| CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility ATCA Users Guide |
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If your proposal is successful and is assigned observing time, you should be notified shortly after the Time Allocation Committee meeting.
Generally, at least one member of the observing team must be present at the observatory for the observations. ATNF staff will be available to help and instruct observers. The visiting observer should be well-versed with needs of their observing program before arriving, particularly if they did not write the observing proposal or schedule files. Remote Observing is only available for experienced observers.
Occupational Health and Safety regulations require that observers are not to observe for more than 16 hours, so for long observations you will need more than one observer.
Plan your trip to the Compact Array with the help of the ATNF Visitor’s Information. You will need to book transport, accommodation and computer resources in Sydney and at the observatory before arrival.
Note that multi-configuration observations are likely to occur weeks or even months apart, so you may need to plan either one long visit or several short trips.
New observers should plan on spending at least one day (during normal business hours) at the observatory to prepare for their observations. A few days spent at the ATNF Sydney headquarters is also recommended but not necessary. Overseas observers will require a valid visa and passport for entry into Australia.
The Compact Array is controlled from user generated schedule files. We recommend you prepare your schedule files before arrival at Sydney or Narrabri.
Schedule files are prepared with the program ATCASCHED or the web-based scheduler http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/observing/sched. They contain source names, positions, frequencies, bandwidths, correlator configurations any other information that CAOBS needs for observations.
You can prepare your initial schedule as a simple text file, which ATCASCHED can convert into the form required by the Compact Array’s observing program. This method (described in How to Prepare a Schedule File) is recommended for long or complicated schedules.
COORD is a useful program that tells you the altitude, azimuth, and rising and setting times of astronomical objects, which may help with preparation of your schedule files. Currently, this is most easily accessed via the Parkes website. When using this tool be sure to change the site to Australia Telescope Compact Array, and change the elevation limit to 12 degrees for cm observing at the ATCA.
A Duty Astronomer will be present at the observatory to get your observations started and help with any problems that arise during the observations. The list of duty astronomers can be found at http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/observing/support. The Duty Astronomer has no obligation to participate in the observing.