Radio Astronomy School 2019

CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science held the 2019 Radio Astronomy School at the Australia Telescope Compact Array near Narrabri, NSW from Monday 30^th September to Friday 4^th October 2019. The format of the school will be similar to previous Radio Astronomy Schools, with a mix of lectures and practical hands-on sessions. Material will be presented by both radio astronomers and engineers. The lectures will cover both single dish telescopes and interferometers, however, the emphasis of this year's school will be on interferometry. The intended audience is postgraduate students and other interested researchers. No prior experience with radio astronomy is required. Participants are encouraged to prepare a single A4 (landscape) poster introducing themselves and their research for display during the School.  

Program, talks, and school photo

The program  is available here.

Copies of the presentations given at the school are now available -- thanks to the speakers for providing these.

The school photo is available as an ATNF Daily Astronomy Picture.

Tutorials

This year’s Radio School will include a mix of tutorials over three days. Each one will be 1.5 to 2 hours long covering the topics of:

• Interferometric data calibration and imaging
• Spectral line data reduction
• Single-Dish calibration and imaging
• Time Domain Data Analysis
• Observing Strategies and Considerations
• Using parallel or Supercomputers for data reduction
• Making Data reduction pipelines
• Software and Services to make your life easier
• Tours and hands-on experience with ATCA

Student will have the opportunity to choose a couple tutorials a day or repeat the same tutorial twice. Sign-up will take place on first day of the radio school.

Social Events

It is important to make the Radio School experience not all work but to have some play. The speakers and participants are invited to attend three social events.

• Dinner and Trivia at the Narrabri Bowling Club – Monday 30 September
• Dinner and Star Party at ATCA – Wednesday 2 October
• Walk around Sawn Rocks – Friday 4 October

A form will be provided after registration to sign-up to attend these events.

In addition, there are activities at Coonabarabran over the long weekend which may be of interest: Science in the Pub on Friday October 4th, and Starfest on Saturday October 5th.

Important dates

• June 2019: First announcement
• 9 August 2019: Registration opens
• 30 September 2019: School Starts

Registration

Registration is now closed.  If you missed out but really wanted to come, contact the SOC and we will see if arrangements can be made. The registration fee was $320 for full registration and $260 for students. The registration fee covers all lunches, morning and afternoon teas, as well as two dinner events, but not accommodation and travel. Registration is only complete on receipt of full payment. Participants will be able to advise of any dietary requirements during the registration process.

Travel to Narrabri

Students are responsible for organising their own travel to and from Narrabri.

FlyCorporate airline has flights to Narrabri from Brisbane and Sydney but only on weekdays. QantasLInk flies to Moree (about 1 hour north from Narrabri by car) from Sydney, and QantasLink and Virgin fly to Tamworth (about 2 hours east of Narrabri by car) from Sydney. Car-pooling from one or other of these places may be possible.

A train runs each way daily between Sydney and Narrabri. The trains leave both Sydney and Narrabri at little after 9am and the journey takes a little over 7 hours. Reservations are required.

Some people may be driving from Sydney to Narrabri. The 565-km drive from Sydney takes approximately 7.5 hours. Some car-pooling options may be available.

Accommodation Advice

Students are responsible for arranging their own accommodation. Narrabri has a range of options, including the Club Motor Inn, the Southern Cross Motor Inn, the Adelong Motel, and the Mid Town Inn. The BigSky Caravan Park has cabins which can accommodate larger groups. No on-site accommodation will be available during the Radio School.

Bus transport will be arranged from the town of Narrabri to the telescope each morning and afternoon. The bus will pick up and drop off at the places listed above (and possibly others, if sufficient demand). The Bus timetable and map of the bus stop locations are now available!

Organising Committee

SOC: Chenoa Tremblay (chair), Philip Edwards, Jamie Stevens, Elaine Sadler, George Heald

LOC: Jamie Stevens, Amanda Gray

Code of Conduct

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

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

Participants asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately. Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the event at the sole discretion of the organisers without a refund of any charge. Any participant who wishes to report a violation of this policy is asked to speak, in confidence, to any of the LOC or SOC members.

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

PDF version of the Code of Conduct

Page last updated: 09-Oct-2019 pge