Confirmed Speakers
This year's theme is 'Ideas to Answers', and will focus on the process of doing astronomy, rather than the latest results. A feature session on the Saturday afternoon will be dedicated to "Surviving Your PhD", led by Dick Hunstead.
Friday:
What do you actually learn from HI?
Naomi McClure-Griffiths, ATNF
I will talk about the basics of atomic hydrogen (HI) emission and absorption. My talk will focus on how astronomers use HI to understand the structure and dynamics of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. I will refer to examples from my own work on the Milky Way and other people's work on HI throughout the Universe. I will also talk briefly about what HI cannot tell you about the interstellar medium in galaxies and how to avoid over-interpreting HI data.
Design & Execution of the Gemini Deep Deep Survey
Karl Glazebrook, Swinburne
I will outline the design and execution of the Gemini Deep Deep Survey one of the deepest spectroscopic surveys ever undertaken of high-z galaxies, with particular attention to the use of nod & shuffle and the tools used to reduce the data.
Methane Imaging to Find Exoplanets
Chris Tinney, UNSW
I'll discuss the background, planning and implementation stages
of the research programs that have laid the foundations for using
methane imaging to look for unbound exoplanets in young nearby
star clusters, and look at how exoplanetary searches could be
implemented from here on in.
Complex Molecules in Space and can we make beer out of them?
Andrew Walsh, JCU
For millenia, people have gazed at the stars and wondered what place there is for humans in the universe? It is only in modern times that we have come to understand that the universe is filled with many galaxies, stars and planets, some not unlike our own. The universe itself had its own beginnings. At the start, only simple atoms existed. But soon the first stars processed these simple atoms into complex atoms. Since then, cutting-edge astronomical research reveals space now contains not just complex atoms but also many complex molecules.
It is perhaps not coincidental that people have imbibed in beer for millenia as well. Many collective centuries must have been spent trying to understand our place under the stars whilst under the influence. Now that we stand on the verge of space exploration, not with our minds, but with our bodies, it is time to bring together our best understanding of interstellar chemistry and our love of beer to ask the question: Can we make beer out of the complex molecules in space?
A long overdue synthesis image of Centaurus A.
Ilana Feain, ATNF
Centaurus A is by far the closest active supermassive black hole in the Universe, and has radio jet/lobe structures that span about 4 x 9 degrees on the sky. To date, the large-scale structure of Centaurus A is known only from the Parkes single dish images. But with such low spatial resolution, it was simply not possible to study the lobe structure in much detail. Starting on 20 December 2006, we began an Australia Telescope Compact Array campaign to mosaic the entire radio source at 1.4GHz. We are now half way through and the results are indeed promising. I will discuss the project in terms of our motivation for pursuing it, the techniques and analysis we use and the issues we face along the way.
Designing Giant Telescopes
Charles Jenkins, RSAA ANU
There's a lot of talk around about Extremely Large Telescopes and a great deal of money is being spent too; for example, in excess of 70M$ US for the design study phase of the Thirty Meter Telescope, and goodness knows how much in Europe on various aspects of the ill-fated Overwhelmingly Large Telescope, or OWL. If these projects go ahead, most astronomers will be affected by them in one way or another, either by being involved in the design, construction and commissioning, as users, or perhaps by being put out of a job by a 0.01% overspend somewhere far away. How do these Big Science projects actually work? How is the design conceived and progressed? Do astronomers need to be involved much, or is it all something you leave up to engineers and similar life-forms? What kind of astronomy will be done with these instruments and is it really very different from what we do now? Answers to some of these questions will be provided.
Saturday:
How to do site-testing
John Storey, UNSW
A new observatory site is proposed and, on the basis of meteorological data, it is expected to be "better" than existing premier sites. What measurements are needed to test this hypothesis? What are the best ways to make these measurements? What instrumentation is needed? And how can you be sure that you have taken into account all the things that really matter? Warning: this talk contains graphic images of very cold places.
Observing with single-dish radio telescopes
Andrew Walsh, JCU
I will discuss various techniques used to collect data on single-dish radio telescopes. From simple position switching and frequency switching, to mapping techniques and associated pitfalls. I will talk about data from a wide range of telescopes such as Effelsberg 100-m, FCRAO 12-m, JCMT and SEST, but I will focus on particular techniques used with the recently upgraded Mopra radio telescope.
Masers: The astrophysicist's swiss army knife
Chris Phillips, ATNF
Astronomical masers can be used to probe a wide range of properties of the
ISM of young and evolved stars as well as active galaxies. There presence
sets significant constraints on the physical conditions and chemistry of
their environment. Because they are physically very small and bright they
make ideal targets for VLBI observations, which reveals the kinematics of
their environment.
I will discuss various projects which use VLBI proper motion observations
to try and understand the nature of the emission for a number of different
types of masers.
Preparing the way for the SKA
Lister Staveley-Smith, UWA
The Square Kilometre Array is the radio telescope of the future and will be an international facility able to deliver a host of world class astronomical 'firsts'. How is such a telescope designed so that it becomes a truly first-rate instrument, and how useful are the various 'pathfinder' instruments such as ASKAP now being built around the world? I will talk about the design goals of the pathfinder instruments, their place on the technological and astronomical roadmap to the SKA, and the science and technology challenges that will likely face the next generation of researchers.
Surviving Your PhD
Dick Hunstead, USyd