, A & A , 69, L 21 Vùron- Cet t y, M . P. & Vùron, P. 20 01, A & A , 375, 791 Goss, W. M ., Danziger, I . J ., Fosbur y, R . A . E. ; , Bok senber g, A . 1980, MNR AS , 190, 23 Holt, J ., Tadhunter, C . N ., Gonzñlez Delgado, R . M ., Insk ip, K . J ., Rodr iguez, J ., Emonts, B . H . C ., Mor ganti, R ., Wills, K . A . 20 07, MNR AS , 381, 611 Emont s , B . H . C . , M or g a nt i , R ., Oos ter loo, T. A ., Holt, J ., Tadhunter, C . N ., van der Huls t, J . M ., Ojha , R ., Sadler, E. M . 20 08, MNR AS , 387, 197 Heck man, T. M ., Smith, Er ic P., Baum, Stefi A ., van Breugel, W. J . M ., Miley, G . K ., Illing wor th, G . D., Bothun, G . D., Balick , B . 1986 , ApJ , 311, 526 Baum, S . A ., Heck man, T. M . & van Breugel, W. 1992, ApJ , 389, 208 Hardcas tle, M . J ., Evans, D. A . & Cros ton, J . H . 20 07, MNR AS , 376 , 1849 Bur ke-Spolaor, S ., Eker s, R . D., Massardi, M ., Mur phy, T., Par tr idge, B ., R icci, R ., Sadler, E. M . 20 09, MNR AS , 395, 50 4 Jones, Paul A . & Mc Adam, W. B . 1992, ApJS , 80, 137

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Gas Dynamics and Star Formation in the Galaxy Pair NGC 1512/1510
Ñngel R . L?pez-Sñnchez and Baer bel Kor ibalsk i (CSIRO / ATNF )

Abstract
As par t of the Local Volume HI Sur vey (LVHIS) projec t, we obtained HI line and 20 -cm r adio continuum data of the near by gala x y pair NGC 1512 /1510 using the Aus tr alia Telescope Compac t Ar r ay (ATC A) . The results are s tunning : we found a ver y large HI disk that is ~4 times the optical diameter of the bar red gala x y NGC 1512, with t wo pronounced spir al /tidal ar ms. Both the HI mor pholog y and the dis tr ibution of the s tar-for ming regions are af fec ted by gr avitational inter ac tion with the neighbour ing blue compac t dwar f gala x y NGC 1510. The t wo mos t dis tant HI clumps are likely tidal dwar f gala xies ( TDGs) . We complemented the s tudy with GALE X UV-, SINGG H- and Spit zer MIR images, compar ing the dis tr ibution and kinematics of the neutr al atomic gas with the localisation, s tar-for mation ac tivity and ages of the s tellar clus ter s in multiple regions of the sys tem. This multi-waveleng th analysis sug ges ts that the gala x y pair NGC 1512 /1510 is in the fir s t s tages of a minor merger having s tar ted around 40 0 Myr ago.

Introduction
Hydrogen is the mos t abundant e l e m e n t i n t h e U n i ve r s e , t h e main fuel for s tar for mation and a power ful tr acer of gala xies in var ious s tages of their evolution. The Local Volume HI Sur vey ( LVHIS ; Kor ibalsk i et al. 20 08, www.atnf.csiro. au /research / LVHIS ) will expand our k nowledge of the near by Univer se via HI line (21-cm) and r adio continuum obser vations of all gasr ich gala xies in the Local Volume ( D < 10 Mpc) . More than 70 souther n gala xies previously detec ted in the HI Par kes All-Sk y Sur vey (HIPASS ; Kor ibalsk i et al. 20 0 4) have been obser ved with the ATC A . The gala x y pair NGC 1512 /1510 is located in the outsk ir ts of the Local Volume, at around 9. 5 Mpc. T h e b a r r e d , d o u b l e - r i ng s p i r a l gala x y NGC 1512 and the blue compac t dwar f ( BCD) gala x y NGC 1510 are an inter ac ting gala x y pair, separ ated by only ~5' (13.8 k pc) .

HI morphology and kinematics
Figure 1 shows that the NGC 1512 /1510 sys tem possesses a huge amount of neutr al gas. Our deep ATC A HI mosaic reveals a ver y ex tended HI dis tr ibution, spanning a diameter of ~40 ' (or 110 k pc) . Two prominent spir al ar ms, which appear to wr ap around ~1. 5 times, a r e a m o n g t h e m os t r e m a r k a b l e HI features. Dis tur bances in the outer disk of NGC 1512 are likely caused by tidal inter ac tion with and accretion of the dwar f companion, NGC 1510. Individual HI clouds are found out to projec ted r adii of 30 ' (~83 k pc) . The velocit y gr adient d e te c te d w i t h in t h e e x te n d e d clumps agrees with that of the neighbour ing spir al ar ms, sug ges ting that they are condensations within the outer mos t par ts of the disk . The t wo mos t dis tant HI clumps are likely tidal dwar f galaxies (TDGs) , a s t h e G A L E X U V i m a ge s i n d i c a te

relatively recent (150 - 30 0 Myr) s tar for mation ac tivit y in them. Figure 2 displays the HI velocit y field of the gala x y pair NGC 1512 /1510 which indicates a relatively regular rotating inner disk of NGC 1512 a n d a m o r e d is t u r b e d o u t e r d is k . The fit ting of the rotation cur ve indicates impor tant deviations near the position of NGC 1510 and in the outer spir al /tidal ar ms.

20-cm radio continuum emission
The 20 -cm r adio continuum emission towards the gala x y pair NGC 1512 /1510 and its sur roundings is shown in Figure 3. Both gala xies are clear ly detec ted. The field contains a lar ge number of unresolved r adio sources as well as a few head-tail and wide-angle tail r adio gala xies. The bar red spir al gala x y NGC 1512 shows ex tended continuum emission (~5'ç3' ) and a

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Figure 1: ATC A HI dis tr ibu tion in the gala x y pair NGC 1512 /1510. The ellipse (center) and the circle (~5' towards the SW ) mar k the position of NGC 1512 and NGC 1510, respec tively. The t wo TDG candidates are also labelled.

Figure 2 : ATC A HI velocit y field of the gala x y pair NGC 1512 /1510.

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Figure 3 : ATC A 20 cm r adio continuum emission of the gala x y pair NGC 1512 /1510 a n d i t s s u r r o u n d i ng s .

br ight core while the much smaller BCD gala x y NGC 1510 appear s u n r e s o l ve d a t 3 0 " r e s o l u t i o n . T h e "fish" shaped r adio continuum emission is due to enhanced s tarfor mation in the region bet ween the t wo gala xies which cor responds to the tail of the fish. Using the r adio-continuum flux, we der ive a s tar for mation r ate (SFR) of 0.11 and 0.012 MO yr-1 for NGC 1512 and NGC 1510, respec tively. Notice that both the HI and the continuum images are similar to those that will be provided by the Widefield ASK AP L-band Legacy Allsk y Blind sur veY ( WALL ABY ) projec t using the Aus tr alian SK A Pathfinder (ASK AP) . The Evolutionar y Map of the Univer se ( EMU ) projec t using the ASK AP will provide even higher resolution (10 " ) images.

UV - HI comparison
The combination of the lar ges c a l e H I d is t r i b u t i o n w i t h d e e p optical and UV emission maps is

an excellent way to highlight the locations of s tar for mation within the gaseous disk (see cover figure) . NGC 1512's HI envelope is four times lar ger than its optical size and about t wice as lar ge as the s tellar ex tent measured from Malin's deep o pt i c a l i m a ge a n d f r o m t h e G A L E X UV images. Fur ther more, the cor respondence bet ween regions of high H I column densit y and br ight UV emission is excellent throughout the ex tended disk of NGC 1512 (apar t from the centr al area which mus t be r ich in molecular gas) . The lar ge major it y of the obser ved UV -complexes lie in regions where the HI column densit y is above 2 ç 1021 atoms cm-2. Deep GALE X images of near by gala xies show that the UV profiles of many spir al gala xies ex tend beyond their H or B25 optical r adius ( Thilker et al. 20 05 ; Gil de Pa z et al. 20 05, 20 07 ) and it seems that these XUVdisk s exis t in ~30 % of the local spir al gala x y population ( Zar itsk y & Chr is tlein, 20 07 ) . We contend

that these spec tacular XUV - disk s mus t be located within even lar ger HI envelopes, here called 2 XHI disk s, which provide the fuel for continued s tar for mation.

Star formation activity
We der ive the ages of the UV-r ich s tar clus ter s using the GALE X FUV and NUV images and find a color gr adient along the spir al ar ms and other regions of the NGC 1512 /1510 sys tem, indicating that younger clus ter s are usually located closer to the inner regions. We inves tigated if the UV-r ich clus ter s do obey the Schmidt- Kennicut t scaling laws of s tar for mation ( Kennicut t 1998 ) and found that gener ally only the younges t UV clus ter s are associated with high HI column densities, while in older UV clus ter s only dif fuse HI gas is detec ted. This might sug ges t that as the hydrogen gas depleted, s tar for mation s topped in the lat ter regions. As a consequence we expec t to detec t H emission

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F ig u r e 4 : R e la t i o n bet ween FUV-ba sed S F R d e ns i t y a n d t h e HI ga s densit y for UV-r ich clus ter s in the NGC 1512 /1510 sys tem (symbols) and the gala x y M51 (black dot s , from Kennicu t t et al. 20 07 ) . The solid line is t h e b e s t fi t to t h e M51 dat a ( Kennicu t t et al. 20 07 ) ; the da shed line is the relation for whole gala xies der ived by Kennicu t t (1998 ) .

in all high densit y HI regions or equivalent in all young UV clus ter s. Figure 4 shows the FUV-based SFR densit y ver sus the gas densit y for UV-r ich clus ter s in the NGC 1512 /1510 sys tem and in the near by Sbc gala x y M 51 ( Kennicut t et al. 20 07; for r <_ 8 k pc) . Because no molecular data are cur rently available for NGC 1512, only the HI gas densit y is shown. The solid line is the bes t fit to the data obtained by Kennicut t et al. (20 07 ) in the analysis of the independent s tarfor ming regions within M 51 and includes the molecular data , that are found to be essential for the obser ved cor relation. As we see, UV-r ich clus ter s within the NGC 1512 /1510 sys tem gener ally agree with the relation followed by the s tar-for ming regions within M 51 and not with the whole gala xies. R e g i o ns w i t h i n t h e i n n e r s t a r for ming r ing of NGC 1512 (located at r = 90ÄÄ ) are significantly of fset

from this relation, sug ges ting a lar ge amount of molecular gas is present .

Gil de Pa z, A . et al. 20 07, ApJ , 661, 115 Kennicut t, R .C . 1998, AR A & A , 36 , 189 Kennicut t, R .C . et al. 20 07, ApJ , 671, 333 Kor ibalsk i, B . S . et al. 20 0 4, AJ , 83, 764 Kor ibalsk i, B . S ., et al. 20 08, in Galaxies in the Local Volume, Sydney, 8 -13 July 20 07, eds. B . S . Kor ibalsk i & H . Jer jen, Spr inger, p. 41 Kor ibalsk i, B . S . & L?pez-Sñnchez, Ñ .R . 20 09, MNR AS , in press (as tro-ph : 0908.4128 ) Thilker, D. A . et al. 20 05, ApJ , 619, L79 Zar itsk y D. & Chr is tlein, D. 20 07, AJ , 134, 135

Conclusions
We analysed the dis tr ibution and k inematics of the HI gas as well as the s tar for mation ac tivit y in the gala x y pair NGC 1512 /1510 and its s u r r o u n d i ng s . O u r s t u d y s u p p o r t s a scenar io in which the inter ac tion bet ween the BCD gala x y NGC 1510 and the lar ge spir al gala x y NGC 1512 has tr ig gered s tar for mation ac tivit y in the outsk ir ts of the disk and enhanced the tidal dis tor tion in the HI ar ms. The sys tem is probably in the fir s t s tages of a minor mer ger which s tar ted ~40 0 Myr ago. The results of our s tudy will be published in MNR AS ( Kor ibalsk i & L?pez-Sñnchez, 20 09) .

References:
Gil de Pa z, A . et al. 20 05, ApJ , 627, 29

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Exploring the Radio Bimodality of QSOs with C ABB
Elizabeth Mahony ( Univer sit y of Sydney / ATNF ) , Elaine Sadler ( Univer sit y of Sydney) , Scot t Croom ( Univer sit y of Sydney) , Ron Eker s (ATNF ) , Ilana Feain (ATNF ) and Tar a Mur phy ( Univer sit y of Sydney) .

Quasar s (QSOs) are of ten classified into t wo broad categor ies ; r adio-loud and r adio-quiet, but the under lying dis tr ibution of r adio luminosity has long been debated in the liter ature. Using the new Compac t Ar r ay Broadband Backend (C ABB) we are obser ving a large sample of X-r ay selec ted QSOs at high r adio frequencies as a new way of tackling this issue.
Although the fir s t QSOs were discovered by their r adio emission, it was soon realised that the major it y are r adio- quiet (Sandage 1965) . Since then, there have been numerous s tudies of the r adio luminosit y dis tr ibution of QSOs or Type 1 ac tive galac tic nuclei (AGN ) . There are t wo opposing views on this issue. The fir s t is that the dis tr ibution of r adioloudness is bimodal, i.e. there are dis tinc t r adio-loud and r adio- quiet populations, with 10 -20 % of QSOs being r adio-loud ( Keller mann et al. 1989) . The second is that there is a broad, continuous dis tr ibution with no clear dividing line bet ween r ad io - lo u d a n d r ad io - q u i e t QSOs (Cir asuolo et al. 20 03) . Clar if ying this issue would shed light on some of the intr insic proper ties of near by QSOs. A b i m o d a l d is t r i b u t i o n i n r a d i o l u m i n os i t i e s s u g g e s t s t h a t t h e r e a r e t wo intr insically dif ferent classes of QSOs, only one of which is able to become a s trong r adio source. Alter natively a continuous d is t r i b u t i o n s u g g e s t s t h a t a ll Q SO s have low-luminosit y r adio sources which become s tronger dur ing episodes of unusually high ac tivit y. One reason why dif ferent s tudies have produced contr adic tor y results is that previous r adio s tudies have used QSO samples which span a wide r ange in redshif t and a relatively nar row r ange in optical magnitude. This introduces a s trong and spur ious cor relation bet ween redshif t and luminosit y, which in combination with the r apid cosmic evolution of the QSO population introduces selec tion ef fec ts which greatly complicate any inter pretation of the data . Here we repor t on an on-going obser ving progr am to inves tigate t h e h i g h f r e q u e n c y r a d i o l u m i n os i t y dis tr ibution of QSOs with the Aus tr alia Telescope Compac t Ar r ay (ATC A) . Ear lier at tempts to inves tigate the r adio luminosit y dis tr ibution of QSOs gener ally used 1.4 GHz r adio obser vations (e.g. Cirosuolo et al. 20 03, Jiang et al. 20 07 ) due to the fac t that mos t lar ge area r adio sur veys are car r ied out at this frequency. There are also a few at 5 GHz ( Keller mann et al. 1989, Stocke et al. 1992) and 8 GHz ( Hooper et al. 1995, Goldschmidt et al. 1999) . By obser ving at 20 GHz we pick up the centr al core component of the AGN and hence see the mos t recent ac tivit y. At lower frequencies the obser ved emission includes the r adio lobes, which could be relics of pas t ac tivit y integr ated over lar ge timescales. It has been shown in the recent release of the Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT 20G ) sur vey that the 20 GHz source population is dominated by flat spec tr um cores, which is significantly dif ferent from what is seen in low frequency sur veys ( Mur phy et al. 20 09) . In our progr am we selec ted QSOs from the ROSAT ALL Sk y Sur vey (R ASS) Br ight Source Catalogue ( Voges et al. 1999) that were obser ved as par t of the 6dF Gala x y Sur vey (6dFGS ; Jones et al. 20 09) . Details of this catalogue are presented in Mahony et al. 20 09. Sources were selec ted if the 6 d F G S s p e c t r u m e x h i b i te d b r oad emission features indicative of a QSO or Type 1 AGN . We also set a redshif t cutof f of z<1 to minimise any evolutionar y ef fec ts. We then searched the AT 20G sur vey for any k nown 20 GHz r adio sources which were excluded from our tar get lis t . This leaves a final sample of 1138 sources spread across all R ight ascensions ( R As) in the souther n sk y. E xample 6dFGS spec tr a and cor responding 20 GHz obser vations are shown in Figure 1. Since this is a lar ge, low-redshif t QSO sample which spans a wide r ange in optical luminosit y and is not s trongly af fec ted by evolution within the sample volume, we believe that it can provide a definitive tes t of whether the z<1 QSO population is bimodal in its high frequency r adio proper ties. Selec ting sources that have 6dFGS spec troscopic infor mation not only provides a unifor m sample, but will also give

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Figure 1: E xample R ASS selec ted QSOs . The lef t image shows the 6dFGS spec tr um. The ar rows denote where spec tr al features would occur at that redshif t , bu t not all of these are necessar ily obser ved. On the r ight are the cor responding optical ( B -band) images with 20 GHz contour s . The top source appear s in the AT 20G sur vey with a flux of 665 mJy while the other s were obser ved a s par t of this progr am. The middle source wa s obser ved in Oc tober 20 0 8 (15.0 mJy) and the bot tom source in Apr il 20 09 (5. 27 mJy) . In each of these images the contour s represent the 20 % - 90 % levels in s teps of 10 % .

us a wealth of ex tr a infor mation. Hence we can also s tudy the optical spec tr al line proper ties, black hole masses, multiwaveleng th proper ties ( X-r ay -- optical -- r adio) and how these var y with redshif t . O u r fi r s t o b s e r v i ng r u n w a s i n Oc tober 20 08, using the old 2 x 256

MHz cor relator on the Compac t Ar r ay with centr al frequencies of 18752 and 21056 MHz. To obtain good- qualit y images with high sensitivit y, we used the H168 configur ation. We obser ved a total of 135 sources for 80s (2 x 40 second cuts) which gave a final

r ms of 0.6 mJy. This r un resulted in 15 (11%) detec tions at the 5 sigma threshold. We then had another r un in Apr il 20 09 shor tly af ter the commissioning of the new Compac t Ar r ay Broadband Backend (C ABB ) . Using the same configur ation and exposure times we were able to

33


Figure 2 : 20 GHz flux d e ns i t y a g a i ns t r e d s h i f t for the R ASS QSOs obser ved a s par t of t h is p r og r a m . T h e d ot s are the sources that had matches in AT 20G , p l u s e s we r e t h os e sources detec ted in the Oc tober 20 0 8 r un with the old cor relator and cr os s e s t h os e d e t e c t e d i n Apr il 20 09 with C AB B . T h e t r ia ng l e s d e n ot e u p p e r li m i t s f r o m t h e sources that weren't detec ted in each of the O c to b e r a n d A p r il r u ns .

Figure 3 : " R adio -loudness" dis tr ibu tion for the t ar get s obser ved in Oc tober 20 0 8 ( Lef t) and with C AB B in Apr il 20 09 ( R ight) . The da shed his togr am denotes the upper limit s for the nond e t e c t i o ns i n e a ch r u n a n d t h e d ot t e d l i n e s a r e t h e d i v i d i n g l i n e s b e t we e n r adio -loud and r adio - quiet . AT 20G detec tions are also included in both p l o t s . W i t h C A B B we a r e s t a r t i n g t o p u s h d ow n t o s m a l l e r R p a r a m e t e r s a n d f u r t h e r i n to t h e r ad io - q u i e t r e g i m e .

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Figure 4 : R ASS - 6dFGS source g1231372- 4758 02. The greyscale is a Super COSMOS B -band image with the 20 GHz emission over laid in black and 843 MHz SU MSS source over laid in grey. There are t wo component s at 20 GHz, each with a peak flux of ~1. 2 mJy (contour levels are at 0.4, 0.6 , 0.8 and 1 mJy) . One of these peak s is centred on the 6dFGS position, cor responding to the core of the near by (z= 0. 28 ) AGN , while the other component is at the position of the SU MSS source which ha s a peak flux of ~4 0 mJy (contour s are at 4 - 36 mJy in s teps of 4 mJy) .

obser ve another 417 sources. The centr al frequencies were chosen to be 190 0 0 and 210 0 0 MHz to be consis tent with the previous obser vations. By obser ving at 20 GHz we are able to take advantage of the full 2- GHz bandwidth and reach an r ms of 0.15 mJy. Set ting a 5 s ig m a d e t e c t i o n t h r e s h o l d of 0.75 mJy revealed that 103 sources (25%) are detec ted at 20 GHz. Figure 2 shows the cur rent detec tions of these sources from both of these obser ving r uns as well as the small number of R ASS QSOs that have k nown 20 GHz counter par ts in the AT 20G sur vey. The hor izontal lines mar ked refer to the detec tion limit of each set of obser vations. This highlights the increased sensitivit y bet ween the Oc tober and Apr il r uns achieved by the increased bandwidth with the upgr ade to C ABB . To inves tigate any possible bimodalit y, Figure 3 shows the dis tr ibution in the R par ameter. This is the r atio of r adio to optical luminosit y, fir s t proposed by Keller mann et al. 1989 as a measure of "r adio-loudness". The dividing line bet ween the r adio-loud and r adio- quiet regimes is gener ally taken to be bet ween 1 and 10, denoted by the dot ted lines. As the projec t is less than 20 % complete

(in ter ms of obser ving time) we do not, at present, have enough data to conclusively say whether the dis tr ibution is bimodal or not . However, this figure shows that with C ABB we can push down to s m a ll e r R p a r a m e t e r s a n d d e t e c t m o r e r ad io - q u i e t o bje c t s . A n e x a m p l e R A S S Q SO d e t e c t e d at 20 GHz is shown in Figure 4. This par ticular source clear ly shows t wo 20 GHz components, one aligned with the core of a near by (z= 0.028 ) Type 1 AGN (char ac ter ised as such due to the broad emission lines obser ved in the 6dFGS spec tr um) . The other component cor responds to a 40 mJy Sydney Univer sit y Molonglo Sk y Sur vey (SUMSS) sources, per haps implying the presence of a s teep spec tr um jet (=-0.85) . We plan to complete obser vations for the full sample dur ing the upcoming obser ving semes ter (weather per mit ting) . This involves obser ving the res t of the sample (586 objec ts) down to the detec tion threshold of 0.75 mJy. Sources that have not been detec ted to this limit will then be re-obser ved, this time for a total of 10 mins (2 x 5min cuts) reaching an r ms of 85 ÅJy. By selec ting a lar ge and well defined sample of QSOs with homogeneous

spec tr a we are free from the k inds of sys tematic ef fec ts which limited ear lier wor k . The increased bandwidth of C ABB also allows us to push down to fainter flux limits. As such, we will be able to conclusively say whether the 20 GHz r adio dis tr ibution of X-r ay s e l e c t e d Q SO s a t r e d s h i f t s l e s s than 1 is bimodal or not, providing new insights into the physical proper ties of near by ac tive gala xies.

References
Cir asuolo M . et al. 20 03, MNR AS 346 , 4 47 Goldschmidt P. et al. 1999, ApJ 511, 612 Hooper E. et al. 1995, ApJ 4 45, 62 Jiang L . et al. 20 07, ApJ 656 , 680 Jones D. H . et al. 20 09, M N R A S , in p r es s Keller mann K . et al. 1989, AJ 98, 1195 Mahony E. et al. 20 09, M N R A S , in p r es s Mur phy T. et al. 20 09, MNR AS , submit ted Sandage A . et al. 1965, ApJ 141, 1560 Stocke J . et al. 1992, ApJ 396 , 487 Voges W. et al. 1999, A & A 349, 389

35


National Facility Operations
Gr aeme Car r ad (ATNF )

Changes to Operations Staff
A recr uitment process for t h r e e s e n i o r p os i t i o n s h a s b e e n successfully completed. This was prompted by the depar ture of Bret t Dawson, Head of Engineer ing Oper ations / Par kes Site Manager, and the s tepping down of David M c C o n n e ll f r o m t h e A s s is t a n t Direc tor of Oper ations. The role under taken by Bret t Dawson was of a scale bet ter ser ved by t wo people and, in July, we welcomed Er ik Lensson to the position of Head of Engineer ing Oper ations and Malcolm Smith to the position of Site Manager, Par kes. Malcolm had been ac ting Site Manager since Bret t's depar ture and is well k nown at Par kes. The Site Manager role is to ensure the smooth day to day oper ation of the Par kes Obser vator y site. Er ik ( pic t u r e d ) ha s a ba ck g r o u n d i n telecommunications and spec tr um management . He comes to us from the Aus tr alian Communications and Media Author it y (ACMA) and a l r e a d y h a s a g r e a t u n d e r s t a n d i ng of the spec tr um issues sur rounding our obser vations. Er ik will be leading the 35 engineer ing and technical s taf f responsible for engineer ing maintenance, oper ations and upgr ades for all ATNF r adio as tronomy obser vator ies. Appointed but not yet "on deck " is Douglas Bock who will take up the role of Assis tant Direc tor of Oper ations to lead the deliver y of the r adio as tronomy facilities to as tronomer s from around the wor ld. Douglas's previous

exper ience in oper ations and engineer ing on the Combined Ar r ay for Research in Millimetre-wave As tronomy (C AR MA) projec t will be invaluable as a tr ansition is made to accommodate ASK AP oper ations. It is anticipated he will begin on the fir s t wor k ing day of 2010. In the meantime Gr aeme Car r ad is the ac ting Oper ations Theme Leader.

Operations
The ins tallation of the Compac t Ar r ay Broadband Backend (C ABB ) hardware and its commissioning was cer tainly not the end of the s tor y for C ABB . It is inconceivable that such a complex piece of ins tr umentation could be expec ted to oper ate flawlessly from "day one" and ef for t continues to br ing func tionalit y to the sys tem whils t ironing out lit tle "bugs". Provision of zoom modes, specifically a 1 MHz mode, is the cur rent focus and is proving to be a significant challenge. It is es timated that this capabilit y will be available in a limited for m by the end of Oc tober with a more comprehensive ver sion in place by year's end. E xper ience gained with the implementation of the fir s t mode will lay the foundation for provision of fur ther modes with a consequent reduc tion in development time. The sys tem is being used to great ef fec t in its cur rent for m and exciting results are being repor ted demons tr ating the utilit y of the ins tr ument . The ins tallation of C ABB has direc t implications for our NASA tr ack ing commitments. The ATC A gained cer tification as a

E r i k L e n s s o n . C r e d i t : C S I RO

NASA Deep Space Station af ter the commissioning of the 7-mm receiver sys tem. A recer tification process is required af ter major changes to the facilit y and C ABB cer tainly qualifies as a major change. To at tain recer tification, the ar r ay is required to complete four successive spacecr af t tr ack s to NASA specifications. These tes ts are now under way with tr ack ing oppor tunities spaced throughout the coming months. Three Development Projec ts which suppor t the automation and remote oper ation of Par kes, as well as r ationalising the Par kes receiver suite, are cur rently under going significant planning. Er ik Lensson takes the Projec t Leader role in t wo of these and Tasso Tzioumis in the other. The obvious similar ities bet ween the aims of these projec ts and the aims of the Technologies for R adio As tronomy theme based in Mar sfield will lead to a shar ing of the resources bet ween t h e t h e m e s . T h e d e te r m i na t io n of the timelines and pr ior it y of the projec ts will be the subjec t of meetings through Oc tober.

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Time Assignment Information
Phil Edwards and Jessica Chapman (ATNF )

T h e T i m e A s s ig n m e n t C o m m i t t e e ( TAC) met on 23 - 24 July to review proposals for the 20 09 Oc tober semes ter. The July meeting was the las t with Andrew Hopk ins (A AO) ser ving as TAC chair. Andrew has been a thorough and dedicated TAC chair and the ATNF thank s him for his ef for ts as Chair over the las t t wo year s and his leader ship and suppor t for introducing changes to the TAC . The nex t Call for Proposals will be made on 16 November 20 09 with a deadline for the 2010 Apr il semes ter on Tuesday, 15 December 20 09. The semes ter will r un from 1 Apr il to 30 September 2010.

Mopra
Good progress is being made toward the implementation of a " f a s t m a p p i ng " m o d e w i t h the Mopr a telescope. Fur ther tes ting will be made dur ing Oc tober 20 09 : please consult the Call for Proposals about the expec ted availabilit y of this mode for the 2010 Apr il semes ter.

obser vations will be cor related at the sof t ware cor relator r u n n i n g o n t h e C u r t i n U n i ve r s i t y of Technolog y supercomputer. The sof t ware cor relator is capable of cor relating the high data r ate obser vations at high s p e c t r a l r e s olu t io n w i t h a r b i t r a r y cor relator integr ation times. Real-time e-VLBI obser vations are also of fered, using the ATNF antennas connec ted together via high-speed link s and a ver sion of the Swinbur ne sof t ware cor relator r unning at Par kes, or on a new Cur tin computer clus ter ins talled at Nar r abr i. Data-r ates on the e-VLBI sys tem are limited to 512 Mbps from each antenna . Single baseline obser vations bet ween Par kes and ATC A are available at 1 Gbps. Real-time eVLBI capabilities to the Hobar t antenna are also available. Cur rently the data r ates to Hobar t are limited to 128 Mbps or less due to limited net wor k speeds to Tasmania . User s are invited to propose shared-r isk obser vations suitable for such real-time obser vations that include Hobar t .

Parkes
The Caltech Par kes Swinbur ne Recorder Mar k 2 (CPSR 2) , used at the Par kes Obser vator y for pulsar obser vations, is expec ted to be phased out in 2010, once the ATNF Par kes Swinbur ne Recorder (APSR) baseband sys tem is fully commissioned and has been r un in par allel with CPSR 2 for a six-month over lap per iod. This new recorder uses the digital filter bank , DFB3, as a front-end to sample a single pair of inputs (t wo polar isations, single frequency) of up to 1- GHz bandwidth and record t h e ba s e ba n d d a t a a t a n a g g r e g a te r ate of up to 8 Gbit /s. Proposer s a r e r e m i n d e d t ha t t h e s t a n d a lo n e W i d e B a n d C o r r e la to r a n d t h e older filter bank s, DFB1 and DFB2, are now ef fec tively decommissioned -- these may continue to be used where their need is clear ly jus tified, but maintenance and repair of these is now a low pr ior it y.

Compact Array
The Compac t Ar r ay configur ations to be of fered for this semes ter are 6A , 6C , 1. 5D, 750C , E W352, H214, H168 and H75. Ar r ay configur ations will only be scheduled if there is suf ficient demand. The recently ins talled Compac t Ar r ay Broadband Backend (C ABB ) will ultimately of fer sever al zoom modes that provide high spec tr al resolution. The fir s t zoom mode will be the CFB 1M - 0. 5k mode, available from approximately end- Oc tober 20 09. This has a bandwidth of 2 GHz with 20 48 x 1- MHz channels, and an additional, optional zoom capabilit y that provides for one to four spec tr a , each with 20 48 spec tr al channels across a bandwidth of 1 MHz. For the lates t infor mation on available zoom modes for the 2010 Apr il semes ter, please see the web link s provided with the Call for Proposals.

Tidbinbilla
A limited amount of time may be available on the 70 -m and 34 -m antennas at Tidbinbilla for singledish use in the 2010 Apr il semes ter, as in previous semes ter s. As usual, proposals may be submit ted and will remain in a pool for up to one year. Any available time will be used in a ser vice obser ving mode.

VLBI
The Long Baseline Ar r ay ( LBA) uses a disk-based recording sys tem for all recorded VLBI obser vations and ver y high data r ates, up to 1 Gbps, can now be achieved. All recorded

37


Changes to the ATNF Time Assignment Committee
Jessica Chapman (ATNF ) , Andrew Hopk ins (A AO) , Ar k adi Kosmynin (ATNF ) and Phil Edwards (ATNF )

Each semes ter the ATNF Time Assignment Commit tee ( TAC) reviews the proposals submit ted through OPAL for obser ving time with the Aus tr alia Telescope Compac t Ar r ay (ATC A) , the Par kes r adio telescope, the Mopr a r adio telescopes and the Long Baseline Ar r ay. Ser vice proposals for the Tidbinbilla 70 -m antenna are also assessed. Time is allocated on the basis of scientific mer it . Typically 140 proposals are received for the summer semes ter, while 20 0 proposals are received for the winter semes ter when obser vations at millimetre waveleng ths are optimal. The TAC has eight member s, appointed by the ATNF Steer ing Commit tee, who meet in Sydney each semes ter to review the proposals. The meetings are also at tended by the Head of Science Oper ations ( Phil Edwards) and the Oper ations Research Progr am Leader ( Jessica Chapman) . Technical assessments are provided by ATNF s taf f including Phil Edwards. The TAC processes have evolved since National Facilit y oper ations began in 1990 and have gener ally wor ked well. However, the number of proposals received has significantly increased over the las t five year s and the wor k load on individual TAC member s became ver y high, with each TAC member asked to provide proposal gr ades for around 80 proposals per cycle, and detailed comments on a subset of these. A fur ther concer n has been that, although the TAC member s are selec ted to cover a broad r ange of exper tise, it can be dif ficult for

a small number of individuals, to have suf ficient exper tise to cover all of the many areas of scientific research discussed in proposals. Look ing ahead, from late 2012 the ATNF TAC will also review ASK AP Gues t Science Proposals and it was hard to see how this ex tr a wor k load could be managed without some changes to the TAC processes. To address these issues, and af ter consulting with the user communit y, sever al changes have recently been introduced to the ATNF TAC processes. A summar y of TAC oper ations is as follows : The eight TAC member s are suppor ted by a group of approximately 16 TAC "reader s" who are appointed by the ATNF Direc tor, usually for a ter m of three year s, dr awing in as tronomer s from Aus tr alian and over seas ins titutions. T h e r e a d e r s d o n o t a t t e n d m e e t i ng s but send their gr ades and comments on a subset of the proposals as input to the meetings. Unlike the TAC member s, who have full access to all proposals, the TAC reader s have access only to the subset of proposals that they review. The TAC member s and reader s are assigned on a proposal-by-proposal basis. Proposals are assigned using a scheme that makes use of science key words. The cover sheets of ATNF proposals now ask proposer s to selec t one or more options from a lis t of 14 science key words that bes t descr ibe their proposals. The TAC member s and reader s identif y their areas of exper tise from the same set of key words. An

automated algor ithm is then used to solve a "combinator ial assignment problem": in this case, to assign a set of proposals to a team of reviewer s. This algor ithm belongs to a class of algor ithms k nown as "greedy" that do not guar antee fi n d i ng t h e o p t i m a l s o l u t i o n , b u t ins tead produce acceptable, though possibly less-than-optimal s o l u t i o ns , i n r e a s o n a b l e t i m e . Each proposal is assigned to at leas t one TAC member and t wo TAC reader s. Pr ior to a TAC meeting, each member and reader provides pre-gr ades and comments for a subset of the proposals. The TAC meetings are held t wice a year and include a discussion on the scientific mer its of each proposal as well as any technical issues that may ar ise. The TAC member assigned to a proposal is responsible for compiling the final comment that is sent back to the proposer s, based on the infor mation provided pr ior to the meeting, together with any additional infor mation discussed at the meeting. Shor tly af ter the TAC meeting is held, an email with the TAC comment and gr ade is sent to the pr incipal inves tigator and all co-author s for each proposal. To suppor t the changes to the TAC , in par ticular to coordinate the input received pr ior to and dur ing TAC meetings, and to control access per missions for dif ferent groups, sever al sof t ware tools have been added into the ATNF proposal applications sys tem, OPAL. The changes to the TAC were introduced in July 20 09 for the

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ATNF Publications List

20 09 OC T semes ter. The proposal reviewing and the TAC meeting r an smoothly. It was much appreciated at the ATNF that all reviewer s submit ted their repor ts (almos t) on time ! The TAC member s responded ver y positively to the changes and, not sur pr isingly, prefer having a smaller number of proposals to review. Following the exper ience gained at this meeting some fur ther sof t ware improvements have been implemented in OPAL, in par ticular to improve the proposal assignments tool. These are being tes ted now for use with the nex t proposal cycle. The TAC greatly appreciates the abilit y to manage the whole process on-line, from initial gr ades and comments, through revisions dur ing the TAC meeting, to the gener ation of the final comments, as well as on-line access to elec tronic ver sions of the proposals. Theise features s treamlines and simplif yies the process of proposal review immensely. With continued improvements and innovations, the ATNF TAC , through OPAL, can ef ficiently manage the growing number of proposals for exis ting facilities as well as incor por ating ASK AP proposals in the future.

Publication lis ts for paper s which include ATNF data or ATNF author s are available on the Web at www.atnf.csiro.au /r search / publications. Please email any updates or cor rec tions to this lis t to Chr istine.VanDer Leeuw @ csiro.au. This lis t includes published refereed paper s compiled since the Apr il 20 09 newslet ter. Paper s which include one or more ATNF s taf f are indicated by an as ter isk .
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*CHEN , M .T., .... , K ESTE VEN , M . J ., ... , W IL SON , W. et al. "AMiBA : broadband heterodyne cosmic microwave back ground inter ferometr y ". ApJ , 694, 166 4 -1669 (20 09) *COR NWELL , T. J . " Hogbom's CLE AN a l g o r i t h m . I m p a c t o n a s t r o n o my a n d b e y o n d . Comment ar y on : Hogbom, J . A ., 1974, A & AS , 15, 417 ". A & A , 50 0, 65 - 66 (20 09) . CORTES , S . R . et al. "G r ain grow th and global s tr uc tur e of the protoplanet ar y disk a ssociated wi th the matur e cla ssical T Taur i s t ar, PDS 66". ApJ , 697, 1305 -1315 (20 09) CR AW FOR D, F., LOR I M ER , D. R ., DE VOU R , B . M ., TAK ACS , B . P. & KON DR ATIE V, V. I . " U p p e r li m i t s o n p u ls e d r ad io e m is s io n f r o m the 6 . 85 s X-r ay pulsar X TE J 0103 -728 in the Small Magellanic Cloud". ApJ , 696 , 574 -579 (20 09) *DeBOER , D., GOUG H , R .G ., B U NTON , J . D., COR NWELL , T., B ER ESFOR D, R ., JOH NSTON , S ., FE AIN , I ., SCH INCK EL , A ., JACK SON , C ., K ESTE VEN , M . J ., CH IPPEN DALE , A ., HAM P SON , G ., O' SU LLIVAN , J . D., HAY, S .G ., JACK A , C ., SWEE TNAM , T., STOR E Y, M ., BALL , L . & BOYLE , B . "Aus tr alian SK A Pathfinder : a high - dynamic r ange wide -field of view sur vey telescope ar r ay ". Proc. IEEE , 97, 1507-1521 (20 09) a *DELLER , A .T., TING AY, S . J ., BAILES , M . & R E Y N O L D S , J . E . " P r e cis i o n s o u t h e r n hemispher e VLB I pulsar a s trometr y. II . Mea sur ement of seven par alla xes". ApJ , 701, 1243 -12 57 (20 09) . *DOBASH I , K ., B ER NAR D, J . P., K AWAM U R A , A ., EGUSA , F., H UG HES , A . et al. " E x tinc tion map of the Small Magellanic C l o u d b a s e d o n t h e S i r i u s a n d 6X 2M A S S point sour ce cat alogs". AJ , 137, 5099-5109 (20 09) . DONOVAN , J . L . et al. " ESO 381- 47: an e a r l y -t y p e g a l a x y w i t h e x t e n d e d H I a n d a s t ar-for ming r ing". AJ , 137, 5037-5056 (20 09) . *EK ER S , R . D., JAM ES , C .W., PROTHEROE , R . J . & McFADDEN , R . A . " Lunar r adio Cher enkov obser vations of U HE neu tr inos". N u c l e a r I n s t r u m . M e t h o d s P hy s . R e s . , A , 6 0 4 (1-2 , Suppl.) , S106 -S111 (20 09) . *EMONTS , B . H .C . et al. " T he discdominated hos t gala x y of FR-1 r adio sour ce B2 072 2+30 ". M N R AS , 396 , 152 2-1536 (20 09) . *FR EIR E , P.C .C ., WE X , N ., K R AM ER , M ., LOR I M ER , D. R ., McL AUG H LIN , M . A ., STAIR S , I . H ., ROSEN , R . & LYN E , A .G . "A new technique for timing the double pulsar sys tem". M N R AS , 396 , 176 4 -17 70 (20 09) . FR IESEN , R . K . et al. " T he ini tial condi tions of clus ter ed s t ar for mation. I . N H3 obser vations of dense cor es in Ophiuchus". ApJ , 697, 1457-148 0 (20 09)

*F U RU K AWA , N ., DAWSON , J . R . et al. " Molecular clouds towar ds RC W49 and Wes ter lund 2 : evidence for clus ter for mation tr ig ger ed by cloud - cloud collision". ApJ , 696 , L115 - L119 (20 09) *GODFR E Y, L . E . H ., B ICK N ELL , G .V., LOVELL , J . E . J ., JAU NCE Y, D. L . et al. "A mul tiwaveleng th s tudy of the high sur face br ightness hot spot in PK S 1421- 490 ". ApJ , 695, 707-723 (20 09) *G R EEN , J . A ., McCLU R E- G R IFFITHS , N . M ., C ASWELL , J . L ., ELLINGSEN , S . P., F U LLER , G . A ., QU IN N , L . & VORON KOV, M . A . " High - ma ss s t ar for mation in the near and far 3 k pc ar ms". ApJ , 696 , L156 - L158 (20 09) *GU P TA , N ., SR IANAND, R ., PE TITJE AN , P., NOTER DAEM E , P. & SAI K IA , D. J . "A complete sample of 21- cm absor ber s at z ~1. 3 : G iant Metr ewave R adio Telescope sur vey using Mg II sys tems". M N R AS , 398 , 201-2 20 (20 09) . *HANCOCK , P. J ., TING AY, S . J ., SADLER , E . M ., PH ILLIP S , C . & DELLER , A .T. "e -VLB I obser vations of G Hz-peaked spec tr um r adio sour ces in near by gala xies from the AT 20 G sur vey ". M N R AS , 397, 2030 -2036 (20 09) . *HAN N I K AIN EN , D.C ., H U NSTE AD, R .W., W U, K ., McINT YR E , V., LOVELL , J . E . J ., C AMPB ELL-W IL SON , D., McCOLLOUG H , M . L . , R E Y N O L DS , J . & T ZI O U M I S , A . K . " R e v is i t i ng t h e r e l a t i v is t i c e j e c t i o n e ve n t i n X TE J1550 -56 4 dur ing the 1998 ou tbur s t ". M N R AS , 397, 569-576 (20 09) . HARVE Y-SM ITH , L ., G AENSLER , B . M ., NG , C .-Y. & G R EEN , A . J . " Spec tropolar imetr y of super nova r emnant G296 . 5+10.0 ". In : IAU 2 59 : Cosmic Magnetic Fields : From Planet s , to St ar s and Gala xies , Tener ife , Spain, 3 -7 November 20 0 8 , 141-14 4 (20 09) * HO, P.T., ... , K ESTE VEN , M . J ., ... , SINCL AIR , M . M ., W IL SON , W. et al. " The Yuan -Tseh Lee Ar r ay for microwave back ground anisotropy ". ApJ , 694, 1610 -1618 (20 09) *HOB BS , G . B ., BAILES , M ., B HAT, N . D. R ., B U R K E-SPOL AOR , S ., CHAM PION , D. J ., COLES , W., HOTAN , A ., J EN E T, F., K EDZIOR A- CH U DC ZER , L ., K HOO, J ., LEE , K . J ., LOM M EN , A ., MANCHESTER , R . N . , R E Y N O L DS , J . , SA R K I SS I A N , J . , VAN STR ATEN , W., TO, S ., VER B IEST, J . P., YAR DLE Y, D. & YOU, X . P. "G r avi t ationalwave detec tion using pulsar s : s t atus of the Par kes Pulsar Timing Ar r ay projec t ". PASA , 26 , 103 -109 (20 09) . *HOB BS , G ., J EN E T, F., LEE , K . J ., VER B IEST, J . P.W., YAR DLE Y, D., MANCHESTER , R . N . et al. " TEM PO2 : a new pulsar timing pack age . III . G r avi t ational wave simulation". M N R AS , 394, 1945 -1955 (20 09) .

*JACOBY, B . A ., BAILES , M ., OR D, S . M ., EDWAR DS , R .T. & KU LK AR N I , S . R . "A lar ge -ar ea sur vey for r adio pulsar s at high Galac tic lati tudes". ApJ , 699, 20 09-2016 (20 09) . *JAM ES , C .W., EK ER S , R . D., ALVAR E ZM U N IZ, J ., PROTHEROE , R . J ., McFADDEN , R . A ., PH ILLIP S , C . J . & ROB ERTS , P. " St atus r epor t and fu tur e prospec t s on LU NASK A lunar obser vations wi th ATC A". Nuclear Ins tr um. Methods Phys . Res ., A , 60 4 (1-2 , Suppl.) , S112-115 (20 09) . JAM ES , C .W. & PROTHEROE , R . J . " The dir ec tional dependence of the lunar Cher enkov technique for U HE neu tr ino detec tion". Nuclear Ins tr um. Methods Phys . Res ., A , 60 4 (1-2 , Suppl.) , S2 2 2-S2 24 (20 09) . *JANSSEN , G . H ., STAPPER S , B .W., B R AU N , R ., VAN STR ATEN , W., EDWAR DS , R .T., RU B IO - HER R ER A , E ., VAN LEEU WEN , J . & WELTE VR EDE , P. " Discover y and timing of the fir s t 8gr 8 Cygnus sur vey pulsar s". A & A , 498 , 2 23 -231 (20 09) K E AN E , E . F. & K R AM ER , M . "On the bir thr ates of Galac tic neu tron s t ar s". M N R AS , 391, 20 09-2016 [ 20 09] . *K EITH , M . J ., E ATOUG H , R . P., LYN E , A .G ., K R AM ER , M ., POSSENTI , A ., C AM ILO, F. & MANCHESTER , R . N . " Discover y of 28 pulsar s using new techniques for sor ting pulsar candidates". M N R AS , 395, 837- 846 (20 09) *KOCH , P. M ., K ESTE VEN , M . J . et al. " The AMiBA hexapod telescope mount ". ApJ , 694, 1670 -1684 (20 09) L EH N ER , N . HOW K , J .C . h ig h - ve l o ci t y Cloud". ApJ , , STAVELE Y-SM ITH , L . & " Proper ties and or igin of the g a s t ow a r d t h e L a r g e M a g e l l a n i c 702, 94 0 -954 (20 09) .

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LY U BCHEN KO, S . Yu. et al. " Sear ch for m a i n - l i n e O H e m i s s i o n t ow a r d h i g h - l a t i t u d e IR AS sour ces in the sou ther n hemispher e". A s tron. Repor t s , 53, 528 -54 0 (20 09) . *MAO, M .Y., NOR R IS , R . P., SHAR P, R . & LOVELL , J . E . J . "Cosmic evolu tion of r adio sour ces in ATL AS". In : St ar bur s t-AG N Connec tion Confer ence , Shanghai, China , 27-31 Oc tober , 20 0 8 , ASP Conf. Ser., 4 0 8 , 3 8 0 ( 20 0 9 ) . *McCLU R E- G R IFFITHS , N . M ., PISANO, D. J ., C AL AB R E T TA , M . R ., FOR D, H . A . et al. "G ASS : the Par kes Galac tic All-Sk y Sur vey. I . S u r vey d e s c r i p t i o n , g o a l s , a n d i n i t i a l d a t a r elea se". ApJS , 181, 398 - 412 (20 09) *M EU R ER , G . R ., WONG , O. I ., K I M , J . H ., HAN ISH , D. J ., HECK MAN , T. M ., WER K , J ., B L AN D - HAW THOR N , J ., DOPITA , M . A ., Z WA AN , M . A ., KOR IBAL SK I , B . L . et al. " Evidence for a nonunifor m ini tial ma ss func tion in the local univer se". ApJ , 695, 765 7 7 9 ( 20 0 9 ) M IYA Z AK I , A . et al. " Flux var iabili t y of Sagi t t ar ius A* at shor t mm -waveleng ths". In : Approaching Micro -Ar csecond Resolu tion wi th VSOP-2 : A s trophysics and Technologies , Sagamihar a , Japan, 3 -7 December, 20 07, ASP Conf. Ser., 4 02, 379 (20 09) . *MOR ALES , E . F. E ., MAR DON ES , D., G AR AY, G ., B ROOK S , K . J . & PIN EDA , J . E . "A mul tiwaveleng th s tudy of young ma ssive s t arfor ming r egions . III . Mid -infr ar ed emission". ApJ , 698 , 488 -501 (20 09) . * M O RG A N T I , R . , E M O N T S , B . & OOSTER LOO, T. " B road H I absor ption in the candidate binar y black hole 4C37.11 ( B2 0 4 02+379)". A & A , 496 , L9- L12 (20 09) *NISHIOK A , H ., .... , K ESTE VEN , M . J ., ... , & W IL SON , W. " Tes t s of AMiBA dat a integr i t y ". ApJ , 694, 1637-16 42 (20 09) *NOR R IS , R . P. "Co - evolu tion of AG N a n d s t a r - fo r m i n g g a l a x i e s i n t h e A u s t r a l i a Telescope L ar ge Ar ea Sur vey ". In : St ar bur s tAG N Connec tion Confer ence , Shanghai, China , 27-31 Oc tober , 20 0 8 , ASP Conf. Ser., 4 0 8 , 334 (20 09) . * N O U T S O S , A . , K A R A S T E RG I O U , A . , K R AM ER , M ., JOH NSTON , S . & STAPPER S , B .W. " Pha se -r esolved Far aday rot ation in pulsar s". M N R AS , 396 , 1559-1572 (20 09) . PAYN E , J . L ., TAU B ER , L . A ., FILIPOVIC , M . D. et al. " The 10 0 s tronges t r adio point sour ces in the field of the L ar ge Magellanic Cloud at 1.4 G Hz". Ser b. AJ , 178 , 65 -70 (20 09) . *PELLIZ ZON I , A . ,..., JOH NSTON , S ., ..., WELTE VR EDE , P., et al. " Discover y of new gamma-r ay pulsar s wi th AG ILE". ApJ , 695, L115 -119 (20 09)

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*PE TROV, L ., PH ILLIP S , C . et al. " Use of the Long B a seline Ar r ay in Aus tr alia for pr ecise geodesy and absolu te a s trometr y ". PASA , 26 , 75 - 84 (20 09) *PIN EDA , J . L ., OT T, J ., K LEIN , U., WONG , T., M U LLER , E . & H UG HES , A . " The influence of far- ul tr a violet r adiation on the proper ties of molecular clouds in the 30 Dor r egion of the L ar ge Magellanic Cloud". ApJ , 703, 736 -751 (20 09) . *R AN DALL , K . E ., HOPK INS , A . M ., NOR R IS , R . P. & MAO, M .Y. " Dis tinguishing bet ween AG N and s t ar-for ming gala xies in ATL AS". In : St ar bur s t-AG N Connec tion Confer ence , Shanghai, China , 27-31 Oc tober , 20 0 8 , ASP Conf. Ser., 4 0 8 , 169 (20 09) . *R AU, U., B HATNAG AR , S ., VORON KOV, M . & COR NWELL , T. J . "Advances in c a li b r a t io n a n d i m a g i ng te ch n i q u e s i n r ad io inter ferometr y ". Proc. IEEE , 97, 1472-1481 (20 09) *R ICK E T T, B ., JO TOM LINSON , T. inner scale of the P SR J16 4 4 - 4559 ". (20 09) H NSTON , S ., & R E Y N O L DS , J . " T he pla sma tur bulence towar ds M N R AS , 395, 1391-14 02

* U RQU HART, J . S ., MORG AN , L . K . & T H O M P SO N , M . A . "O bs e r v a t io na l s t u d y of si tes of tr ig ger ed s t ar for mation : CO and mid -infr ar ed obser vations". A & A , 497, 7898 0 4 ( 20 0 9 ) *WATANAB E , S ., SATO, R ., TAK AHASH I , T., K ATAOK A , J ., MADEJSK I , G ., SI KOR A , M ., TAVECCH IO, F., SAM B RU NA , R ., ROMAN I , R ., EDWAR DS , P.G . & PU R SI MO, T. " Suzaku obser vations of the ex tr eme MeV bla zar SW IF T J 0746 . 3+2 548 ". ApJ , 694, 294 301 (20 09) *WAT TER S , K . P., WELTE VR EDE , P. atla s for inter pr eti cur ves". ApJ , 695, ROMAN I , R .W., & JOH NSTON , S . "An n g g - r ay p u l s a r l i g h t 1289-1301 (20 09)

*ROB ERTS , M . S ., ... , JOH NSTON , S . et al. " T h e f u ll s p e c t r u m g a la c t ic te r r a r iu m : M H z to TeV obser vations of var ious cr i t ter s". I n : H i g h E n e r g y G a m m a - R ay A s t r o n o m y : Proceedings of the 4th Inter national Meeting, Heidelber g, Ger many, 7-11 July 20 0 8 , AIP Conf. Ser., 10 85, 328 -331 (20 09) . SAK AI , N . et al. " Discover y of the second war m car bon - chain - chemis tr y sour ce , IR AS15398 -3359 in Lupus". ApJ , 697, 769-786 (20 09) *SCHOLTEN , O., B U ITIN K , S ., BACEL AR , J ., B R AU N , R . et al. " Fir s t r esul t s of the NuMoon exper iment ". Nuclear Ins tr um. Methods Phys . Res ., A , 60 4 (1-2 , Suppl.) , S102-S105 (20 09) . SM ITH , I . A ., RYDER , S . D., TING AY, S . J . et al. " Mul tiwaveleng th obser vations of t h e u n u s u a l u l t r a l u m i n o u s s u p e r n ov a S N 1978 K in NGC 1313 and the sear ch for an a ssociated gamma-r ay bur s t ". In : GammaR ay B ur s t : 6th Hunt s ville Sy mposium, AIP Conf. Ser., 1133, 2 53 (20 09) . *SPR EEU W, H ., SCHEER S , B ., B R AU N , R . et al. "A new per spec tive on GCRT J1745 30 09 ". A & A , 502, 549-558 (20 09) . SU RCIS , G . et al. " New H2O ma ser s in S e y fe r t a n d F I R b r i g h t g a l a x i e s . I I I . T h e

*WELCH , J ., ..., DeBOER , D. et al. " The Allen Telescope Ar r ay : the fir s t widefield, panchromatic, snapshot r adio camer a for r adio a s tronomy and SE TI ". Proc. IEEE , 97, 1438 -14 47 (20 09) . *WELTE VR EDE , P. & WR IG HT, G . " Mapping the magnetospher e of P SR B1055 -52". M N R AS , 395, 2117-2126 [ 20 09] . *WONG , T., H UG HES , A ., F U KU I , Y., K AWAM U R A , A ., M IZU NO, N ., OT T, J ., M U L L E R , E . e t a l . " M o l e cu l a r a n d a t o m i c g a s i n t h e L a r ge M a ge lla n i c C lo u d . I . C o n d i t io ns for CO detec tion". ApJ , 696 , 370 -384 (20 09) * W U, J . H . , . . . , K E S T E V E N , M . J . , . . . , W IL SON , W. "Ar r ay for Microwave B ack ground A nisotropy : obser vations , dat a analysis , and r esul t s for Sunyaev-Zel' dovich ef fec t s". ApJ , 694, 1619-1628 (20 09) *YOSH I KOSH I , T., MOR I , M ., EDWAR DS , P.G . et al. " Reanalysis of dat a t aken by the C a ng a r o o 3 . 8 m e t e r i m a g i ng a t m os p h e r i c Cher enkov Telescope : P SR B1706 - 4 4, SN 10 06 , and Vela". ApJ , 702, 631- 6 48 (20 09) .

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Education and Outreach
Rob Hollow (ATNF )

20 09 has been a busy year for ATNF Education and Outreach. The Inter national Year of As tronomy has led to increased demand for ATNF s taf f as speaker s and involvement in many other events and progr ams.

Conference for Aus tr alia Science Teacher s, at the NSW Science Teacher s' Association Annual Conference and in Ger aldton dur ing National Science Week . In addition, sever al ATNF s taf f have been ac tive as par t of the Scientist s in Schools progr am that has included giving talk s to s tudents and suppor ting viewing nights.

Obser vator y in May. Featur ing input from ATNF s taf f and PhD s tudents, Rob Hollow wor ked w i t h t h e w r i t i ng t e a m f r o m t h e Science Teacher s' Association of NSW in developing the resource. A copy of the book was provided free to ever y school in Aus tr alia and ever y science teacher who is a member of their s tate association. ATNF s taf f also contr ibuted to the concept and development of the Big Aussie Star Hunt, the National Projec t for this year or ganised by the ABC . The sk y sur vey component of the projec t saw over 1,20 0 obser vations on sk y br ightness log ged from people across Aus tr alia .

Teacher Workshops and School Events
ATNF's Education Of ficer, Rob Hollow, has r un teacher wor k shops across much of Aus tr alia over recent months. This year's Astronomy from the Ground Up, an annual three-day event at Par kes was a great success in May. Over 25 teacher s, some from as far afield as E xeter in Tasmania , Townsville and Ger aldton par ticipated. Many ATNF s taf f gave up their weekend to give talk s and to help r un the sessions. Collabor ations with other or ganisations also continue to grow, allowing more teacher s across Aus tr alia to under take professional development in as tronomy education. Wor k shops were held at Sciencewor k s in Melbour ne in collabor ation with the Vic tor ian Space Science Education Centre, in Per th as par t of As tronomy WA's Space Camp and in Br isbane and Townsville. Shor ter sessions were also held in L aunces ton at CONASTA , the National

National Science Week
ATNF s taf f at Nar r abr i conduc ted a ser ies of well-at tended public events in town, including public v i e w i ng n ig h t s w i t h o p t i c a l telescopes. Professor R ay Nor r is was involved in many events in Dar win as par t of the Tope End Science Fes tival. Rob Hollow was ac tive in the Mid Wes t region of Wes ter n Aus tr alia with talk s to s tudents at Nagle Catholic College and Meek athar r a School of the Air, teacher professional development for Ger aldton teacher s, a viewing night for s tudents from Yalgoo Pr imar y School, Pia Wadjar r i R e m ot e C o m m u n i t y S ch o o l a n d Sands tone Public School at Yalgoo and a pre-per for mance talk about the life and science of Galileo at Theatre Eight's produc tion of Brecht's The Life of Galileo. This year's resource book ; Astronomy: Science Without Limit s for National Science Week was launched at Mount Stromlo

Window to the Universe
This is a new teaching resource providing over 20 lessons on as tronomy, optics, the e le c t r o mag ne t ic s p e c t r u m a nd Aus tr alian science for s tudents in Year s 9 and 10 within the contex t of the SK A . It was developed as par t of the Ques tacon-Scitech SK A Education projec t by an exper ienced team of science teacher s from the Science Teacher s Association of NSW and coordinated by Rob Hollow from CSIRO Aus tr alia Telescope National Facilit y. Copies are available free to all high schools in Aus tr alia .

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ATNF Ne ws , Issue 67, October 2009


St af f from CSIRO wor k with s tudent s at Str athmore Secondar y College who are remotely oper ating the Par kes Telescope. CSIRO's Rober t Hollow and s tudent s K atie Pearce and Elizabeth Pollard pic tured. Credit : David Crosling

PULSE@Parkes
This innovative ATNF progr am has h a d m o n t h l y o b s e r v i ng s e s s i o ns with s tudents from many high schools across NSW. The fir s t r un in Vic tor ia was held at the Vic tor ian Space Science Education Centre in Augus t with s tudents from four schools tak ing par t . Another session with s tudents from five schools was held at SPICE in Per th in September. As par t of the Melbour ne session, broadcas ting obser vations were made using twit ter (@ PULSEatPar kes) . This exper iment was a great success and will now be incor por ated into all future obser ving r uns, allowing people around the wor ld to read live updates and pose ques tions. The fir s t science paper from the projec t has been accepted for publication in PASA and an education paper is near ing completion.

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For further information: C S IRO Australia Telescope National Facilit y E m a i l e n q u i r i e s : a t nf - e n q u i r i e s @ c s i r o . a u , E m a i l n e w s l e t t e r : n e w s l e t t e r @ a t nf . c s i r o . a u Web centr al : w w w. atnf.csiro. au Web newslet ter : w w w. atnf.csiro. au / news / newslet ter, Web ou tr each : ou tr each. atnf.csiro. au

One of the mos t of ten reques ted photos of the Compac t Ar r ay, t aken by John Ma s ter son.