Category Archives: News and Announcements

By / par Brenda Matthews and Gerald Schieven (NRC)
(Cassiopeia – Summer / été 2024)

WSU News

NRC Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics, along with colleagues from NRAO, are designing the new correlator for ALMA (the ATAC, or Advanced Technology ALMA Correlator), as part of a larger ALMA-wide effort to upgrade ALMA capabilities for the 2030s and beyond (the ALMA Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade, WSU). Last week, ATAC became the first of the subsystems to pass PDR (Preliminary Design Review), and so now enters Critical Design, and this excellent result will no doubt mark an important precedent for the whole WSU effort. At HAA, the ATAC team consists of Brent Carlson, Marty Cluff, Thushara Gunaratne, Stephen Harrison, Nitin Mehta, Michael Pleasance, Fan Zhang, with contributions from many others.

The PDR committee recognised the “Herculean effort” put in by the team, and described them as “phenomenally competent”, having created a “very elegant solution” for the design of the Correlator. Wow!

Cycle 10 Update

ALMA is currently in configuration C-5 (max baseline 1.4 km), moving outward to C-6 at the end of June, then moving inward to end the cycle in September in config C-3.

Cycle 11 Proposal Submission News

On April 24th at around 13 UTC, the day prior to the ALMA Cycle 11 CfP deadline, proposals requiring Bands 7 and higher started experiencing inconsistent observing time estimates. This was due to a temporary and intermittent connectivity issue between the online calibrator catalogue and the Observing Tool (OT), required to search for high frequency calibrators. When the calibrator catalogue could not be accessed, band-to-band calibration was assigned, resulting in an increase in the observing time estimates. In some cases, this prevented validation and submission if the observing time increased above the Large Program threshold. As announced on the Science Portal, initially the problem occurred intermittently and appeared resolved after a short time. Unfortunately, the issue recurred during the hours before the scheduled proposal submission deadline (April 25 at 15 UTC). A second issue related to user authentication also occurred close to the deadline, sometimes preventing users from logging in to submit their proposals. Both issues persisted until the deadline despite steps taken by ALMA to restart specific services. The issues were later identified as resulting from a performance degradation of the servers at the JAO, for which mitigating steps are being taken to prevent this occurring in the future.

To assist users who were impacted by these technical issues, ALMA took the following steps.

A second announcement was placed on the ALMA Science Portal instructing users to submit Helpdesk tickets prior to the ALMA deadline if they continued to be impacted by the issues. ALMA assisted all users who submitted Helpdesk tickets by the deadline and were unable to submit or resubmit their proposals due to these issues. Exceptionally, due to the issues occurring so close to the deadline, ALMA also helped users who submitted Helpdesk tickets immediately after the deadline. Observatory staff assisted users by submitting proposals (.aot files) to the ALMA Archive on behalf of these users. Only proposals affected by these specific issues were submitted in this manner.

All cases in which the proposal was submitted by the PI but with incorrect observing time estimates due to the calibrator catalogue issue will be fixed by the Observatory before proposals are sent to review. Reviewers will also be instructed to ignore any discrepancies in observing time estimates for Bands 7 and above.

It was decided to assist users in this way instead of extending the proposal submission deadline since the technical issues were ongoing and there was no estimate for when normal service could be restored.

Despite the problems affecting the final few hours of the Cycle 11 proposal deadline, ALMA has continued to have a strong demand for time on the telescope, with 1712 proposals submitted for Cycle 11, requesting 53533 hours of time on the 12m-, the 7m-, and the TP arrays. The number of proposals has remained steady over the last few cycles, while time requested for the 12m-array at 31,610 hours was the highest yet, with an oversubscription rate of 7.4. Canadian-led proposals are also continuing to be submitted in strong numbers with 51 proposals submitted requesting 2101 hours, an oversubscription rate of just over 10 of the Canada’s nominal share of North American time.

ALMA Primer Video Series

The ALMA Primer Instructional Video series, which can be found on the Science Portal here, is designed to provide a basic introduction to radio interferometry, calibration, imaging, and other topics in short (5-10 minute), easy-to-digest segments. As a work in progress, new videos are released periodically. A new video, an Introduction to Sidebands, Basebands and Spectral Windows, is expected to be released in early July, and several more will be released later this summer.

Other videos in the series include an Introduction to Radio Interferometry, Calibration, CLEAN, and much more. Subscribe to the ALMA Primer Video Series YouTube channel to be alerted to new videos as they are released.

We are always looking for ideas for new videos, and especially looking for people who would like to help with script generation, animation, and narration. If you have an idea or would like to join the Primer Video Working Group (at any level of effort), please contact gerald.schieven@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.

By / par John Hutchings, Patrick Côté (NRC Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre)
(Cassiopeia – Summer / été 2024)

The UKSA and CSA have signed a bilateral agreement that includes CASTOR. Funds have been already approved and are being used for UK science definition, detector testing, and development work on data flows and optics. On May 13-14, a UKSA delegation visited CSA, Montreal universities and Honeywell Aerospace, and then hosted a reception in Ottawa. UK-led science definition work focuses on TDAMM, galaxies, near-field cosmology and solar system science; an initial coordination meeting between the Canadian and UK science teams was held on June 13.

The final review meeting of the three-year Space Technology Development Program contract, led by ABB, was held on May 16. This contract elevated the TRLs for several technically challenging mission components, with significant work done on the opto-mechanical design, the Focal Plane Arrays, the Fast Steering mirror prototyping, the precision photometer, grism, and UVMOS. After many months, formal export licences to share these details with the UK and LAM partners have been approved.

The NRC internal “Small Teams” proposal to develop the UVMOS has been approved. This will provide some $2M over three years to perform technical work at HAA, in collaboration with partners at LAM (Marseille), LASP (Colorado), and the University of Calgary, as well as contracted work at the University of Manitoba. A kick-off meeting was held recently to initiate these exciting activities.

The CASCA AGM featured half of a shared ACURA town hall meeting on June 4. This event featured short presentations by the CASTOR team, industry, the Coalition and CSA, plus time for questions and discussions.

The Coalition lobbying activities are continuing, including quasi-regular meetings with government and opposition personnel. Coalition members also plan to meet with the CSA and NRC presidents. Although CASTOR was not listed in the federal budget, neither were TMT and SKA in previous years.

An ISSF (Inuvik Satellite Station Facility) optical ground station proposal is in early development by U Manitoba and Natural Resources Canada. This could potentially add an important high-latitude, high-speed downlink capability for CASTOR’s polar orbit.

Work is progressing towards the testing and characterization of the JPL-Te2v processed CIS120 detectors at UV wavelengths. The readout and control electronics for these devices are being developed at HAA, while vacuum facilities are being readied and staffed at HAA and the University of Calgary. This is an important step towards the development of flight detectors. Regular meetings are held with JPL, Te2v, and the UK Open University to discuss and coordinate these activities.

The development of various science planning tools continues, with several FORECASTOR papers published, submitted or in preparation. Co-op student Michelle Kao (Waterloo) recently completed a work term (hosted by U Manitoba and Magellan Aerospace) to develop a multi-mission task scheduler: this tool will be used to investigate and optimize survey scheduling. Wasi Naqvi(UBC Okanagan) recently started at co-op term at HAA to simulate the in-orbit performance of CASTOR’s expected flight detectors with ESA’s advanced Pyxel software. These simulations will support the detector testing programs underway at HAA, Calgary, Teledyne-e2v and Open University.

Plans are being developed with CSA to define Phase A statement-of-work items (or a dedicated subset for an earlier contract, depending on CASTOR funding). CSA-NRC joint agreements on funding and planning shared activities is also in detailed negotiation. The final negotiation of all international partnerships still awaits government approval of the mission.

For more information on the mission, see the CASTOR mission website.

By / par Erik Rosolowsky (U Alberta)
(Cassiopeia – Summer / été 2024)

Still from a live view of the site at the VLA where the ngVLA prototype 18m antenna will be constructed, starting this summer.

Technology Development at Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics

Engineers at HAA are working on the preliminary designs for the ngVLA Band 5 receiver system. Band 5 is one of the high-frequency receiver band systems planned for the ngVLA, spanning the 30-50 GHz range. This development leverages HAA’s previous experience with building the ALMA Band 3 receivers. Receiver development and manufacture could form the basis of an in-kind contribution to ngVLA participation.

Progress in the US

In 2023 July the US National Science Foundation (NSF) entered the ngVLA project into the design process for Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction. The ngVLA project is continuing its preparations for the NSF-run Conceptual Design Review, scheduled for 2024 September. In recent congressional hearings, the Director of the NSF cited the ngVLA as the clear next steps for ground based radio astronomy in the US.

Follow the Monarchs: A Journey to Explore the Cosmos at (Sub)milliarcsecond Scales with the ngVLA

This ngVLA international science conference will be held 2024 November 11-14 in person in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Morelia, Mexico. The conference will highlight and explore the novel scientific opportunities that will unfold with the unprecedented angular resolution and sensitivity capabilities offered by this new flagship facility. The conference will coincide with the Monarch butterflies completing their migration journey from Canada and the US to the mountains surrounding Morelia. Abstract submission for oral presentations closes July 8, and early registration is available until September 1. To take these actions, see here.

By Nadine Manset (Director of Science Operations, on behalf of the CFHT ‘ohana)
(Cassiopeia – Summer 2024)

The Canada-France-Hawaiʻi Telescope will be 45 years old in August! Strong with experience and expertise, we are planning the upcoming 10 years to continue serving our communities. CFHT’s mission is to provide you with a versatile and state-of-the-art astronomical observing facility that is well-matched to your scientific goals and fully utilizes the potential of the Maunakea site.

As CFHT approaches the end of the current Maunakea lease, we plan to spend the remainder of this decade working in close consultation with the newly formed Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority (MKSOA), our Hawaiʻi community, and our astronomy community to build a collaborative future that we hope results in the continuation and upgrade of CFHT on Maunakea past 2033.

The four pillars of CFHT’s strategy revolve around successfully operating CFHT for at least 10 more years, engaging with the local community in Hawaiʻi, raising awareness in the astronomy community of the need to change the way we practice our profession, and advancing the design work for the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE), which remains our long-term objective.

Operational Component of the 10-year Plan

The operational component of the plan adopted consists of implementing Wenaokeao formerly known as VISION, the co-mount of  ESPaDOnS and SPIRou, starting in 2025, followed by the decommissioning of WIRCam and SITELLE at the end of 2026B. The optomechanical interface Wenaokeao will allow the use of SPIRou only (no intervening optics), ESPaDOnS only (using relay optics), or both SPIRou and ESPaDOnS simultaneously (using a beam splitter).

On the development side, we continue the design of the CFHT-IFU, contingent on grant approval, and advance the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer design.

On the science side, we are increasing the fraction of time dedicated to Large Programs for the 2025A – 2026B period and planning for a major scientific survey that will follow.

In early 2024, we opened a call for Large Programs (LP) to use up to 400 nights from 2025A to 2026B. Out of the 6 proposals received, the one(s) selected will be announced in the fall.

Given the remarkable success of the CFHTLS, we are considering having another major scientific survey, defined by the community (as opposed to teams centered around a single PI), to follow this upcoming round of LP. This major effort would extend over 4 or 5 years and be carried on MegaCam and/or Wenaokeao. Since this has to be community-driven, a call for ideas will be issued and we already welcome your suggestions.

To share your thoughts, feel free to send an email to manset@cfht.hawaii.edu.

By Eric Steinbring (Canadian Gemini Office, NRC Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre)
(Cassiopeia – Summer 2024)

Call for Community Recommendations on the Gemini Strategic Plan

The Gemini Strategic Plan is the roadmap for how the Observatory will enable forefront scientific capability from both hemispheres. And now it’s time to shape the long-range strategy and set priorities for well into the next decade. For example, should Gemini develop new workhorse instruments for both sites, or tend to specialized instruments at each? What are the critical capabilities that instruments should have? Are there synergies with other space- and ground-based facilities that Gemini should prioritize; and what archival and data-reduction improvements would increase your scientific return the most? How can these best support Canada’s projects on the Thirty Meter Telescope, or say, the Habitable Worlds Observatory? This is a reminder of the invitation to submit brief community recommendations here. Details of the format to those reports and instructions for submission are available there. Reports are due by 13 September 2024. Where do you see Gemini best placed in the 2030s?