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ATNF News
Issue No. 69, October 2010 ISSN 1323-6326
CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science ­ under taking wor ld leading astronomical research and operator of the Australia Telescope National Facility.


Two of CSIRO's new Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) antennas, close to the centre of the array, during assembly at the Murchison Radioastronomy Obser vator y in September 2010. Credit: Carole Jackson

A reflector dish is placed on its pedestal as one of CSIRO's new ASKAP anennas is assembled at the Murchison Radioastronomy Obser vator y. Credit: Ross For syth

Cover page image
Three newly constr ucted CSIRO ASKAP antennas pictured at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Obser vator y in Western Australia.

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Editorial

Contents

Welcome to the October issue of ATNF News for 2010. In this issue we repor t on a number of staff changes including the arrival of Dr Phil Diamond, on 1 June as new C ASS Chief and ATNF Director, as well as the recent depar tures of Lewis Ball to the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and Dave DeBoer to the Univer sity of California, Ber keley. We wish both Lewis and Dave well in their new endeavour s. You can read more about Phil Diamond's fir st impressions of C ASS and the ATNF in his column on page four. In other news, we repor t on C ASS success at being awarded three of the Australian Research Council's new Super Science Fellowships. The Fellowships, wor th a total of $835,000 over three year s, will help develop technology for the future international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope . In other newsletter highlights, we feature a number of science ar ticles, all based on the fantastic research that is being under taken at our obser vatories. In the fir st, Rober to Soria repor ts on a new Compact Array study of a microquasar in the galaxy NGC 7793. His research suggests that the tr ue power of black hole jets is a thousand times larger than the power estimated from obser ved radio emissions. We also feature an ar ticle by Michael Keith and collaborator s, who repor t on the intriguing discover y of a magnetar, by its radio emission alone . Also on a science front, Professor Steven Tingay repor ts on successful VLBI obser vations under taken using the fir st of the ASKAP antennas

From the Chief of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science ........................................................... 4 C ASS Organisational Change........................................................................................................................ 5 ASKAP and SKA News ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Super Science Fellowships Awarded to C ASS .................................................................................... 9 Distinguished Visitor s .......................................................................................................................................... 9 Education and Outreach ............................................................................................................................... 10 Graduate Student Program ......................................................................................................................... 11 Australia Telescope Compact Array Open Day............................................................................... 12 C ASS Telescopes Track IKAROS ............................................................................................................... 14 2010 Grote Reber Medal Awarded to Alan Roger s ..................................................................... 16 2010 C ASS Radio Astronomy School................................................................................................... 18 In France at the International Space Univer sity's Space Studies Program ........................ 20 The Southern Cross Astrophysics Conference Series ................................................................. 21 Supernovae and their Host Galaxies...................................................................................................... 21 The MALT 90 GHz Sur vey and the SOC Pilot Project .............................................................. 22 Discover y of a Radio­loud X-ray­quiescent Magnetar in the High Time Resolution Univer se Sur vey ................................................................................................................................................. 26 Fir st Science from the ASKAP and War kwor th Antennas......................................................... 30 Bonsai-ed Radio Galaxy Gives Clue to Jet Energies ...................................................................... 33 National Facility Operations ........................................................................................................................ 34 Publications List................................................................................................................................................... 36

to be installed at Radio-astronomy with a new 12-m at War kwor th in

the Murchison Obser vator y, along antenna installed New Zealand.

International Space Univer sity's Space Studies Program in France. As always, we provide our regular in-depth update on CSIRO's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and SKA related activity. As we go to print, the ASKAP project remains well on track with staff currently busy at the MRO site , constr ucting ASKAP antennas number s 2-6. To conclude , we finish with our regular Operations repor t. If you would like to contribute to future editions of the ATNF News, please contact the newsletter team. Tony Crawshaw and Joanne Houldsworth The ATNF Newsletter Production Team (newsletter@atnf.csiro.au)

We also feature a repor t on the MALT-90GHz sur vey, and examine how this activity has been used as a demonstration project in the development of a Science Operations Centre in Sydney. In other news, Phil Edwards looks at the Japanese solar sail mission IKAROS -- successfully tracked by the Mopra telescope; we repor t on this year's C ASS Radio Astronomy School held recently at the Narrabri Obser vator y; Chris Hollingdrake details a successful public open day at the Compact Array; and Kjetil Wormnes under takes the

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From the Chief of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science
Phil Diamond Chief of C ASS

In year s past I would receive , originally by post and then more recently via a URL, a copy of the ATNF Newsletter. I was always admiring of the Newsletter : a professional looking document with a range of ar ticles of interest to the user s of the ATNF and the wider community. I now find myself in the role of the Chief of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science (C ASS) and the Director of the ATNF and so it is a pleasure to write the "Chief 's Column" for the fir st time.

To begin, I'd like to take the oppor tunity to give my views on the current status of the Division and the ATNF as well as to elaborate , to some extent, on future strategic direction. Since star ting this role on the 1 June 2010 I've discovered that there is no getting away from the fact that C ASS and the ATNF are embedded within CSIRO, a large organisation of 6,500 people. This brings with it various challenges and oppor tunities. One per sonal challenge is that I've had to learn CSIRO-speak at which I am told, to my dismay, that I am already alarmingly proficient. More seriously, I have been impressed at the huge suppor t that CSIRO and the Australian government provide for radio astronomy, a sum exceeding $300M over the last few year s. This suppor t is driven both by the excellent science under taken with the current facilities (see ar ticles elsewhere in this

Newsletter) and the huge potential oppor tunity of the SKA and the local precur sor project, ASKAP. Oppor tunities however also bring challenges. A big issue facing C ASS and the Australian astronomy community is the rapidly changing strategic landscape . CSIRO is building ASKAP and aims to be delivering science to the user community in 2013. One immediate challenge is ensuring that we have the full operating funds for ASKAP and the existing ATNF facilities, an issue that is being vigorously pur sued right now. In the slightly longer term we need to under stand what might be the impact of the SKA on radio astronomy in Australia. As I write , I am preparing to attend a series of high-level SKA meetings in Oxford, which will be taking decisions vital for the future of the project. As we see the outcomes of these meetings the future str ucture of the SKA

will become clearer and then, of cour se , we need to know where the SKA will be located. All of these issues will have implications for radio astronomy across the planet. To conclude the column, I'd like to share with you one of the principal attractions of coming to lead C ASS -- and that's the chance to wor k with such an excellent team. Australia and CSIRO in par ticular, have always had a wor ld-class reputation in radio astronomy. This is still the case . People express concern when essential senior staff approach retirement. I worr y less, especially when I see the quality of the young engineering team here at C ASS. This is a talented team that is oriented towards the future . I hope you enjoy reading this issue of the ATNF Newsletter. These are exciting times for radio astronomy Down Under.

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C ASS Organisational Change
Tony Crawshaw (C ASS)

Since the previous issue of ATNF News (April edition), CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science has seen a number of organisational and per sonnel changes.

June 1st saw Dr Phil Diamond on board as C ASS Chief, arriving from his previous role as Director at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the Univer sity of Manchester. Lewis Ball announced his depar ture as Deputy Chief of C ASS to take up a new role as the Deputy Director for ALMA, the ~US$1B Atacama Large Millimeter Array. Graeme Carrad has taken on the role of Acting Deputy Chief of C ASS (effective 17 September) with a search to recr uit a new Deputy Chief currently underway. Dave DeBoer, ASKAP Project Leader will be leaving CSIRO in ear ly October and is moving back to UC Ber keley to take up a post wor king on the Allen Telescope Array and other projects. The post became available as a result of the untimely death of Don Backer. As a result of this move , Ant Schinckel replaced Dave DeBoer

Lewis Ball - "best wishes" for the future Credit: Flo Conway-Der ley, CSIRO.

as ASKAP Leader in a substantive appointment on 1 September. In other role changes, CSIRO's SKA Director Brian Boyle has become the Project Director for the Australia ­ NZ SKA site bid, spending 80% of his time on secondment to

the Depar tment of Innovation, Industr y, Science and Research. We wish ever yone well in their new appointments and thank Lewis and Dave for their many year s of ser vice within CSIRO.

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ASKAP and SKA News
Florence Conway-Der ley (C ASS)

Antenna construction underway at the MRO
As this ar ticle goes to print, constr uction of CSIRO's next five Australian Square Kilometre Array (ASKAP) antennas is well underway at the Murchison Radioastronomy Obser vator y (MRO). The initial manufacture of ASKAP antennas 2 ­ 6 was completed on schedule ear lier in the year, with the antennas passing factor y acceptance testing in July. Antenna build on site, site acceptance testing and commissioning then took place during September and October.

site has been achieved with a preliminar y connection (in the lab) of the analog pedestal system to the digital system. · Design of civil wor ks, building and power and data distribution at the MRO is now complete; a prototype ground-coupled cooling system has been trialled at the site of the fir st antenna and preliminar y design wor k has commenced for a solar/diesel hybrid power plant. · The long-haul fibre link from Geraldton to the MRO is progressing well with AARNET; civil wor ks have commenced with the route sur veyed and pegged for direct burial fibre along the 390 km route . · A process to validate the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of all equipment destined for the MRO is in place , with an EMC test facility operational at CSIRO's Mar sfield site . · Monitoring of radio frequency interference (RFI) at the Australasian core site for the SKA has concluded.

of Intent to cooperate on the development and testing of phased array feed technology for the SKA. The par tner ship is an example of the cooperation needed to bring a monumental under taking such as the SKA project to fr uition. The collaboration pools wor ldleading exper tise from ASTRON and CSIRO to develop phased array feeds for future radio telescopes. The wide field of view capability that phased arrays offer would fully exploit the science potential of the SKA.

Technology Update
The ASKAP project continues to reach key milestones, progressing towards successful deliver y of the project. · Two prototype ASKAP prime focus receiver s are being designed and assembled, and are destined for testing at the Par kes Testbed Facility (PTF) and at one of the ASKAP antennas. · Data networ ks have taken on a three tier development; with networ ks specific to the testbed at CSIRO's Mar sfield site , at Par kes, and at the ASKAP site , the Murchison Radio-astronomy Obser vator y (MRO). · Prototype assemblies for test and engineering software have been developed, and initial integration of an ASKAP testbed system at CSIRO's Mar sfield

CSIRO delivers new SKAMP Digital System
A major milestone has been reached for the Square Kilometre Array Molonglo Prototype (SKAMP) project with the deliver y of its new digital correlator. CSIRO officially handed-over the completed digital system to the SKAMP team in September. Over the last few year s, the Molonglo Obser vator y Synthesis Telescope (MOST) has been transforming from the narrowband MOST (4-MHz centred at the operating frequency of 843-MHz) into SKAMP -- a significant SKA prototype . SKAMP increases the bandwidth, sensitivity, field of view and adds spectral line capabilities of MOST by the installation of a correlator. Greatly improved calibration of astronomical data and significantly improved image quality can be achieved.

General News
CSIRO-ASTRON to Collaborate on the Development of Phased Array Feeds
During the Inter national SKA For um (ISKAF2010), held in Assen in June 2010, CSIRO and the Nether lands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) signed a Statement

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Representatives from CSIRO, ASTRON and SPDO celebrate the signing of the Collaborative Agreement at ISKAF 2010. From left: Richard Schilizzi (SPDO), Dr Brian Boyle (CSIRO), Dr David DeBoer (CSIRO), Wim van Cappellen (ASTRON), Dr Carole Jackson (CSIRO), Dr Mar k Verheijen (ASTRON), Dr Tom Ooster loo (ASTRON), and Professor Mike Garrett (ASTRON). Credit: Hans Hordijk

CSIRO SKA Director Dr Brian Boyle hands over a correlator board to SKAMP Project Leader Prof Anne Green. Credit: Tony Crawshaw, CSIRO

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In SKAMP, the data is received by an analog system and digitised before being sent to the correlator. The correlator processes this data into a form that is then used to generate radio images and spectral cubes; this is the astronomer's "result". The development of the digital correlator has been a joint collaboration between CSIRO and the Univer sity of Sydney, with the ASKAP Digital Systems team providing a major par t of the technical and implementation exper tise. CSIRO is also building the digital correlator for the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) SKA Precur sor project. ASKAP is building on the digital systems design developed for both the SKAMP digital systems and the Compact Array Broadband Backend installed at the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATC A, Narrabri NSW). SKAMP was also recently designated an official SKA Pathfinder project by the SKA Science and Engineering Committee (SSEC). It was determined that SKAMP's contribution satisfied the Pathfinder criteria within the areas of technology, science and operations. The next (final) stage of the SKAMP project will see the installation of a

new electronically-steered wide-band feed system capable of obser ving over an expanded frequency range (700 MHz ­ 1100 MHz).

Renewable Energy Solutions to Support the SKA
With funding from the Sustainability Round of the Australian Government's Education Investment Fund (EIF), CSIRO will utilise full-scale , clean energy technology to suppor t the Australia ­ New Zealand bid to host the international SKA project. The Sustainable Energy for the SKA project will develop renewable energy technologies to help power the MRO. This includes CSIRO wor king to develop a collaborative par tner ship with Western Australia's Horizon Power to develop a solar/ diesel power generation system for ASKAP and other telescopes under constr uction at the MRO. The funding also allows a variety of demand-side management technologies to be implemented. Additionally, the nation's largest direct heat geothermal demonstrator will be developed to help cool ASKAP's suppor t computing facility, the Pawsey High Performance Computing Centre for SKA Science based in Per th.

As both the MRO and the Pawsey Centre will have high electricity demands, a combination of onsite geothermal and renewable systems will deliver clean, green energy and provide a reduced carbon footprint with ongoing demand-side management. Wor king with Melbourne-based company Direct Energy, CSIRO has already installed a prototype geoexchange system at the site of ASKAP's fir st antenna. This technology has the potential for long term sustainability, using the ground as a heat sink to reduce the telescope's overall energy use.

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Super Science Fellowships Awarded to C ASS
Tony Crawshaw (C ASS)

Distinguished Visitor s
Rober t Braun (C ASS)

CSIRO has been awarded three of the Australian Research Council's new Super Science Fellowships, wor th a total of $835,000 over three year s, to help develop technology for the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope .
The announcement was made in April 2010, by Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industr y, Science and Research. The aim of the awards is to give ear ly career researcher s the oppor tunity to wor k in areas of national significance . Space science and astronomy is one of the three areas targeted by the Super Science Fellowships -- the other two are marine and climate science, and future industries (biotechnology and nanotechnology). The three CSIRO Fellows are likely to be in place by the end of the year. One will be wor king on refining the innovative radio camera (or phased array feed) of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope . The other two will be solving some of the technical challenges of the highest priority allsky sur veys being carried out with

ASKAP; the WALLABY sur vey of neutral hydrogen emission of the nearby univer se and the EMU sur vey of the continuum sky. ASKAP is currently being built at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Obser vator y in the mid west of Western Australia. Rober t Braun, Head of Astrophysics at C ASS commented, "The Super Science Fellowships provide a vital contribution to enabling wor ld-class science in Australia. The three CSIRO fellows will play a key role in facilitating that science with ASKAP and fur ther refining our cutting edge , wide-field technology so that it is SKA-ready." Suppor t for SKA related science was evident in the Minister's announcement, with twenty-one of the one-hundred new Fellowships announced, going towards research related to the development of SKA pathfinder instr uments in Australia or the use of those instr uments to under take ground-breaking research. ASKAP and SKA related Fellowships went to Cur tin Univer sity of Technology, The Univer sity of Western Australia, the AngloAustralian Obser vator y, the Univer sity of Sydney, the Univer sity of Tasmania, Swinburne Univer sity of Technology, the Univer sity of Melbourne and Monash Univer sity.

Over the past months we have enjoyed wor king visits from Jianping Yuan (Ur umqi Obs,er vator y China), Ding Chen (Chinese Acadamy of Sciences, China), Marchella Massardi (Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy), James Jackson (Boston Univer sity, USA), Mar tin Cohen (Univer sity of California Ber keley, USA), Bill Coles (Univer sity of California, San Diego, USA), Marianne Lemoine (Bordeaux, France), Thierr y Reposeur (Bordeaux, France) and Marie-Helene Grondin (Bordeaux, France). Upcoming visitor s we expect include Dale Frail (National Radio Astronomy Obser vator y, USA) and Patricia Henning (Univer sity of New Mexico, USA). The Distinguished Visitor s program remains a ver y productive means of enabling collaborative research projects with local staff, adding substantially to the vitality of the research environment. Visits can be organised for periods ranging from only a few weeks up to one year. For more information please see www.atnf.csiro.au/people/ distinguished_visitors.html Prospective visitor s should contact the local staff member with the most similar interests.

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Education and Outreach
Rob Hollow (C ASS)

PULSE@Parkes
With the recent PULSE@Par kes obser ving session held at the Victorian Space Science Education Centre (VSSEC) in September 2010, over 500 students from 47 schools have now obser ved remotely with the 64-m CSIRO Par kes radio telescope. Regular sessions have been held at the C ASS Mar sfield site , with another recently held at SPICE in the Univer sity of Western Australia as par t of National Science Week activities in August. The inter state sessions involve students from a number of schools coming together for an intense day of background talks, obser ving and data analysis. Interest in the program continues to grow and it was featured as par t of an ar ticle in the Sydney Morning Herald about the search for gravitational waves at Par kes. The program continues its international expansion with students from Emelwerda College in the Nether lands controlling the Dish in May during the second international PULSE@Par kes event hosted and suppor ted by ASTRON. Project Coordinator Rob Hollow and team member Dr David Champion from Bonn were assisted by several ASTRON staff including regular Par kes obser ver Dr Marijke Haver korn. The students showed great

interest in the session and were the fir st group to see one of the project's nulling pulsar s actually turn on whilst being obser ved.

Teacher Workshops and School Events
The highly popular Astronomy from the Ground Up teacher wor kshop held at the Par kes Obser vator y in May saw a record number of 30 teacher s par ticipate in the threeday event. A diver se range of talks, wor kshop sessions, practical activities, a viewing night and a telescope tour kept the teacher s engaged and stimulated. Some of the par ticipating teacher s also presented sessions, sharing with other par ticipants, the activities that they and their students under take .

C ASS Education Officer Rob Hollow also ran a one-day wor kshop Teaching Astronomy and Astrophysics for the VCE in collaboration with VSSEC at Sciencewor ks in Melbourne in April. CSIRO SKA Director Dr Brian Boyle gave the prestigious Stanhope Oration at CONASTA 59, the annual national conference for Australian Science Teacher s. His talk The Square Kilometre Array: Inspiring the Next Generation and beyond was extremely well received and prompted lengthy discussion and questions. Rob Hollow also ran wor kshop sessions at the conference . He also presented a session on career s in science at the second Mid West Youth Science Forum in Geraldton in July as well manning the astronomy desk with Professor Steven Tingay from ICRAR for a Q&A session with Year 10 students.

CSIRO's Rob Hollow linking Dutch students to the Par kes telescope. Credit: CSIRO

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Graduate Student Program
Baerbel Koribalski (C ASS)

We would like to officially welcome the following students into the ATNF cosuper vision program.
· Vanessa Moss (Univer sity of Sydney): Low and intermediate velocity HI clouds in the Milky Way with super visor s Dr Tara Murphy and Dr Naomi McClure-Griffiths (C ASS). · Yanett Contreras (Univer sidad de Chile): Study of filamentar y structures in the souther n galactic plane with super visor s Dr Guido Garay (Univer sidad de Chile) and Dr Jill Rathborne (C ASS). · Kathrin Wolfinger (Univer sity of Swinburne):The effect of environment on the evolution of gas-rich spiral galaxies with super visor s Dr Virginia Kilborn, Dr Emma Ryan-Weber (both Univer sity of Swinburne), and DrBaerbel Koribalski (C ASS). · Emma Kirby (Australian National Univer sity): Sharing the Bar yons: Stars and Gas in Local VolumeGalaxies. · Alyson Ford (Univer sity of Swinburne): The HI Cloud Population in the Lower Halo of the Milk Way. · Shari Breen (Univer sity of Tasmania): Masers as evolutionar y tracers of high-mass star formation. Dr Shari Breen is now a Bolton Fellow at ATNF, CSIRO Astronomy & Space Science . Dr Ur vashi Rao Venkata is now wor king at the National Radio Astronomy Obser vator y Science Operations Center. Dr Alyson Ford is now a postdoc at the Univer sity of Michigan, USA. Dr Paul Hancock is now a postdoc at the Univer sity of Sydney. Well done ! A summar y of the ATNF Graduate Student Program, current and past students, as well as new application forms can be found at http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/ graduate/scholars.html
Images clockwise from top left: Ur vashi Rao Venkata, Paul Hancock., Alyson Ford, Emma Kirby, and Shari Breen, Images cour tesy Baerbel Korabilski.

Congratulations to the following graduating students.
· Ur vashi Rao Venkata (Depar tment of Physics, New Mexico Institude of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM, USA): Parameterized Deconvolution for Wide-Band Radio Synthesis Imaging. · Paul Hancock (Univer sity of Sydney): The Australia Telescope 20 GHzSur vey and the Search for Young Radio Galaxies.

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Australia Telescope Compact Array Open Day
Chris Hollingdrake (C ASS)

More than 700 people took advantage of the rare oppor tunity to get a closer look at the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATC A) during the recent Open Day on the 17 July. The Open Day aims to give the public an increased under standing of radio astronomy and the research that we under take .
Two things generally help to ensure a successful Open Day -- lots of enthusiastic volunteer s and beautiful weather. This year we had the perfect

combination of both. Around fifty volunteer s donated their time to help showcase the great wor k of our division, and Narrabri put on perfectly clear blue skies. Our volunteer s came from around the state including staff from Narrabri, Mar sfield, Par kes and Tidbinbilla. Attendance was up twenty percent on the previous Open Day. Ear ly planning and demographic sur veying of the previous Open Day allowed us to target our promotional activities in the region. Family groups were by far the most common attendees. The most popular activities were the antenna tour s, control building tour s

and astronomy and space science talks. Antenna tour s ran continuously throughout the day, with the compact configuration of the array allowing us access to four antennas. These guided tour s took visitor s up and inside the antennas and allowed our Compact Array exper ts to share their enthusiasm and test their knowledge with the many tricky questions thrown their way. Four talks were held across the day with each being well attended. Dr Jamie Stevens presented Under the hood of the Compact Array, Dr Phil Edwards presented From the Universe to Culgoora, Glen

Caption: Visitor s make their way around the Obser vator y. Credit: Cornelia Kellenberg

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Nagle from Tidbinbilla presented Bootleg postcards: Participator y exploration of distant wor lds and Professor Jim Jackson presented Star birth and snaky dar k clouds. CSIRO Education suppor ted the Open Day with their fantastic hands-on physics displays. CSIRO Education officer, Mitch Serena, did a great job enter taining many of the families, dazzling them with fun and educational demonstrations. A visit by the local scout group tested the durability of both Mitch and his equipment. The laughter and excitement of the group indicated the activity was a good match for this age group. Other activities offered included solar telescope viewing, a science and astronomy education shop, face painting and a jumping castle . The assor tment of quality activities saw visitor s staying longer at the Open Day. Some families spent the entire day at the obser vator y. One of the major benefits of holding open days is the oppor tunity for C ASS staff to socialise away from our usual places of wor k. The Saturday night barbeque was a great success. Thank you to the Narrabri staff for putting on such wonderful hospitality. The evening topped off a great weekend. Thank you volunteer s Open Day and I look Open Day also to all the who made the such a great success forward to our next in Par kes in 2011.

Shane O'Sullivan and Angela Hein, two of the many volunteer s that helped out on the day. Credit: Tony Crawshaw, CSIRO

Visitor s wait for their antenna tour. Credit: Cornelia Kellenberg

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C ASS Telescopes Track IKAROS
Phil Edwards

C ASS's Mopra radio-telescope and CDSCC's Tidbinbilla antennas were used in August as par t of a program to track the Japanese solar sail mission, IKAROS. The Interplanetar y Kite-craft

Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun (IKAROS) is an experimental spacecraft of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The main purpose of a Japanese H-IIA rocket launch on 21 May this

year was to send the Akatsuki spacecraft on its way to Venus. The oppor tunity was also used to launch four other small spacecraft, one of which was the 300kg IKAROS craft.

This figure shows the successful search for interferometric fringes on the baseline between the Mopra 22-m telescope and the Usuda 64-m telescope in Japan. The data used to produce this figure are from an 81 second integration at 8.4GHz on PKS 1354-17, which was used as a phase reference calibrator for IKAROS spacecraft from the obser vation on 1 July, 2010. The x-axis shows the delay residual, and the y-axis shows the residual rate . The fringes can be seen at a delay of 62 nanoseconds, and a rate close to zero.

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IKAROS is the fir st spacecraft to use solar sailing as the main means of propulsion. Unfur ling of the sail, which is made of a polyimide membrane 7.5 micrometres thick -- thinner than a human hair! -- was completed on 10 June . The sail is square in shape and measures 14 metres on each side . Thinfilm solar cells are integrated into the sail to power the spacecraft payload, and eight LCD panels are embedded in the sail to control the orientation of the spacecraft by electronically adjusting the reflectance of each panel. On 9 July, JAXA announced that they had detected the ver y slight acceleration of the spacecraft due to the pressure of sunlight on the solar sail. The main spacecraft payload includes the on-board computer and antennas to receive commands from Ear th and transmit signals back. By measuring the time taken for signals to be transmitted from Ear th to IKAROS and returned, the distance to the spacecraft and the speed with which it is receding can be calculated. However this technique does not allow the position of the spacecraft on the sky to be determined, and that's where a networ k of radio telescopes is coming to the rescue . IKAROS includes a transmitter that sends a series of tones in the 8-GHz band, and by detecting these

with a widely-spaced array of radio telescopes (using the technique of Ver y Long Baseline Interferometr y), the spacecraft's position in the plane of the sky can be accurately determined, perfectly complementing the method of timing signals to and from the spacecraft, which constrain the position along the line of sight. The JAXA coordinator of these obser vations, Dr Hiroshi Takeuchi, notes "Long nor th-south baselines are vital, because the conventional range and range-rate based orbit determination has less sensitivity to the Declination component of the spacecraft position when the declination of the spacecraft is low. The long Australian ­ Japanese baselines are ideal for evaluating the performance of the VLBI-based orbit determination for IKAROS." Dr Chris Phillips, who arranged the Mopra obser vations, commented "These obser vations demonstrate the strides made recently with international compatibility. We were able to easily obser ve the spacecraft with standard LBA setups then transfer all the data electronically to Japan for processing." The Mopra obser vations were conducted with the kind cooperation of the MALT-90 sur vey team, who were willing to give up the 1~2 hour blocks required for the

IKAROS obser vations and who were able to be compensated with additional time on other days. Radio telescopes in Japan, China, and Australia are collaborating in this venture . In Australia, besides Mopra and Tidbinbilla, the Hobar t dish operated by the Univer sity of Tasmania, and the European Space Agency's antenna at New Norcia in Western Australia have been used. The orbit of IKAROS will take it past Venus in December this year, and then on a three year journey to the far side of the Sun as seen from the Ear th. However there is only a limited oppor tunity for radio astronomer s to contribute: as the orientation of the spacecraft changes, the antenna transmitting the series of tones will end up pointing fur ther and fur ther away from the Ear th. The next chance to use this technique may come in March 2011, but as the nominal lifetime for IKAROS is only 8 months, it may not live long enough to "talk" to us again next year. The initial successes of IKAROS are likely to pave the way for other solar-sail spacecraft, with both the USA and Japan developing plans for future missions based on this "energy efficient" approach.

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2010 Grote Reber Medal Awarded to Alan Roger s
Helen Sim (C ASS)

The 2010 Grote Reber Gold Medal for outstanding and innovative contributions to radio astronomy has been awarded to Dr Alan Roger s, a Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Obser vator y. Roger s is being honoured for his many pioneering developments in radio and radar interferometr y, radio spectroscopy, and for his application of radio astronomy techniques to society.
The Medal was presented on 7 July 2010 in Hobar t, Tasmania, at the annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of Australia. The Reber Medal was established by the Tr ustees of the Grote Reber Foundation to honour the achievements of Grote Reber and is administered by the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston, Tasmania. The previous winner s of the Grote Reber Medal have been Professor Bill Erickson (Univer sity of Mar yland, 2005), Professor Bernard Mills (Univer sity of Sydney, 2006), Professor Govind Swar up (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, 2007), Dr Sander Weinreb (Caltech­

Dr Alan Roger s, MIT Haystack Obser vator y, receiving the Grote Reber Medal for 2010. Credit Mar tin George

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Jet Propulsion Laborator y, 2008) and Dr Barr y Clar k (National Radio Astronomy Obser vator y, 2009). Alan Roger s received his B.Sc. degree in mathematics and physics from the Univer sity College of Rhodesia in 1962, and his S.M. and Ph.D degrees in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964 and 1967 respectively. Following a year as a Lecturer at the Univer sity of Zimbabwe in 1968, he has since been at the Haystack Obser vator y where he was the Associate Director until his retirement in 2006. Roger s is best known for his contributions over many decades to the techniques of Ver y Long Baseline Interferometr y. More recently, he developed an innovative radio array which he successfully used to detect the 327 MHz line of inter stellar deuterium, capping a 40-year quest for this impor tant astrophysical atomic gas. He was also the leader of a program to apply radio astronomy techniques to locate emergency calls from mobile telephones. Roger s is now wor king with Judd Bowman of Caltech on an Epoch-of-Reoinisation project, the Experiment to Detect the Global EoR Signature (EDGES). The aim of this NSF-funded experiment, which uses a single low-frequency dipole antenna and a high dynamic-range

radio spectrometer, is to detect the cosmological epoch of reionization (EoR), a significant but poor ly under stood period in the histor y of the Univer se . The experiment measures the all-sky radio spectr um between 100 and 200 MHz in order to probe the global evolution of 21-cm emission from neutral hydrogen gas at high redshift. In this type of measurement, reionization should produce a faint, step-like contribution to the spectr um that is superimposed on the much brighter Galactic synchrotron foreground. The obser ved frequency of the "step" and its sharpness encode both the redshift and duration of the reionization epoch. The EDGES antenna and receiver were deployed in August 2009 at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Obser vator y in Western Australia (Australia and New Zealand's candidate site for the SKA core). The fir st threemonth deployment of EDGES was successful, and yielded constraints on reionization that have implications for future EoR experiments. Who was Grote Reber? For almost a decade--1937 to 1946--he was the wor ld's sole radio astronomer. Born in Wheaton, Illinois, in 1911, he moved to Tasmania in 1954 and spent more than half of his long life there . (He died in 2002.) Reber's achievements include:

· in 1937, building the wor ld's fir st purpose-built radio telescope (a 9.75-m diameter dish); · in the late `30s and ear ly `40s, making the wor ld's fir st detailed radio map of the sky (published in 1944). This was done at 160 MHz, and showed for the fir st time the Galactic Centre in Sagittarius, the radio source Cassiopeia A, and the fir st obser vational evidence for spiral arms in our Milky Way Galaxy; · in the ear ly 1940's, being the fir st to publish the detection of radio emission from the "quiet" sun and the intense radio emission associated with solar activity. · in the ear ly 1950s, becoming the fir st astronomer to build a high-altitude obser vator y in Hawai'i (on Mt Haleakala); and · from the mid 1950s, building the fir st "Square Kilometre Array" -- an array of dipoles covering an area of one square kilometre in central Tasmania. This operated at a frequency of 2.13 MHz. In the 1960s Reber mapped the southern sky with this telescope. Next year, 2011, is the 100th anniver sar y of Grote Reber's bir th. For more information please see the Grote Reber Medal homepage http://www.qvmag.tas.gov. au/?articleID=539

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2010 C ASS Radio Astronomy School
Phil Edwards (C ASS)

The 2010 C ASS Radio Astronomy School was held at the Narrabri Obser vator y from Monday 27 September to Friday 1 October. A total of 45 par ticipants attended, with a number of students travelling from China, South Korea, and New Zealand for the School.
The program of talks included introductions to radio astronomy fundamentals by Jay Lockman (NRAO Green Bank) and John Reynolds, and to the principles of interferometr y by Rick Per ley (NRAO Socorro). C ASS Chief Phil Diamond gave a talk on next generation radio telescopes. Tara Murphy described the astronomer s IT toolkit, with information on the software packages and computing skills that are becoming increasingly impor tant in all fields of astronomical research. John Storey rounded out Monday's program by taking his audience on a tour of telescopes of the wor ld, replete with tales of their germination, growth, and har vesting! The School Dinner was held in Narrabri on Monday evening, with Steven Tingay giving an afterdinner talk entitled Connecting

radio astronomy with indigenous culture in Wester n Australia, which described a successful introduction to the Murchison Radio Astronomy Obser vator y and cultural exchange of astronomical stories, which inspired indigenous ar tists to capture the experience on canvas, leading to a series of national and international exhibitions. Tuesday talks focussed more on the specifics of using the Compact Array, with Alex Dunning and Dick Ferris giving an over view of the front-end receiver design and backend processing electronics. Maxim Voronkov described obser ving strategies and Kate Brooks gave par ticular attention to aspects of mm-wavelength obser ving. The tutorial session on Tuesday took full advantage of the availability of Mopra on the day, with all four tutorial groups having the chance to see Mopra put through its paces. Other sessions on the Tuesday were "Q&A with Rick & Jay", an introduction to ATC A obser ving, and an antenna tour. Rober t Braun kicked off Wednesday with an introduction to Fourier Transforms, which had the unintended consequence of a couple of cats and one Radio School student being Fourier Transformed in subsequent days! Jamie Stevens

introduced calibration and editing, and Emil Lenc walked the students through imaging and deconvolution, before Naomi McClure-Griffiths described various approaches to data analysis. This placed the par ticipants in good stead for the Wednesday and Thur sday tutorial sessions, which were divided into scheduling an ATC A obser vation, hands-on ATC A obser ving, and data reduction. Thanks to the Sydney Univer sity Stellar Interferometer team, who were visiting that week, par ticipants were also able to have a guided tour to SUSI. For tunately the skies cleared in time for par ticipants to enjoy optical views of the night sky before and after wood-fired pizzas on site at the Obser vator y. After dinner, Jay Lockman gave an enter taining pictorial histor y of the Green Bank Obser vator y. Thur sday's program star ted with Steven Tingay describing error recognition, which was followed by an introduction to polarisation by Dave McConnell (and his Poincare spheres!). Galvanised by another cup of coffee , students returned for Rick Per ley to fur ther stoke the polarisation furnace and distill an improved under standing, sullied only by some remaining D-terms. Mar k Wieringa concluded the morning with a review of obser ving

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Par ticipants of the 2010 C ASS Radio Astronomy. School Credit: Emil Lenc

sensitivity and the approaches to attempting to improve it. The school concluded on Friday with an over view of VLBI by Jamie Stevens, an introduction to widefield imaging by Maxim Voronkov, and a description of OPAL and ATOA by Jessica Chapman. The school wrapped up with a BBQ lunch with Narrabri staff, and

a oppor tunity to join a tour to Sawn Rocks in the afternoon. The effor ts of all Narrabri staff in setting up the Visitor s Centre for the school and in keeping par ticipants well-fed, caffeinated, transpor ted, and educated are applauded, par ticular ly the unstinting effor ts of Jo Houldswor th and Marg McFee in keeping ever ything r unning smoothly!

All speaker s, and additional tutor s John Bateman, Shari Breen, Jimi Green, Balt Indermuehle , James Urquhar t, Robin War k, and the SUSI team, ensured the week was a great success. Finally, the contribution of financial suppor t from the Donovan Tr ust is gratefully acknowledged.

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In France at the International Space Univer sity's Space Studies Program
Kjetil Wormnes (C ASS)

In July and August of 2010, with the fantastic suppor t of C ASS, I was for tunate enough to attend the International Space Univer sity's (ISU) Space Studies Program (SSP). The annual program is held at international facilities -- last year at NASA AMES and this year at the main campus of the ISU in Strasbourg, France. All aspects of spacerelated activity are covered over the intensive nine week program.
And what a time it was. There were 36 countries represented by 122 par ticipants and various attending lecturer s, as well as those r unning wor kshops and other activities. Backgrounds as diver se as journalism, law and business to of cour se engineering and science were represented by the group. Staff and faculty were usually well-known names within NASA, ESA or one of many other spacerelated organisations or businesses around the wor ld. With visits often lasting a few weeks, it gave us time to get to know them "off-line". The fir st four weeks covered lectures from the seven depar tments of the ISU; Engineering, Law, Space and Society, Business, Space Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Satellite Applications. The second half of the program allowed us to focus on a depar tment of choice and was finished off by a large team project.

My group (of about 45) investigated the future feasibility of mining Near Ear th Asteroids (NEA). NEAs have attracted some interest in recent year s as many of them fall into the categor y of being potentially hazardous to us here on Ear th. NASA has under taken an effor t to detect and characterise 90% of NEAs larger than 140 meter s in diameter over the next 10 year s; a huge task and one in which we can expect a lot of interest to build as more information (and funding) becomes available over the coming year s. There were two other Australians par ticipating in this year's program, one from the Defence Space Coordination Office and the other who used to be in the mining industr y. Among the lecturer s and

Kjetil's final project team. Credit: K.Wormnes

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The Southern Cross Astrophysics Conference Series* Four th annual conference
Sydney Powerhouse Museum, 20-24 June 2011
teaching staff there were actually quite a few Australians, mainly in the Policy and Law areas. I also had the pleasure to talk to David Southwood, the director of Science and Robotic Exploration at ESA. We spoke about his involvement with Australia in establishing the fir st of ESA's deep space antennas, located at New Norcia outside Per th. Other attendees included people from Brazil who were involved with the launch vehicle to be used by SHEFEX-2, a project by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) which will be launched from Woomera later this year, as well as those involved with the landing of Hayabusa at Woomera in June . From 2010 onwards, a Southern Hemisphere ver sion of the SSP is planned, with a format mostly similar to the SSP, but a bit shor ter and with more focus on applications. This year it will be based in Adelaide , but it will eventually move around the Southern Hemisphere just as the ISU SSP does in the nor th. I expect it will attract the same calibre of lecturer s and staff, and being closer to home, and held during our summer, will be a program that more Australians will be able to attend. I hope we will be able to wor k with them to share some of the tremendous exper tise available within C ASS. It is an oppor tunity for us to build a relationship with the ISU and through that promote both astronomy and space science not only in Australia but around the rest of the Southern Hemisphere as well.

Super novae and their Host Galaxies
Motivation
The current generation of wide field transient sur veys will revolutionise our under standing of why star s become supernovae. Designed to revisit large areas of sky at multiple wavelengths, these sur veys are now discovering hundreds of supernovae each year. During the coming year, the number of supernova discoveries will increase even fur ther as new transient sur veys come online. As well as finding rare and possibly new types of supernovae, these sur veys will generate new insights into both core-collapse and thermonuclear supernovae. It is therefore timely to have a conference that explores the current (obser vational and theoretical) supernova landscape and the connection between supernovae and their host galaxies. Some topics to be covered include · the many different paths to a supernova explosion · the progenitor s of supernovae · supernova remnants · supernova rates · the relationships between the proper ties of supernovae and the proper ties of their host galaxies · supernovae as tracer s of star formation · unusual supernovae · unexplained transients · current and future transient sur veys * Jointly organised by C ASS and the AAO.

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The MALT 90 GHz Sur vey and the SOC Pilot Project
Jill Rathborne, Jessica Chapman, Kate Brooks (C ASS) and Jim Jackson (Boston Univer sity) On behalf of the MALT90 science team and the Mopra Large Sur veys Wor king Group

Abstract:
Underway this year is a new, large , molecular line sur vey of dense cores at 90 GHz, the Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz (MALT90) sur vey. The MALT90 sur vey will exploit the fastmapping capability of the Mopra radio telescope, combined with the broadband MOPS correlator which allows the simultaneous imaging of 16 molecular lines near 90 GHz. These molecular lines will probe the physical conditions, chemical state, and evolutionar y state of ~3,000 dense molecular cores. The target cores are selected as likely sites for the ear ly stages of high-mass star formation and to span the complete range of their evolutionar y states. Each core will be mapped simultaneously in 16 molecular lines at excellent angular (40 arcsec) and spectral (0.1 km/s) resolution. MALT90 will be especially useful to identify impor tant targets for future ALMA obser vations.
A major goal for C ASS is to develop a Science Operations Centre (SOC) in Sydney. Ultimately the SOC will provide the full range of activities carried out for the science operations of ATNF facilities. As well as a major science project, the MALT90 project has been used for a trial of SOC-mode obser ving. In the fir st par t of this ar ticle we describe the science goals of the MALT90 sur vey. The second par t describes the SOC Pilot study. molecular cores, high-mass star s may instead acquire most of their mass by "competitive accretion," a process by which high-mass cores agglomerate material well outside of their gravitationally-bound parental cores (e .g., Bonnell et al. 1997). In this theor y, material falls through the potential well of a large molecular cloud, and is funnelled down to molecular cores near the centre . The cores near the cloud centre thus receive a fresh supply of material, and continue to accrete additional mass. Secondly, while low-mass star s reach the main-sequence after the accretion process has essentially finished, young O star s fir st reach the main-sequence as B star s that are still significantly accreting (e .g., Behrand & Maeder 2001). All theories agree that a high-mass star begins its life as a "pre-stellar" or "star less" core , which collapses to form a deeply embedded, accreting protostar or "hot molecular core ." When fusion begins, the star enter s the main-sequence and ionizes its surrounding material to form hyper- and ultra-compact H II regions. Obser vationally, however, the ver y ear liest stages of highmass protostellar evolution have remained elusive . Only a handful of candidate high-mass pre-stellar cores have been tentatively identified, and it has been difficult to confirm their pre-stellar nature . The ear liest well-characterised phase is the "hot molecular core" phase , well after accretion has begun. Recently, ear lier phases have been identified as cold, compact cores within Infrared Dar k Clouds (IRDCs; e .g., Carey et al.2000; Rathborne et al. 2005, 2006). The community has now identified a large number of high-mass protostar s. These span the range from cold pre-stellar cores found in IRDCs, to hot cores, and compact H II regions. Impor tant new samples have been found using the Spitzer GLIMPSE (3-8 um) and MIPSGAL (24 um) sur veys, the HOPS Sur vey (1.3 cm), and

The MALT90 Science Project
Although the basic sequence for high-mass protostellar evolution is generally thought to be the same as for low-mass star s, modern theories (e.g., see reviews by Zinnecker & Yor ke 2007 and McKee & Ostriker 2007) suggest the possibility of two impor tant differences. Fir stly, although low-mass star s are thought to acquire their mass by accreting material solely from their parental

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various mm and submm continuum sur veys. With these new sur veys, we can begin to study the evolutionar y sequence of high-mass protostellar evolution by finding large number s of objects in each of these stages. The major goal of the MALT 90 GHz Sur vey is to characterise high-mass star-forming cores and to study their physical and chemical evolution. The Spitzer Galactic sur veys GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL have shown that IRDCs host the massive dense cores, which are making the transition from cold, quiescent pre-stellar cores to active hot cores and H II regions. Moreover, submm Galactic sur veys such as the Apex Telescope Large Area Sur vey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) are now identifying huge number s (~10,000) of dense molecular cores associated with star formation. We aim to capitalise on these advances in high-mass star formation by conducting a large , new molecular line sur vey of dense cores with the Mopra radio telescope .

Figure 1: Spitzer GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL images toward three examples of highmass star forming cores (contour s are of the 1.2 millimetre continuum dust emission): Pre-stellar (top), Protostellar (middle), and a HII region (right). The primar y goal of the MALT 90 GHz Sur vey is to characterise star-forming cores and to study their physical and chemical evolution.

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The 90 GHz molecular lines are especially interesting probes because they require high-densities for excitation. Because the cores are much denser than typical COemitting molecular clouds, 90 GHz emission will arise only from the dense, star-forming cores. Moreover, since these lines span a large range of excitation energies and critical densities, they indicate distinct physical conditions and distinct stages of chemical evolution. Mopra's unique broad-band capability allows us to image 16 of these molecular lines simultaneously. Finally, because many chemical species are obser vable, for the fir st time a large systematic sur vey of core chemistr y can be conducted. Due to the small solid angle occupied by star-forming cores emitting strongly at 90 GHz, a blind, fully sampled sur vey of a significant por tion of the Galactic plane is impractical. Thus, to sur vey significant number s of star-forming cores efficiently, we must choose selected targets. Because submm emission traces cores in all evolutionar y stages, we are using the ATLASGAL point source catalogue as our basic target list, supplemented by core categorisation based on GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL images. We aim to image roughly 1,000 cores each in the pre-stellar, protostellar, and H II region phases. MALT90 will be the largest systematic molecular line sur vey of dense cores ever

under taken. MALT90 will be valuable not only in its own right, but also as an impor tant finding char t to identify key ALMA targets. MALT90 has just completed its fir st obser ving season, spanning more than 860 hour s since mid-July. The season was extremely successful; we obtained maps toward ~ 520 cores, which spanned the complete range in the proposed evolutionar y sequence . We are in the process of completing the final data reduction before the data are released to the team. We expect a data release to the wider community ear ly next year. Already the team has identified over 12 key science projects, which aim to characterise the high-mass star-forming cores. The MALT90 team consists of over 50 astronomer s wor ldwide .

is done remotely by astronomer s from other locations. In the future, this "user-operator" mode will continue to be used for the Compact Array, and the Par kes and Mopra telescopes. However, an increasing amount of obser ving will be carried out from the SOC , par ticular ly for obser ving teams that require exper t suppor t. The user-operator mode will not be used for ASKAP. Instead, ASKAP obser vations will be taken remotely from the SOC in a queue-based model. Astronomer s will access their data and data products through archive facilities. The full SOC will be developed using a staged approach. As a fir st step, in the 2010 April semester, we have carried out a pilot study to tr y out "SOC-mode" obser ving where the obser ver s and the astronomer s who provide obser ving suppor t are based in Sydney. The MALT90 project has been used as a demonstration project for this study. The goals of this pilot study are to: · Trial SOC-mode obser ving from Mar sfield, initially for obser vations of Mopra Large Sur veys from Sydney. · Establish and implement the technical and user requirements needed to do this. · Gain experience of Sydney-based obser ving, and wor king with science teams on Large Projects.

MALT90 and the SOC Pilot project
An impor tant par t of the planning for future ATNF Operations, that will include the operations of ASKAP, now under constr uction in Western Australia, is the establishment of a Science Operations Centre (SOC) in Sydney. At present, most obser vations are carried out in a mode where astronomer s are present for and control their own obser vations, at either the Par kes or Narrabri site . Additionally, some obser ving

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· Extend the ATNF data archives (ATOA) to provide a search facility and access to the processed data cubes that will result from the MALT90 sur vey. To establish and implement the technical and suppor t requirements for this pilot study, in May 2010 a "Mopra Large Sur veys Wor king Group" was established. This group wor ked in consultation with the MALT90 project team leader (Jim Jackson) and other member s of the science team. Suggestions received from Australia Telescope User s Committee (ATUC) and input from focus groups were also included in this planning. The MALT90 project was allocated ~860 hour s of obser ving time between mid July and late September. The science team initially spent three weeks at Narrabri to ensure that their obser ving and data reduction strategies were wor king effectively. Almost all of the obser ving from ear ly August was then carried out from Sydney. To suppor t this, a number of new facilities were introduced. These included: · Dedicated access to remote obser ving computing facilities in Mar sfield. This area is used for remote obser vations with the Compact Array and/or Mopra. · A powerful new ser ver and dedicated disk space was provided to allow for fast off-

line data processing of the Mopra Large Sur vey data. · A high-quality point-point video link has been installed at Narrabri and Mar sfield to facilitate the interactions between staff and obser ver s located at the two sites. · Improvements have been made to the Mar sfield Lodge ser vices to provide dar ker bedrooms and hot meals after hour s and at weekends. Access to a small kitchen near the obser ving areas was also provided. · Some improvements have been made to the on-line obser ving software tools, including the use of an on-line obser ving log. Other improvements that will include batch processing of schedule files and automated telescope pointing are planned but not yet completed. A critical element of SOC obser ving is to provide local suppor t to the obser ver s in Mar sfield. For the MALT90 project, suppor t astronomer s were available on the site at all times during the scheduled obser vations. The suppor t roster was set up with a default of two 3.5 day blocks per week. Accommodation and travel costs were provided for suppor t astronomer s who travelled to the site and gave at least seven days suppor t. In the next few weeks a review will be held to consider the "lessons learnt" from this pilot study. Initial

feedback shows that the science team found it straightforward to obser ve from Sydney, and appreciated the high level of exper t suppor t they received. The obser ving systems were robust, with ver y few technical problems and the video connection helped facilitate wor king between the two sites. The level of comfor t provided by the Visitor s Ser vices Group, and the hot meals were also appreciated. There has been some impact on local staff who wor ked long hour s, some staff and visitor s raised concerns over the use of the video system. These matter s will be carefully considered over the next few months as we learn from the recent experience. Over the next year, C ASS will continue to provide suppor t for SOC-mode obser ving, with a focus on Mopra Large Sur veys. Fur ther information on SOC obser ving for the 2011 April semester will be provided to the community with the next Announcement of Oppor tunity in mid-November 2010.

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Discover y of a Radio­loud X-ray­quiescent Magnetar in the High Time Resolution Univer se Sur vey
M J Keith, L Levin, M Bailes, S Johnston, M Kramer, A Possenti, A Jameson, W van Straten, S D Bates, N D R Bhat, M Burgay, S Bur keSpolaor, N D'Amico, S Milia, B W Stapper s

Magnetar s are neutron star s with some of the strongest magnetic fields in the known univer se, typically above 1014 Gauss. These star s are usually obser ved through highly energetic X-ray and gamma-ray outbur sts, thought to be powered by the release of energy trapped in the str ucture of the magnetic field itself. In recent year s we have detected radio pulses, similar to those from pulsar s, associated with these energetic outbur sts in two magnetar s. Now, for the fir st time, we have discovered a magnetar by its radio emission alone. This is most intriguing, especially as the standard pulsar emission theories do not allow for radio emission in the presence of such extreme magnetic fields.

hardware available . Of par ticular merit is the "20-cm Multibeam" receiver, which packs 13 feeds into the focus of the antenna. This enables 13 patches of sky to be sur veyed in a single obser vation, allowing for deep sur veys of large areas of sky, such as the Par kes Multibeam Pulsar Sur vey (PMPS; Manchester et al. 2001). This sur vey ran for six year s beginning in 1997 and discovered over 700 pulsar s, more than doubling the known population of pulsar s at the time . Even though the sur vey was highly successful, the finite width of the analogue filter s in the recording system limited the ability to detect the fastest pulsar s and transient

events. This is because as pulses travel to the Ear th, the low frequencies are delayed with respect to the high frequencies by inter stellar disper sion. The result is that the pulse is smeared out over the finite bandwidth of our instr ument. This effect can be negated by recording the obser vation in sufficiently narrow frequency channels that can then be corrected for the delay. In order to detect faster objects located deeper in the disk of the Galaxy, we have designed and built a new an all-digital multi-beam filterbank system known as BPSR. This system provides ten times the frequency resolution of the old system, and in the typical obser ving

The High Time Resolution Universe survey
The Par kes radio telescope has a long and impressive record of pulsar discoveries, having discovered almost half of all known radio pulsar s. This success can be put down to a combination of the location of the antenna (the Galactic Centre passes directly overhead) and the excellent receiver s and backend

Figure 1: Contour s of constant smearing time for the analogue (dotted) and BPSR digital (solid) filterbank systems. Contour s are 0.5, 1,5 and 10 ms. The Galactic centre is mar ked "GC"

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Figure 2: Light cur ve and profile variations for PSR J1622-4950. The top plot shows the temporal variation of flux density at 1.4 GHz. Archival timing data collected within the framewor k of the Par kes Multibeam Sur vey ends just before MJD = 54000, and the discover y of PSR J1622-4950 by the HTRU pulsar sur vey was made on MJD = 54939. The asterisks show the detections (with error s smaller than the size of the points), and the circles indicate obser vations during which PSR J1622-4950 was not detected (down to a limiting flux density of 1.2 mJy). The purple error bar indicates the obser vation centered at 6.3 GHz from the Methanol Multibeam sur vey that detected PSR J1622-4950. When conver ted into a 1.4 GHz flux density, the large error is dominated by the uncer tainty in the spectral index; the top value of the bar corresponds to a flat radio spectr um, and the bottom value is derived from our best estimate of the spectral index. The bottom plots show three different pulse profiles from three consecutive obser vations, taken on 30 June 2009, 16 July 2009, and 23 July 2009.

mode records samples ever y 64 microseconds. With this new digital system we can see through much more of the inter stellar medium. Figure 1 shows contour s of constant smearing timescale for the analogue hardware (dotted lines) and the BPSR system (solid lines). This makes it clear that for the fastest pulsar s, the BPSR system can see more than twice as far into the Galactic plane . To take advantage of these new advances we have embar ked on the High Time Resolution Univer se sur vey for pulsar s and fast transients. This sur vey cover s the entire sky, with nor thern declinations being covered by a twin sur vey at Effelsberg. For the Par kes por tion of the sur vey the mean sensitivity is ~0.10 mJy for Galactic latitudes between ±3.5°, ~0.25 mJy for those between ±15° and 0.32 mJy for the

remainder of the sky. The sur vey is expected to r un for four more year s, and full details of the sur vey are given in Keith et al. (2010). In addition to discovering many millisecond pulsar s, the sur vey is turning up many longer period pulsar s. Some are found because they fell in regions of low sensitivity of ear lier sur veys, for example , between adjacent obser vations. In the case of PSR J1622-4950, however it was clear that something ver y different was happening.

was detected with a signal-to-noise ratio of 250, by far the brightest pulsar discovered in the HTRU sur vey. Follow up obser vations indicated that the pulsar was highly variable , both in the shape of and the intensity of the pulse. The area of sky containing PSR J1622-4950 was previously covered by the PMPS but, somewhat surprisingly given its large apparent flux density and DM, the pulsar was not detected in these data. However, that sur vey did find two other radio pulsar s in close proximity to PSR J1622-4950 and monitored them for a number of year s, namely PSRs J1623-4949 and J1622­4944 at an angular separation of 11 and 7, respectively. These archival data were reprocessed using the period and DM of PSR J1622-4950. As can be seen in Figure 2, the pulsar was not detected until data from June 1999. It was

The radio magnetar PSR J1622­4950
PSR J1622-4950 was discovered in April of 2009, with a spin period of 4.3 s, and a disper sion measure of 830 cm-3 pc (Levin et al. 2010). In the sur vey obser vation the pulsar

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Figure 3: Top panel shows a 5.5 GHz image made with the ATC A. Bottom panel shows Chandra X-ray image of the same region of sky. Detailed analysis indicates that PSR J1622-4950 is the bright point source visible in both images.

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again detected in 11 obser vations taken between October of 2000 and July of 2002, after which the pulsar was detected only in the 14 subsequent obser vations. In April of 2007 the area of sky was covered by the 6.7 GHz pulsar sur vey at Par kes, where it was again detectable (though it was missed in the original analysis as it was confused with interference signals). Figure 2 demonstrates this flux variability, and indicates that there have been at least two quiescent periods in the radio emission. Also shown are samples of pulse profiles taken in adjacent obser vations, indicating the considerable change in the integrated pulse profile on fair ly shor t time-scales. The radio polarisation of the magnetar is also variable , however it is often almost completely linear ly polarised. The polarisation fraction is typically greater at 3.1 GHz than at 1.4 GHz, similar to young radio pulsar s. It also occasionaly displays significant circular polarisation, par ticular ly at the leading edge of the pulse. Faraday rotation has been detected with a rotation measure of -1484 ± 1 rad m-2. The characteristic spin-down age of the magnetar is only 4000 year s,

and therefore any remnant from the supernova event that formed it would likely still be visible . To search for such a remnant we performed 12-hour tracks of the source with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, in each of the EW352 and 750B configurations. The obser vations utilised the simultaneous 2-GHz bands centred at 5.5 and 9 GHz made available by the Compact Array Broadband Backend. The image showed a highly-polarised flat-spectr um point source co-incident with both an X-ray source . Additional Compact Array obser vations confirmed that this source matched the magnetar's flux density at 1.4 GHz and was therefore the only suitable candidate . The image also shows a tantalising ring of nebulous emission. This ring lacks an infrared counterpar t and appear s to be non-thermal, whereas the slightly extended radio source in the south of the ring is clear ly thermal in nature . If we assume a distance of 9 kpc to the magnetar and fur ther assume it was born in the centre of the ring, the magnetar would need a velocity of 1300 km/s to reach its current location whereas the ring itself would have a lower expansion velocity. Such a velocity is high (though not

impossible) for pulsar s but rather low for expanding SNRs. Therefore we feel that this association, though possible , is unlikely. This discover y of a highly polarised, radio-luminous magnetar is the fir st major result from the HTRU sur vey. The pulsar shares many of the proper ties of the two known radio magnetar s, however PSR J1622-4950 indicates that bright radio emission can be present even when a magnetar displays an X-ray luminosity typical of a quiescent state. We finally note that the extreme variability in the flux density of PSR J1622-4950 also demonstrates the advantages of sur veying the radio sky at regular inter vals with even modest sensitivity. This highlights the potential of the upcoming radio facilities like the LOFAR, ASKAP, or SKA which promise to characterise the dynamic radio sky at an unprecedented level.

References
Keith M. J. et al., 2010, MNRAS, in press (arXive:1006.5744) Levin L. et al., 2010, ApJ Letter s, 721 L33 Manchester R. N. et al., 2001, MNRAS, 328, 17

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Fir st Science from the ASKAP and War kwor th Antennas: on the Path to "Maximum Discover y"
Professor Steven Tingay, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research ­ Cur tin Univer sity On behalf of the Australian and New Zealand VLBI teams

One of the ten ASKAP Sur vey Science Projects is aimed at high angular resolution obser vations using CSIRO's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope as par t of Australian and international ver y long baseline interferometr y (VLBI) arrays. This Sur vey Science Project (SSP) pur sues activities in two main areas: 1) achieving ear ly science results from ASKAP as an element of the Australian VLBI array, from the point at which a single ASKAP antenna is available, through the use of custom RF and digital systems; 2) produce an operational VLBI system for the mature ASKAP that is fully integrated with the final ver sions of the ASKAP RF and digital systems.
Goal 1 is a near term goal and one that has been primarily the focus of wor k over the year since the SSP was approved. Wor k for goal 2 has a longer-term focus and will proceed at the pace at which the various ASKAP sub-systems mature into their final forms. We repor t here on the fir st science results to emerge from ASKAP, a

consequence of success with goal 1 and preparator y wor k toward goal 2. Over the cour se of a three week period in late April and ear ly May 2010, successful VLBI obser vations were performed using the fir st of the ASKAP antennas to be installed at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Obser vator y (MRO), along with a new 12-m antenna installed at War kwor th on New Zealand's Nor th Island. Figure 1 shows the distribution of the antennas used in these obser vations. The obser vations used a custom RF system built by engineer s at CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science and a custom digital backend built at the International Centre for Radio

Figure 1: Geographic distribution of antennas used for VLBI obser vations in April/May 2010. ASKAP, ATC A, Mopra and Par kes are operated by C ASS. Hobar t is operated by The Univer sity of Tasmania.

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Astronomy Research (ICRAR), Cur tin Univer sity, by PhD candidate Mr Br uce Stansby. Identical systems were installed at ASKAP and War kwor th. Regular systems were used at the rest of the LBA stations. The data recorded at each telescope were transferred to ICRAR and correlated using the DiFX software correlator. High quality data were obtained for a range of astronomical objects: 3C 273; PKS 1934-638; Centaur us A; and a selection of geodetic calibration sources. The data yielded images with a resolution of approximately 5 mas at 1.4 GHz (dual-polarisation 64 MHz bandwidth). Shown below in Figure 2 is the image of Centaur us A that accompanied a press release announcing the success of the experiment -- Aussies and Kiwis forge a cosmic link: http://www.csiro.au/news/Aussies-andKiwis-forge-a-cosmic-connection.html.

Figure 2: The str ucture of Centaur us A, from the largest scales obser ved with the ATC A, to the smallest scales probed by new VLBI obser vations with a maximum baseline of 5500 km, from Western Australia to New Zealand. Image credit ­ Whole galaxy: I Feain, T Cornwell & R Eker s (CSIRO/ATNF); ATC A nor thern middle lobe pointing cour tesy R Morganti (ASTRON); Par kes data cour tesy N Junkes (MPIfR). Inner radio lobes: NRAO / AUI / NSF. Core: S Tingay (ICRAR) / ICRAR, CSIRO and AUT NB: For reference, please see the colour image published on the back page of this newsletter.

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Figure 3: Image of the double component str ucture of PKS 1934-638 at 1.4 GHz, par t of a paper submitted for publication to The Astronomical Journal.

The Centaur us A data were featured at the 2010 International SKA For um, held recently in Assen, The Nether lands. In his address to the for um, Professor Brian Boyle presented the results as a step toward the demonstration of the "Maximum Discover y" possible for an SKA located in Australia ­ New Zealand. Another significant result arose from obser vations of PKS 1934638, an archetypal GHz-Peaked spectr um radio galaxy. Because of the high angular resolution obtained at low frequency, these obser vations have revealed for the fir st time a frequency-dependant angular separation between the two compact components in this radio galaxy, likely due to synchrotron

self-absorption. Previously this frequency dependant str ucture has been incorrectly identified as str uctural evolution over a 40 year period. The new obser vations show the way to the correct conclusion that the str ucture is frequency dependant due to absorption effects and ver y stable with time . Figure 3 shows the image of PKS 1934-638 obtained from the obser vations. The PKS 1934-638 results have been submitted for publication in The Astronomical Journal (Tzioumis et al. 2010, submitted) and document the fir st science to be obtained from the ASKAP and War kwor th antennas. The VLBI capability established in the fir st year of this SSP will be retained and deployed for a

range of obser vations during the remaining ASKAP development and will transition to the full system as ASKAP matures. Both ASKAP and War kwor th are now included in the Australian Long Baseline Array call for proposals and are thus available to proposer s who require high angular resolution at 1.4 GHz. The SSP team is also wor king with Indian colleagues to establish the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) for VLBI obser vations, aiming to extend the reach of VLBI in the region, adding to regular VLBI par tner s in South Africa, Japan, China and the USA.

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Bonsai-ed Radio Galaxy Gives Clue to Jet Energies
Rober t Soria (Univer sity of Sydney)

A new Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATC A) study of a microquasar in the galaxy NGC 7793 strongly suggests that the tr ue power of black hole jets is a thousand times larger than the power estimated only from their obser ved radio emission.
The ATC A obser vations of this object, S26, complement optical and X-ray obser vations carried out with Chandra and European Southern Obser vator y's Ver y Large Telescope , published in Nature ear lier this year. The radio obser vations have made it clear that S26 is a near-perfect analogue for a radio galaxy. The new data show that S26 has exactly the str ucture of a radio galaxy, in a way never seen before in microquasar s derived from stellar-mass black holes. Measuring the power of black hole jets, and therefore their heating effect, is usually ver y difficult. Powerful jets are characterised by strong radio emission from their lobes: large, expanding blobs of energetic electrons, moving at close to the speed of light, at the end of the jet. But such radio-emitting electrons contain only a small fraction of the total jet energy. The rest of the energy is generally not detected: only in rare cases can it be indirectly estimated from its effect on the surrounding gas. S26 helps shed light on the energetics of these systems. The radio, optical and X-ray obser vations reveal bright radio lobes at the

Figure 1: The ATC A 3-cm map with the position of the X-ray core (black hole) and hot spots highlighted.

end of the pair of jets, plus a super sonically-expanding bubble of heated gas. We can directly measure the energy in both the lobes and bubble: because we have good obser vations in three wavebands, we can determine what fraction of the initial jet power (kinetic energy of the par ticles in the jet) is conver ted to thermal energy of the warm gas (T ~ 10,000 K, emitting optical lines); what fraction is given to the hot gas (T > 106 K, emitting in the X-rays); and what fraction

is given to relativistic electrons (emitting in the radio bands). We find that about a thousandth (or, at most, a few par ts in a thousand) of the jet power is given to the radioemitting electrons in the lobes, while the rest is used to blow the large bubble of heated gas, 300 pc across. This result confirms models positing that the tr ue power of black hole jets is a thousand times larger than the power estimated only from its obser ved radio emission. It suggests

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National Facility Operations
Douglas Bock, Jessica Chapman, Phil Edwards, Erik Lensson, Mar k Bowen (C ASS)

that black hole jets can be both more powerful and more efficient than previously thought, and therefore that their cosmic heating effect can be stronger. And it gives us a way to estimate the tr ue jet power in other black holes (including those in quasar s and radio galaxies) where only the radio lobes may be directly obser vable, not the bubble of hot gas. The significantly improved continuum sensitivity of the Compact Array Broadband Backend (C ABB) let us trace the radio morphology at sensitivity levels of less than 10 microJanskys/beam, in three days of obser vations. Before C ABB this would have taken 15 days. As this is much longer than the typical ATC A time allocation, it's likely that, without being able to use C ABB, we would not have been allocated the time to do this wor k and hence would not have been able to map the fine str ucture of the radio lobes and cocoon.

Remote Operations
Several effor ts are underway to prepare for remote operation of all the telescopes. A pilot Science Operations Centre project was conducted over the winter, with most obser vations of the MALT90 Mopra sur vey taken from Mar sfield. The results will be used to inform the design of the Science Operations Centre that will eventually ser ve user s of all ATNF instr uments including ASKAP. At Par kes, projects to improve the reliability of power and drive control, and to automate frontend and backend re-configurations are at the installation phase . The impact of this wor k on obser ving time this semester is described below. In addition, a new UPS for the Mar sfield PABX and UPS batteries for Par kes and for the ATC A antennas will be installed over the summer.

(CSIRO) and Michael Bur ton (Univer sity of New South Wales).

Managing Radiofrequency Interference (RFI) at National Facility Observatories
The increasing demand for commercial wireless communications and government ser vices represents an ongoing challenge for the national facility obser vatories and radioastronomy facilities wor ldwide . About for ty CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science staff met at Mar sfield on 1 September 2010, to share experiences and practical approaches to dealing with increasingly complex radiofrequency interference (RFI) and spectr um use matter s relevant to r unning national facility obser vatories. Wor kshop par ticipants included staff from ATNF Engineering and Science Operations, Astrophysics, Technologies for Radio Astronomy and ASKAP, as well as a number of staff from the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex at Tidbinbilla. The inhouse event concentrated on practical operational objectives: 1. Increasing staff awareness as to the different kinds of RFI related exper t skills and experience that already exists across the obser vatories and CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science generally;

References
Pakull, Manfred W.; Soria, Rober to; Motch, Christian. A 300parsec-long jet-inflated bubble around a powerful microquasar in the galaxy NGC 7793. Nature, 466, 209 (2010) Soria, Rober to; Pakull, Manfred W; Broderick, Jess W; Corbel, Stephane; Motch, Christian. Radio lobes and X-ray hot spots in the microquasar S26. MNRAS, in press (2010)

Water Vapor Radiometers
Water Vapour Radiometer s for all Compact Array antennas have been delivered by Melbourne company ASTROWAVE. They have been installed on the antennas and are undergoing calibration. Pleasingly, a comparison with the 12 mm "science" data shows that they are tracking phase changes as required. Development of algorithms to correct astronomical data for phase effects continues through the effor ts of Balt Indermuehle

34 ATNF Ne ws , Issue 69, October 2010


2. sharing knowledge about hardware and software tools useful for operational RFI management; 3. improving cross-site collaboration on RFI detection, identification and tracking; 4. considering strategies for transitioning the National Facility Operations to ASKAP and beyond. Many topical issues were outlined and discussed, including relevant international RFI threshold standards in Recommendation ITU-R RA.769 (Tasso Tzioumis), international vs national regulation (Carol Wilson), approaches to site related electromagnetic compatibility (Mal Smith), RFI identification, & tracking (John Reynolds), tools for RFI hunting & tracking (Peter Mir tschin), mitigation (Mike Kesteven), dealing with other spectr um user s and current & future challenges from geostationar y and non-geostationar y satellite RFI sources, airborne and space radar s (Erik Lensson). Staff also heard about the development of the Murchison Radio Quiet Zone (Michelle Storey) and related RFI level measurements (Ron Beresford). The day concluded with an open "Q&A" Panel Session (Phil Edwards), with fur ther discussions about the key issues identified during the cour se of the day. These issues will be fur ther considered as par t of future planning for national facility operations, including:

· new and improved RFI related databases and analysis software tools to suppor t staff and obser ver s at existing and new obser vatories; · the creation of a new online "RFI Repor t", as an adjunct to the existing generic obser vator y "Fault Repor t", for streamlining the repor ting and tracking of RFI events, including data mining of related ATNF archives; · options for improved obser vator y RFI monitoring, independent of the actual obser ving instr uments, including facilities for time-series analysis, automated source identification and repor ting.

Projects are now required to provide web pages on their projects. Please include information on the spectral coverage , spatial coverage, and sensitivity of the sur vey obser vations. For ongoing sur veys, regular updates should be provided to indicate the current sur vey status, including the areas of the sur vey that have been completed. For fur ther information see www.atnf.csiro.au/obser vers/ apply/large_projects.html In a number of cases, proposer s re-submitted previous proposals but used a new proposal code: if a proposal is resubmitted (regardless of whether or not it has been allocated time in previous semester s) then please use the same proposal identification code as allocated previously.

October 2010 Time Assignment
The Time Assignment Committee met at Mar sfield on 22 ­ 23 July to consider proposals for the 2010 October semester (2010OCTS) A total of 163 proposals were reviewed, 103 for the Compact Array, 26 for Par kes, 14 for Mopra, seven for Tidbinbilla and 13 for the Long Baseline Array. The Time Assignment Committee was pleased to see that the revised guidelines for Large Projects (requiring more than 400 hour s for the expected lifetime of the program) were obser ved by proposer s. Please note that Proposer s allocated time for Large

Notes on the Compact Array
The 2010OCTS will commence with the "standard" C ABB 1 MHz continuum mode available , and with up to four zoom bands per IF available in the 1M ­ 0.5k mode . It is hoped that a problem affecting one of the four zoom bands (specifically all baselines to C A04 in one polarisation) will be resolved ear ly in the October semester. The 64-MHz C ABB mode was fir st used in late September. Initially, the 64-MHz mode has a single 64-

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Publications List
Publication lists for paper s which include ATNF data or C ASS author s are available on the Web at www.atnf. csiro.au/research/publications. Please email any updates or corrections to this list to Jennifer.Lee@csiro.au or Julie. Tesoriero.@csiro.au. This list includes published refereed paper s compiled since the April 2010 Newsletter. Paper s which include C ASS staff are indicated by an asterisk.
*ABBOTT, B. P., ... HOBBS, G.B., ... MANCHESTER, R.N. et al."Searches for gravitational waves from known pulsar s with science r un 5 LIGO data ". ApJ,713,671685(2010). *ABDO, A.A., ... , HOBBS, G., ... , JOHNSTON, S., ... , MANCHESTER, R.N. et al."Discover y of pulsed g-rays from PSR J0034-0534 with the Fermi Large Area Telescope: a case for co-located radio and g-ray emission regions". ApJ,712,957-963(2010). *ABDO, A.A., ... HOBBS, G., ... JOHNSTON, S., ... MANCHESTER, R.N. et al."Detection of the energetic pulsar PSR B1509ï58 and its pulsar wind nebula MSH 15ï52 using the FermiLarge Area Telescope". ApJ,714,927-936(2010). *ABDO, A.A., ... HOBBS, G., ... MANCHESTER, R.N. et al."The Vela pulsar : results from the fir st year of Fermi LAT obser vations". ApJ,713,154165(2010). *ABDO, A.A., ... JOHNSTON, S. et al."Fermi Large Area Telescope obser vations of the Vela-X pulsar wind nebula ". ApJ,713,146153(2010). *ABDO, A.A. ..., JOHNSTON, S. ..., MANCHESTER, R.N., ..., WELTEVREDE, P. et al."The fir st Fermi Large Area Telescope catalog of gamma-ray pulsar s". ApJS,187,460494(2010). *ABDO, A.A. ..., WELTEVREDE, P. et al."Obser vations of the Large Magellanic Cloud with Fermi ". A&A,512,A7(2010). *ALVES, M.I.R., DAVIES, R.D., DICKINSON, C ., DAVIS, R.J., AULD, R.R., C ALABRETTA, M. & STAVELEY-SMITH, L."Diffuse radio recombination line emission on the Galactic plane between 1=36o and 440". MNRAS,405,1654-1669(2010). *BOQUIEN, M. ..., KORIBALSKI, B. et al."100 mm and 160 mm emission as resolved

MHz band in each IF, with 2048 channels across the band. (Thus, if the 64-MHz mode is selected for an IF, the total bandwidth in that IF will be 64 MHz, not 2 GHz.) For continuum plus spectral line studies, having one IF set with the 64-MHz mode and the other with the standard 2048 1-MHz-wide channels is possible . For spectral line studies, 64-MHz is available in both IFs -- with separations up to 7 GHz between the two 64 MHz channels possible . As only two 64 MHz zoom bands will be available at the beginning of the semester, several highly ranked proposals for obser vations of multiple lines with 64 MHz zoom bands have not been scheduled: these should be resubmitted at the 15 December deadline (using the same proposal code) for consideration in the 2011 April Semester. During the 2010OCTS it is expected that progress will be made toward expanding the number of zoom bands per IF in the 1-MHz C ABB mode, and that pulsar binning and higher time resolution modes will become available . It is also hoped that the 64-MHz mode will be expanded to provide more 64-MHz bands per IF. The weeks star ting on 18 October and 6 December will be used for maintenance towards the next stages of the 20cm/13cm (L/S) receiver upgrade. By the star t of the semester, antennas C A02, C A03, C A04, and C A06 had been outfitted with the new 1.1 ­ 3.0 GHz receiver s. By the time you receive this newsletter, C A05 should be outfitted with the

new receiver. C A01 will be without an LS receiver until December.

Notes on Parkes
The 2010OCTS schedule for Par kes has two shutdown periods. The fir st, from 5 ­ 19 October, is primarily for commissioning of the new RF switching matrix. This will enable "recabling" between standard obser ving set-ups to be carried out quickly and automatically. The second, from 28 Febr uar y ­ 24 March, is primarily for a major overhaul of the telescope Manual Control Panel. The H-OH receiver has recently been upgraded and fitted with a new feed, which will increase the bandwidth available . Testing of this receiver on the telescope is also planned for this second shutdown period. Par kes obser ver s have at times this year been adver sely affected by strong Radio-Frequency Interference (RFI). To help with effor ts to mitigate against RFI and to characterise the various sources, obser ver s are asked to record as accurately as possible the onset, duration, and spectral characteristics of any RFI experienced during obser ving.

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star-formation rate estimator s in M 33 (HERM33ES)". A&A,518,L70(2010). *BREEN, S.L., C ASWELL, J.L., ELLINGSEN, S.P. & PHILLIPS, C .J."Water maser s accompanying OH and methanol maser s in star formation regions". MNRAS,406,1487-1532(2010). *C ARRETTI, E., HAVERKORN, M., McCONNELL, D., BERNARDI, G., McCLUREGRIFFITHS, N.M, CORTIGLIONI, S. & POPPI, S."The Par kes Galactic Meridian Sur vey: obser vations and CMB polarization foreground analysis". MNRAS,405,16701689(2010). *C ASWELL, J.L., FULLER, G.A., GREEN, J.A., AVISON, A., BREEN, S.L., BROOKS, K.J., BURTON, M.G., CHRYSOSTOMOU, A., COX, J., DIAMOND, P.J., ELLINGSEN, S.P., GRAY, M.D., HOARE, M.G., MASHEDER, M.R.W., McCLURE-GRIFFITHS, N.M., PESTALOZZI, M.R., PHILLIPS, C .J., QUINN, L., THOMPSON, M.A., VORONKOV, M.A. et al. "The 6-GHz methanol multibeam maser catalogue . I. Galactic Centre region, longitude 3450 to 60". MNRAS,404,1029-1060(2010). *C ASWELL, J.L., HUTAWARAKORN KRAMER, B., SUKOM, A. & REYNOLDS, J.E."LBA obser vations of the maser cluster OH 330.953-0.182". MNRAS,402,26492656(2010). *COLES, W.A., RICKETT, B.J., GAO, J.J., HOBBS, G. & VERBIEST, J.P.W."Scattering of pulsar radio emission by the inter stellar plasma". ApJ,717,1206-1221(2010). *COPPIN, K.E.K., CHAPMAN, S.C ., SMAIL, I., SWINBANK, A.M., WALTER, F., WARDLOW, J.L., WEISS, A., ALEXANDER, D.M., BRANDT, W.N., DANNERBAUER, H., DE BREUCK, C ., DICKINSON, M., DUNLOP, J.S., EDGE, A.C ., EMONTS, B.H.C . et al."Detection of molecular gas in a distant submillimetre galaxy at z=4.76 with Australia Telescope Compact Array". MNRAS Lett.,407,L103-L107(2010). *CORBELLI, E., LORENZONI, S., WALTERBOS, R., BRAUN, R. & THILKER, D."A wide-field H I mosaic of Messier 31. II. The disk warp, rotation, and the dar k matter halo". A&A,511,A89(2010). *CROFT, S. ... , DeBOER, D. et al."The Allen Telescope Array Twenty-dentimeter Sur vey - A 690o2 12 epoch radio data set. I. Catalog and long-duration transient statistics". ApJ,719,4558(2010). *CSEH, D., KAARET, P., CORBEL, S., KORDING, E., CORIAT, M., TZIOUMIS, A. & LANZONI, B."Radio obser vations of NGC 6388: an upper limit on the mass of its central black hole". MNRAS,406,1049-1054(2010). *CURRAN, S.J. & WHITING, M.T. "H I 21 cm absorption and unified schemes of active galactic nuclei". ApJ,712,303-317(2010).

*DESAI, K.M., CHU, Y.H., GRUENDL, R.A., DLUGER, W., KATZ, M., WONG, T., CHEN, C .H.R., LOONEY, L.W., HUGHES, A. et al."Supernova remnants and star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud". AJ,140,584594(2010). *DOUGHERTY, S.M., CLARK, J.S., NEGUERUELA, I., JOHNSTON, T. & CHAPMAN, J.M."Radio emission from the massive star s in the galactic super star cluster Wester lund 1". A&A,511,A58(2010). *ELLINGSEN, S.P., BREEN, S.L., C ASWELL, J.L., QUINN, L.J. & FULLER, G.A."Maser s associated with high-mass star formation regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud". MNRAS,404,779791(2010). ELSON, E.C ., DE BLOK, W.J.G. & KRAANKORTEWEG, R.C ."The dar k matter content of the blue compact dwarf NGC 2915". MNRAS,404,2061-2076(2010). *EMONTS, B.H.C ., MORGANTI, R., STRUVE, C ., OOSTERLOO, T.A., VAN MOORSEL, G., TADHUNTER, C .N., VAN DER HULST, J.M., BROGT, E., HOLT, J. & MIRABAL, N."Largescale H I in nearby radio galaxies. II. The nature of classical low-power radio sources". MNRAS,406,987-1006(2010). *FERDMAN, R.D., STAIRS, I.H., KRAMER, M., McLAUGHLIN, M.A., LORIMER, D.R., NICE, D.J., MANCHESTER, R.N., HOBBS, G. et al."A precise mass measurement of the intermediate-mass binar y pulsar PSR J18022124". ApJ,711,764-771(2010). *FINN, L.S. & LOMMEN, A.N."Detection, localization, and characterization of gravitational wave bur sts in a pulsar timing array". ApJ,718,1400-1415(2010). *GLIOZZI, M., PAPADAKIS, I.E., GRUPE, D., BRINKMANN, W.P., RAETH, C . & KEDZIORACHUDCZER, L."A panchromatic view of PKS 0558-504: an ideal laborator y to study the disk-jet link". ApJ,717,1243-1252(2010). *GONZALO-NUEVO, J. ..., BONAVERA, L. et al."Her schel-ATLAS: blazar s in the science demonstration phase field". A&A,518,L38(2010). *GRANET, C ., KESTEVEN, M.J. & SMART, K.W. "Design, manufacture and test of an optimized horn for a holography experiment". In: EuC AP 2010 - The 4th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, Barcelona, Spain, 12-16 April 2010, Ar t. 5504971(2010). HARVEY-SMITH, L., GAENSLER, B.M., KOTHES, R., TOWNSEND, R., HEALD, G.H., NG, C .-Y. & GREEN, A.J."Faraday rotation of the supernova remnant G296.5+10.0: evidence for a magnetized progenitor wind". ApJ,712,1157-1165(2010).

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38 ATNF Ne ws , Issue 69, October 2010


Right: One of CSIRO's new ASKAP antennas being assembled at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Obser vator y, October 2010. Credit: Ross For syth

Below: An elevated view of three of CSIRO's new ASKAP antennas at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Obser vator y, October 2010. Credit: Ross For syth

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For further information: CSIRO Astronomy & Space Science Email enquiries: atnf-enquiries@csiro.au, Email newsletter : newsletter@atnf.csiro.au Web central: www.atnf.csiro.au Web newsletter : www.atnf.csiro.au/news/ newsletter, Web outreach: outreach.atnf.csiro.au

The str ucture of Centaur us A, from the largest scales obser ved with the ATC A, to the smallest scales probed by new VLBI obser vations with a maximum baseline of 5500 km, from Western Australia to New Zealand. See page 31