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Cassiopeia Newsletter – Winter solstice 2019

Updated: Aug 23, 2025

Date: December 21, 2019


In this Issue:

President’s Report

ALMA Matters

Canadian Gemini Office News

Report on the CASCA 2019 Teachers Workshop pour enseignants – CASCA 2019

CATAC Update

CRAQ Summer School Announcement

JCMT Update

Long Range Plan 2020

Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) Update

SKA Update

Editor: Joanne Rosvick

Cassiopeia is CASCA’s quarterly Newsletter, published on or near the solstices and equinoxes (March 21, June 21, September 21 and December 21).

To submit a contribution please email cassiopeia.editors@gmail.com. All submissions must be received by the due date (usually 2 weeks in advance of publication) to be published in the next edition. I accept plain text and Word documents. Note that the formatting of your document will not be preserved. Please include any images as attachments in your email, not embedded in the text. Please include URLs in parentheses next to the word or phrase that you wish to act as link anchors.

President’s Report


By Rob Thacker (CASCA President) (Cassiopeia – Winter 2019)


Dear CASCA Members,


This fall has been a busy few months! I hope you have had a chance to recover from the efforts of proposal writing on top of detailed LRP consultations.


Since I last communicated, we have a welcomed the new CASCA Administrator, Jessica, and I’d like to encourage you to both welcome Jessica and say a big thank you to Susan Di Francesco who officially steps down on December 31st. On the administrative side we have finally solved the headache that PayPal was presenting, and I’m glad to say as of late November we are again able to accept payments via that route. I encourage anyone to take a read of a Kafka novel and then to send an email to PayPal, as that seems appropriate preparation for dealing with them.


The awarding of this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics for work in astronomy was especially exciting, albeit with the caveats of the known issues with the Nobel awards. After much discussion within the CASCA Board we have the following to say:


The CASCA Board was delighted to see that astronomy and cosmology were the focus of this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics. The work of Jim Peebles (who was born in Manitoba) played a foundational role in many areas of cosmological physics (including the large-scale structure of galaxies and the cosmic microwave background radiation). The other laureates also richly deserve their prizes: the discovery of 51 Pegasi b by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz opened up the field of exoplanet observations and helped turn it into the spectacularly vibrant area of astrophysics that it is today. We wholeheartedly congratulate Drs Peebles, Mayor and Queloz for their exceptional accomplishments.


Following the awarding of the prize, there has been a number of questions about which particular exoplanet should be acknowledged as the most key discovery. The existence of pulsar planets (e.g.Wolszczan & Frail, Nature, 355, 145, 1992) and particularly large gas giants/brown dwarfs (Latham et al., Nature, 339, 38, 1989) were known prior to the 51 Pegasi announcement.


In the midst of this, the CASCA Board thought it appropriate to remind members of the work of BruceCampbell, Gordon Walker, and Stephenson Yang (ApJ, 331, 902, 1988) which also played an importantrole in founding the field of exoplanet research. In particular, we would like to highlight their work on gamma Cephei b. Their long-term monitoring program on the CFHT from 1981 to 1993 had sufficient sensitivity to discover Jupiter-like planets, and with modern statistical methods the 1995 follow-up work of Walker et al. (Icarus, 116, 359, 1995), which included a new analysis of gamma Cephei b data, would be considered a strong detection. The estimated period of 2.52 yrs in that work is very close to the now accepted value of 2.47 yrs.


However, following the 1992 analysis which speculated that the gamma Cephei b signal was close to apossible pulsation mode, the 1995 work was treated with some skepticism. There is no argument thatthe work of Drs Mayor & Queloz, as well as their collaborators, created an unexpected and important avenue of exoplanet research, and while celebrating Mayor and Queloz, we think it appropriate to also celebrate the pioneering work of Campbell, Walker and Yang.


CASCA “Seeds” Program


I’d like to highlight the CASCA “Seeds” program that was announced at the AGM this summer: each year, the CASCA Board will allocate up to $5K of seed funding to activities spearheaded by CASCAmembers that benefit the Society. All initiatives and/or events that are consistent with CASCA’s Mission Statement are eligible to receive CASCA Seed funding, though an emphasis will be placed on activities that are difficult to fund via other mechanisms. The intent of the CASCA Seeds program is to support new and/or unique opportunities for CASCA members; the same initiative is therefore unlikely to be funded more than once.


Full details of the program and application process are available here (English) and here (Francais). We hope that some great new initiatives can grow out of this program!


Sustainability


Anyone who has read through the tremendous list of white papers submitted to the LRP process cannothave failed to have noticed a very significant number of recommendations put squarely in the hands of CASCA as an organization. On one hand I feel buoyed by the great faith in CASCA that you are showing by making these recommendations, although on the other hand I confess that the entire suite comes across as somewhat daunting. The Board is currently working on determining what to do about these many recommendations, especially given that these recommendations are input into the LRP process, and we need to let that process take its course.


Many very important issues have been brought up, especially around ethical considerations for our field, but one concern stood out for immediate action in the view of several Board members, specifically that of sustainability. I am thus happy to notify the community that the Board has struck an ad hoc committee on sustainability and we are in the process of filling that committee as I write. We have agreed to run this committee in an ad hoc form for one year, with a view to reviewing its progress at the end of 2020.


I’d like to end by again thanking all of you – again – for your efforts in supporting CASCA and theastronomy community. With a couple of exceptions for our staff members, we are a Society of volunteers and depend entirely on your efforts to make our activities possible.


Happy Holidays, and all the best for 2020!


Rob


ALMA Matters


By Gerald Schieven (ALMA) (Cassiopeia – Winter 2019)


Continued Canadian Participation in ALMA


Canada participates in the ALMA consortium through an agreement between the National Research Council Canada and the US National Science Foundation. This ten-year contribution agreement is scheduled to end on 31 December 2020. To determine whether this agreement should be continued, and at what level, the NRC struck a review panel consisting of Erik Rosolowsky (chair; U Alberta), Sarah Sadavoy (Queen’s U), Nienke van der Marel (U Victoria) and Christine Wilson (McMaster U). The panel reviewed the participation of the Canadian community and the impact of ALMA on the broader study of astronomy, and conducted a survey of the community. The committee found that Canadians are receiving observing time and publishing high impact ALMA publications at rates commensurate with our investment in the facility, with approximately half of Canadian ALMA publications being led by Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) trainees. Furthermore, the general public has shown great interest in ALMA’s participation in the results from the Event Horizon Telescope. The committee recommended that NRC should therefore negotiate with the NSF for continued Canadian partnership in the North American executive of the ALMA observatory.


Cycle 6/7 Update


Observing in the last few months of Cycle 6 was affected by a few episodes of high winds and/or snow. Adding to some delays earlier in the observing cycle, this resulted in Cycle 6 completing 88% of the target of 4000 hours of observations. The observatory delivered 90% of pipeline-processed observations within 65 days of completion and 90% of non-standard observations within 118 days. Cycle 7 began successfully on 01 October 2019, with a smooth transition in both hardware and software. Observations have been going largely smoothly, but access to the telescope and normal operations have been impacted by the political unrest in Chile. Due to advisories from the JAO, NAASC and MAG member Gerald Schieven did not travel to Chile for a schedule AoD shift in November.


ALMA received 1773 proposals for Cycle 7, a 3.6% decrease from the record number set in Cycle 6. It is possible that some of this decrease may have been due to the advertised supplemental call for the ALMA Compact Array scheduled for the fall (see next paragraph). All proposals were ranked by the Proposal Review Committee in Atlanta, Georgia in June. Forty-three of these proposals had a Canadian PI and 247 had a Canadian PI or co-I. The global oversubscription rates were 4.4 and 4.2 for the 12m array and the ACA, respectively, indicating a continuing high demand for ALMA time. A/B grades were awarded to 398 proposals and C grades to a further 236 proposals. Of these proposals, Canadian PIs led 10 A/B and 4 C-graded proposals and Canadians were PIs or co-Is on 57 A/B and 36 C-graded proposals. In terms of allocated A+B time, Canadian PIs received 10.1% of the North American share, 5.7% from the 12m array and 16.7% from the ACA. Overall, 18.4% and 15.6% of 12m array and ACA time, respectively, was awarded to proposals with a Canadian PI or co-I. Of special note is the award of the first Canadian-led large program, VERTICO (Virgo Environment traced in CO), an ACA-standalone program to map 51 spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster led by postdoc Toby Brown at McMaster University. The number of unique Canadian PIs was 25 and there were 92 individuals on submitted ALMA proposals from 18 institutions in Canada.


The observatory held its second supplemental call for ACA-only proposals in fall 2019. Unlike in Cycle 4, when the deadline was approximately a month after the main ALMA call, this proposal deadline was set to October 1 and was advertised well in advance of the normal April proposal deadline. A total of 249 proposals requesting 8000 hours were submitted, giving an oversubscription rate of 3.2. This proposal call also served as a test of a new review model called Distributed Peer Review (DPR). Each PI (or designated co-I) received 10 proposals to review and rank, with the final observing queue built using the average of the received grades. Anecdotal evidence suggests this review model worked quite smoothly. The observatory anticipates holding another supplemental ACA-only call in fall 2020 for Cycle 8. In the long term, the observatory is considering using Distributed Peer Review for the main ALMA call in the spring starting in Cycle 9, although the details remain to be worked out.


ESO hosted a very successful pan-ALMA meeting, “Science and Synergies” in Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy. Scientific highlights included invited presentations from the 10 ALMA Large Programs from Cycles 4-6, spanning science topics from protostellar disks to evolved stars to nearby galaxies to the high redshift universe. The meeting was highly oversubscribed, with selection required both for attendees and for poster presentations. Unfortunately, a typhoon in Tokyo the weekend before the meeting meant that many Japanese astronomers were unable to get to the meeting.


ALMA North American Development Studies Cycle 7 / FY2020


In order to assure ALMA’s continued role at the forefront of science and technology, each ARC periodically awards funding for ALMA development studies and projects. Studies are funded for 1-2 years to assess the feasibility of software or hardware upgrades to the array, while projects are funded for 2-3 years to develop the technology. The results of the latest North American call for development studies has recently been announced. (See here for more details.) Eight proposals, two of which were from Canadian institutions, were awarded funding. Of these, five were hardware studies, and three software/archive. The two Canadian proposals are described below. For a discussion of the eight successful studies, see here.


ARCADE: ALMA Reduction in the CANFAR Data Environment (Kirk/ NRC)


NRC’s Millimetre Astronomy Group and the Canadian Astronomical Data Centre, in collaboration with McMaster University, are pleased to announce that they were recently awarded funding for the ALMA North American Cycle 7 Development Study program for their proposal entitled “ARCADE: ALMA Reduction in the CANFAR Data Environment”. One year of funding is provided for our group to further develop and scale-up our prototype system, ARCADE. The vision for ARCADE is to provide a stable cloud-based computing environment designed to handle ALMA data for all Canadian researchers. ARCADE will have ample storage space and processing power, and will come pre-loaded with all versions of CASA. Through its intuitive web-based interface, both new and expert users will be able to access the computing resources required for all of their ALMA data reduction and imaging needs. At present, we have been working on an early prototype of the ARCADE system with a small number of alpha testers. The development study funding will allow us to learn how to best scale up the system to handle many simultaneous users with independent resource allocations and to improve the system’s general usability through extensive beta testing. For more information, please contact the PI, Helen Kirk.


High-level Design and Integration of NRC TALON based Correlator for Increased Channels, Bandwidth and Baselines (Pleasance/ NRC)


The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Center (HAA) has designed a Frequency Slice Architecture (FSA) Correlator/Beamformer (CBF) based on the NRC’s TALON technology for the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) Mid Frequency Correlator/Beamformer (Mid.CBF). The TALON FSA CBF design is flexible in nature and easily adapted to other radio interferometers. This has been demonstrated with the inclusion of a TALON FSA CBF in the ngVLA reference design. The NRC was recently awarded a Cycle 7 ALMA Development study to investigate the potential of integrating a TALON FSA CBF into the ALMA observatory. The scope of the study includes several activities. The first activity is to studying existing ALMA interfaces to the CBF and understand current capabilities and the roadmap for future capabilities. The second activity is to document a high-level design for a suitable TALON FSA CBF including a detailed description of the capabilities, rack space, and power estimates for a CBF that handles the existing bandwidth and number of antennas. A key focus will be on minimizing the impact to other ALMA systems surrounding the CBF. The final activity is to describe how the presented architecture could be expanded to handle additional antennas and provide increased bandwidth and channels. There is the potential for follow on studies to present a detailed design and project plan for deploying a TALON FSA CBF at the ALMA observatory. The principle investigator for this study, titled “High level design and integration of NRC TALON based correlator for increased channels, bandwidth and baselines”, is Sonja Vrcic located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) in Penticton, BC, Canada.

Canadian Gemini Office News


By Stéphanie Côté (CGO, NRC Herzberg)

(Cassiopeia – Winter 2019)


DRAGONS Python Data Reduction Pipeline is Released


DRAGONS, Data Reduction for Astronomy from Gemini Observatory North and South, is Gemini’s new Python-base data reduction platform. DRAGONS offers a more streamlined approach to the data reduction of Gemini data, compared to the Gemini IRAF package. Its first public release, version 2.1.0, supports imaging reduction for the current facility instruments. For spectroscopy data, please continue to use Gemini IRAF for the time being, while work is on-going regarding the upcoming release of DRAGONS that will be including spectroscopy. To download DRAGONS, please follow the “Installation Instructions” here. For information and tutorials on DRAGONS, see the official Documentation.


If you have imaging data yet to be reduced, please consider DRAGONS for your reduction. You should start by reading and running the tutorial that matches your data, then we believe you will be able to replicate the process for your data. You are also encourage to share your feedback and inputs at DRAGONS Feedback Forum. We are particularly interested in your suggestions on how to improve the documentation.


IGRINS Visiting Gemini-South


IGRINS is a high-resolution (R~45,000), single-setting, near IR (1.45 – 2.5 microns) echelle spectrometer. It was built by a collaboration of the University of Texas and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute KASI, and has been used extensively on the 2.7m Harlan J. Smith Telescope at McDonald Observatory. It is an extremely powerful and unique instrument that obtains both broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution. It delivers the entire H and K windows, from 1.45 to 2.5 microns, in a single exposure, at high resolution, thanks to the use of a silicon immersion echelle grating and two 2Kx2K infrared detectors. With the latest low-noise detectors and volume-phase holographic (VPH) cross-dispersers, IGRINS has the sensitivity to attack a broad range of astronomical problems.


When IGRINS visited Gemini previously in 2018A it was the most requested instruments from Canadian users (even more than GMOS which doesn’t happen very often!). Beginning in February 2020, IGRINS will be installed on the Gemini South Telescope as a long-term visiting instrument. Observing time will be scheduled in Queue, Fast Turnaround and Poor Weather modes.


At Gemini, the slit size will be 0.34ʺ x 5ʺ. Optimal targets will be those with K-band magnitudes between 10-14, but objects between K=4 and 16 mags will be possible. A python based data reduction pipeline for IGRINS is available to the public.


Call for Proposals for Gemini Long and Large Programs and Subaru Intensive Programs


Watch your CASCA emails for an announcement coming very soon with all the details about the next Call for Proposals for Gemini Long and Large Programs, as well as Subaru Legacy Programs. The deadline will be April 1st 2020, with letters of intent due February 4th 2020.


Gemini Large and Long Programs (LLPs) are Principal Investigator-defined and -driven programs that, as a guideline, either require significantly more time than a partner typically approves for a single program or extend over two to six semesters, or both. Also note that through the Gemini-Subaru time exchange program, Canadians can apply for a Subaru Intensive program, which will follow the same rules and eligibility used for the Gemini Large and Long Programs. At most, one proposal will be selected from the Gemini community for observations on Subaru. But note that no proposals were received in the last 3 Calls (from Canada or USA) for Subaru, and so if you want to grab a lot of time on Subaru here’s your chance to jump on it!


Be aware that most of the observations for the LLPs are expected to be carried out in the Priority Visitor Observing mode, in which a visiting observer is placed in the telescope control room for a block exceeding their program’s time allocation, and elects when to carry out their program within that block. This may be when conditions are within their requirement, better than their requirement or even fail to meet their requirement. Whenever they are observing, the program is charged for the time at 100%. If time remains on the program after the priority visitor observing time is complete, the program carries on in the regular queue with priority given by the TAC-assigned science ranking band (1 or 2). Note that this mode is also available for Band 1 programs. Please indicate your interest to use this mode in the Technical Justification part of the proposal.


Gemini Science Conference 2020: See you in Seoul!


Come join us for the Gemini Science conference “20th Anniversary and Beyond”, June 21-25 2020, in Seoul, Korea. This will be a celebration of 20 years of Gemini’s forefront access to the entire sky, and a preview of the even more exciting things to come. Hosted by the Gemini partnership’s newest member, this meeting will feature the latest scientific results from Gemini, news on current instrumentation projects, updates on operations developments, and lively discussion of Gemini’s strategic plans for the coming decade. To make sure you get notified about registration etc please sign up here.


Recent Canadian Gemini Press Releases

Record-Breaking Protocluster Takes Fast-track


On September 26 an international team of astronomers led by Yuichi Harikane (U of Tokyo) and including Scott Chapman (Dalhousie), announced the discovery of the most distant large-scale cluster of galaxies that has been spectroscopically confirmed so far. Known as z660D, this protocluster with several galaxies confirmed at z=6.585 thanks to Gemini, was originally found by the HyperSuprime-Cam imager on Subaru. It shows that such large-scale structures already existed when the Universe was only about 800 million years old. Also surprising is the location of its ‘Himiko’ (enormous protogalaxy with huge gas halo) which is not near the center of the cluster but rather on the edge, 500 million light years away from the cluster’s center. The press release can be found here and the APJ preprint here.


Two Ancient Migration Events in the Andromeda Galaxy



On October 1st a press release was published about a study showing that M31 underwent two major accretion epochs, based on two very distinct populations of globular clusters. The Nature paper led by Douglas Mackey (ANU) and including Pat Côté and Alan McConnachie (HAA, NRC), report an analysis of the kinematics of M31`s globular clusters, and find two distinct populations rotating perpendicular to each other. One population is aligned with the rotation axis for the plane of dwarf galaxies that encircles M31. These separate cluster populations are interpreted as arising from two major accretion epochs, probably separated by billions of years.


Join the thousands and thousands of Gemini Observatory followers on Facebook: @GeminiObservatory and Twitter: @GeminiObs

Report on the CASCA 2019 Teachers Workshop


By Julie Bolduc-Duval, Discover the Universe

Cassiopeia – Winter 2019)


A workshop for secondary school teachers was one again organized during the CASCA annual meeting last June. Being in Montreal, it was decided that the workshop should be presented in French as the primary language, with a few presentations in English.


Because of the timing of the annual meeting (during the very last week of school in Quebec), we were afraid the response from teachers wouldn’t be great. In the end, the opposite happened: over 40 teachers registered and we had to close registrations over one week before the event on June 19, 2019.


The day was filled with presentations by scientists and activities for teachers to implement in class. Special thanks to our guest speakers: Marie-Lou Gendron-Marsolais (ALMA), Pierre Chastenay (UQAM), Frédérique Baron (UdeM), Mary Beth Laychak (CFHT), Paula Boubel (McGill), and Nathalie Ouellette (UdeM). The activities included gravitational lensing with wine glass bottoms and Pocket Black Hole, simulating an exoplanet transit, introduction to WorldWideTelescope and more.


The workshop was once again an outstanding success! The comments from participants were extremely positive and they enjoyed being part of the CASCA meeting and the opportunity to explore the scientific posters. The workshop even created new opportunities and partnerships: Marie-Lou Gendron-Marsolais was invited to present remotely to many schools through the program Écoles en réseau (networking schools) after a participant in our workshop saw her talk on black holes.


This was an amazing opportunity for many elementary classrooms in Quebec to talk to a scientist live from Chile.


The workshop was possible due to the financial contributions of Discover the Universe, CASCA and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.


If you would like more information about the workshop, such as the activities presented, or if you’re interested in helping out with the next edition of the workshop at CASCA2020, please contact me at julie@discovertheuniverse.ca.

CATAC Update on the Thirty Meter Telescope


By Michael Balogh (CATAC Chair) (Cassiopeia – Winter 2019)


There has been no attempt to restart construction of the TMT since protestors blocked the Mauna Kea access road in mid-July. The protests, and the responses to them, have remained non-violent, as stakeholders work to find a solution to the conflict. Meanwhile, TMT opponents have been effectively disseminating their message, tapping into broader issues related to indigenous rights in Hawai’i and around the world. Parallels have been drawn with the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation committee here in Canada. This has mobilized some in Canada to express strong support for the view that the TMT project must do more to achieve the consent from Native Hawaiians before proceeding.


There is a long history of astronomy on Maunakea, including many stories of discovery and inclusiveness, but also a history of conflict that predates TMT. TMT itself has been part of the Canadian conversation since 2000, and the present site on Mauankea was selected (and supported by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a public agency responsible for improving the well-being of Native Hawaiians) ten years ago. This context is important, as are the efforts of the TMT project over the past decade to gain the consent and support of the Hawaiian population. To this end, CATAC prepared a document about the history and current status of the project, with several important references and links to factual information. To quote from that report:

All evidence is that the project followed procedures that were believed to be appropriate for obtaining consent from Hawaiians, and that construction halted in the face of protests. We see nothing shameful in trying to find a peaceful solution for a project that has been nearly twenty years in development, and that promises economic benefits to Hawaiians and scientific benefit to the world.

There appears to be a good understanding now, at least among most Canadian astronomers, University and political leaders, that Canada should not directly interfere in the process happening in Hawai’i. Mayor Harry Kim has been charged with negotiating a solution, and he released a report in late September titled The Heart of Aloha. While this short report is a good start, it is likely that additional, new ideas will be needed to resolve the conflict. We understand that there is still a lot of activity going on within the Hawaiian community to find a solution. Thus, we continue to wait to see if a path forward will emerge.


In the meantime, progress on obtaining two building permits at the alternative site in the Canary Islands continued, and both were in place by mid-November. Decisions on the next steps will be made by the TMT International Observatory (TIO) Members, who have been meeting regularly since August. The site at ORM presents its own significant challenges, scientifically, socially, financially and politically.


TMT and the LRP


CATAC provided a comprehensive report to LRP2020, which is meant to also serve many of the purposes of a white paper. TMT has been a topic of discussion at Town Halls across the country. At the moment there is uncertainty about the project, and much of this is likely to be resolved, one way or the other, well before the LRP report is published. Should a fundamental change (e.g. in site, scope, timescale etc) be announced, there will be a need for consultation and further input to the LRP process. CATAC is prepared to lead this process.


Instrumentation


Following discussion at the CASCA meeting in May, CATAC revised and finalized our recommendations for post-first light instrumentation. Those recommendations are summarized here for convenience:


  1. We recommend that Canadian SAC members support a transparent and effective instrumentation development plan, similar to the one presented by Luc Simard to the TMT SAC in November, 2010.

  2. Instrument teams require time and funding to develop ideas to the level that allows them to compete for significant external construction funds. We recommend that Canadian Board and SAC members emphasize the importance that the TIO provide funding for early design work (e.g. mini-studies) as well as for Conceptual Design Phases. Despite the budget challenges facing the project, this work must begin immediately if we are to have a competitive instrument suite on the telescope.

  3. We recommend that Canadians interested in the scientific or technical capabilities of an instrument contact other TMT partners and begin work on these ideas now, to the extent possible.

  4. The TMT Science Forums have proven to be fertile environments for building relationships between partners for instrument development. Forums have now been held in all partner countries except Canada. Canada should host the next TMT Science Forum.


Regarding the final recommendation, the SAC has expressed support for this proposal and it is expected that the next Science Forum will be held in Canada sometime in 2021.


The main new development is that the high-contrast, high-dispersion spectrograph MODHIS has been endorsed by the SAC as a first-light instrument, though its exact nature is still a topic of discussion. MODHIS will be effective for finding and characterizing massive exoplanets. Several Canadians are part of a CFI application that includes funding to participate in the development of this instrument.


Upcoming Events


The TMT Early Career Workshop will be held at HAA, May 26-June 1, 2020.


CATAC membership:

Michael Balogh (University of Waterloo), Chair, mbalogh@uwaterloo.ca

Bob Abraham (University of Toronto; TIO SAC)

Stefi Baum (University of Manitoba)

Laura Ferrarese (NRC)

David Lafrenière (Université de Montréal)

Harvey Richer (UBC)

Kristine Spekkens (Royal Military College of Canada)

Luc Simard (Director General of NRC-HAA, non-voting, ex-officio)

Don Brooks (Executive Director of ACURA, non-voting, ex-officio)

Rob Thacker (CASCA President, non-voting, ex-officio)

Kim Venn (TIO Governing Board, non-voting, ex-officio)

Stan Metchev (TIO SAC, non-voting, ex-officio)

Tim Davidge (TIO SAC Canadian co-chair; NRC, observer)

Greg Fahlman (NRC, observer)

CRAQ Summer School Announcement


By Robert La Montagne(Cassiopeia – Winter 2019)


The Centre for Research in Astrophysics of Quebec (CRAQ) is announcing its annual Summer School, which will be held on June 15-17, 2020 in Montreal, Quebec.



This year’s topic will focus on Cosmology. This 3-day school will introduce cutting-edge observational probes of cosmology such as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), intensity mapping, and gravitational lensing, with hands-on analysis examples including CMB mapmaking, MCMC parameter estimation, and machine learning. Instructors will include Adrian Liu, Cynthia Chiang, Matt Dobbs, Jon Sievers (McGill University), Yashar Hezaveh, and Laurence Perreault Levasseur (Université de Montréal).


The CRAQ Summer School is principally aimed at graduate students in the field of physics, astronomy, and astrophysics, although students who have completed an undergraduate program in physics will also be accepted.


There is no registration fee. However, we cannot offer traveling funds or cover lodging expenses.


Additional information about the program, registration and accommodation will be available soon on this site: craq-astro.ca/summerschool.


JCMT Update


By Chris Wilson (McMaster University, JCMT Board Member for Canada)(Cassiopeia – Winter 2019)


New Large Programs to Start in 2020A


There have been a number of new large programs approved by the JCMT TAC and Board. These new programs will start collecting data in February 2020 and on average will take 3 years to complete. There will be an open enrolment period early in 2020. At this time, any researchers or students at Canadian institutions are eligible to join whichever of the large program(s) they are interested in. This opportunity will be advertised on the JCMT website and I urge you all to have a look at the new programs to see if there are any you would like to join. Depending on progress in other areas, this could be the last round of JCMT large programs for which Canadian researchers are eligible. Descriptions of the approved large programs will likely appear here.


Science


Results continue to pour out from the JCMT large programs. From the BISTRO survey, Simon Coudé et al (2019, ApJ) have used the Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi method to measure a plane-of-sky magnetic field strength of 120 ± 60 μG in the Barnard 1 cloud in Perseus. From the S2COSMOS survey, Simpson et al. (2019, ApJ) have published a catalog of 1147 bright submm sources across 2.6 square degrees of the COSMOS field. From STUDIES, Lim et al. (2019, ApJ, in press) have used a catalog of 256 sources to measure their luminosity function 450 μm as well as median redshifts and dust temperatures. From JINGLE, Lamperti et al. (2019, MNRAS) have applied a hierarchical Bayesian analysis to study the dust properties of 193 nearby galaxies. Results are also being published from the second generation of large programs. From the HASHTAG survey of M31, Li et al. (2019, ApJ, in press) used 12 fields surveyed in CO(3-2) to study the CO line ratios and correlation with star formation rate. From the NESS survey of evolved stars, Dharmawardena et al. (2019, MNRAS) used 450 and 850 μm observations of the detached shell source U Antliae to explore the shell structure, grain sizes, and measure the total dust mass.


The JCMT Users Meeting was held in Taipei in early November. The program included reports from most of the large programs, an update on the observatory status by Director Paul Ho, and presentations of individual results by students, postdocs, and senior researchers. The full program, including slides for many of the talks, is available here.


Observing and Proposals


Although the weather improved significantly early in the 19A semester, overall the weather statistics in 2019 have been worse than the historical average. In addition, the JCMT was closed for 27 consecutive nights due to the protests related to the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope that blocked safe access to the summit. Since November 1, 2019, the JCMT has been carrying out fully remote observations from a control room in Hilo. Observers and students are still welcome to visit to observe from Hilo and to visit the telescope at the summit.


The fact that the CADC continues to host the JCMT data archive is maintaining our access to JCMT large programs for the moment. However, Canadians remain ineligible to apply as PIs for time on the JCMT and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. This is because we are not able to contribute any cash to JCMT operations. However, I encourage anyone who has a good idea for JCMT observations to reach out to colleagues in the U.K. or the EAO partner regions (China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan) to see if they would be interested to partner on a proposal. Band 5 weather contains to remain undersubscribed and counts as “free” in the time-allocation process.


New and Future Instrumentation


The 230 GHz-band receiver, RxA3m, was retired from the telescope in June 2018 due to increasing problems with helium leaks in its cryostat, among other problems. A replacement receiver called Namakanui has now arrived in Hawaii and is currently undergoing commissioning. It is expected to be available for science early in 2020. This receiver is on loan from ASIAA (Taiwan) and is the spare receiver for the Greenland Telescope. It is a 3-band receiver design; the 230 GHz-band cartridge is known as U’u.


A team of Canadian universities led by McMaster is preparing a proposal for the CFI 2020 Innovation Fund competition to seek to contribute funding to constructing a new 850 micron camera for the JCMT. This camera is planned to have 20 times faster mapping speed than SCUBA-2 with dual-polarization capabilities.

The JCMT website can be found here.

Long Range Plan 2020


From Pauline Barmby, Bryan Gaensler (LRP2020 co-chairs)(Cassiopeia – Winter 2019)


Canadian astronomers have provided enthusiastic input to the LRP2020 process. A total of 66 and 15 committee or community were submitted. The six LRP town halls in October and November included 38 and 12 discussion sessions. About 180 people registered to attend town halls, most for more than one event. Remote participants at each event numbered between 20 and 40. Between us, the co-chairs took about 100 pages of notes!


The town hall discussions ranged widely over many topics. Some recurring themes included balance between the competing priorities of infrastructure and human resources, need for coordination between the many funding agencies and structures that support astronomy, a strong desire for Canadian leadership (not just participation) in the projects that we choose, and interest in addressing questions of how Canadian astronomy fits into and serves Canadian society. Uncertainty over the future of astronomy on Maunakea was apparent in the discussion of several facilities, not just the Thirty Meter Telescope. Computing and data were identified as pressing issues, both immediately and in many future projects under consideration. Finally, the need for a long-term vision for astronomy in Canada was well-articulated by Alan McConnachie of NRC’s Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics: “a plan without a vision is just a shopping list.”


The next steps in the LRP process are for the panel to discuss the projects, facilities and recommendations contained in the white papers, and to decide on a set of priorities. Prioritisation will take place in December 2019 and January 2020 as the report-writing begins. A presentation of the draft recommendations will take place in June at the CASCA AGM in Toronto.


The activity associated with the town halls has prevented the LRP webpage from being as up-to-date as we’d like and we thank the community for your patience. The latest news on LRP2020 is available from the Slack workspace and through our Twitter handle @LRP2020. The panel can be contacted at panel@lrp2020.groups.io and the co-chairs at chairs@lrp2020.groups.io.


Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) Update


By Patrick Hall (MSE Management Group Member) (Cassiopeia – Winter 2019)


Canada First to Sign MSE Preliminary Design Phase Statement of Understanding


On July 11, 2019, the MSE preliminary design phase statement of understanding was signed by Don Brooks, executive director of ACURA, after approval of this signature by the ACURA Institutional Council at its June meeting. The SoU was also signed the next day by Doug Simons, executive director of CFHT, and on July 22 by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research at Australian Astronomical Optics – Macquarie University. Signatures from France and from the University of Hawaii are expected soon.

The scope of work in the SoU begins with completing the preliminary design of MSE. Signatories to the SoU are under no financial obligation to MSE; the SoU merely specifies how any contributions that are made from signatories will be valued by the MSE project. ACURA’s role will be to represent Canada’s interests to the MSE Board during the preliminary design phase, and to be the recipient of ‘Beneficial Interest’ shares in the project from future contributions to MSE by Canada through peer-reviewed funding mechanisms such as CFI.


MSE in Long-Term Planning Exercises


An MSE Facility White Paper was submitted in September as part of the Canadian LRP 2020 process. MSE, and the future of Maunakea astronomy, featured in the discussions at the LRP Town Hall in Toronto in early November, and at other town halls that month.


In July, a facility white paper was submitted to the Astro2020 decadal planning exercise in the USA; the white paper is available as arXiv:1907.07192. In October, the MSE Project Office replied to an Request for Information for the Astro2020 Technical Readiness and Cost Estimate (TRACE) process. These requests were issued to only a select subset of facilities. A presentation to the Astro2020 panel is likely early in 2020.


In France, although the formal report of the Prospective planning exercise has not yet been released, consultations have concluded and we anticipate receiving the highest ranking (P0) for the facilities and infrastructure survey.


Meanwhile, a CFI proposal for approximately $20M plus $5M in-kind is on track to be submitted in January by Co-PIs Colin Bradley (UVic) and Pat Hall (York). If successful, this proposal will fund over half of the work necessary for the full preliminary design phase of MSE in both hardware and software. A several million dollar NSF Advanced Technological and Instrumentation proposal for science calibration system studies has also been submitted (PI Jennifer Marshall, Texas A&M and MSE Project Scientist).


Partnership Growth: MSE:UK Consortium Joins as Observer, Texas A&M as Partner


In July, a consortium of institutions from the UK joined the MSE Management Group with Observer status, The consortium is led from the UK Astronomy Technology Center (UKATC) in Edinburgh, part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and includes the University of Cambridge, the University of Durham, University College London and the University of Oxford. “The science for MSE is amazing and a great fit to the UK community,” says MSE:UK management group representative Ruben Sanchez-Janssen (UKATC).


In September, Texas A&M University formally became an MSE participant by declaring its intention to contribute in-kind and cash resources to MSE during the preliminary design phase. Darren Depoy now serves as the MG member from Texas A&M.


In December, Joan Najita replaced Adam Bolton as the MG representative from NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory in the United States.

At its December meeting, the MG approved a Principles for Partnership Building document which outlines the current views of the MG on the core principles of the MSE partnership, and is intended to serve as a basis for discussion with prospective partners. More on this document in the next Cassiopeia.


Last but not least, MSE Management Group member Laura Ferrarese (NRC-Herzberg) will serve as Chair of the MG in 2020.


Project News: MSE Meeting May 2020 in France; Sam Barden Joins Project Office


Members of the MSE Science Team are now receiving monthly newsletters from the Project Office, and monthly science team telecons have begun for project status updates and science discussions. Science Team membership has now topped 400 members!


Plans are underway for the next MSE project-wide collaboration meeting to be held May 18-20, 2020 in Nice, France. Canadian researchers who have not previously been heavily involved with MSE may be able to obtain travel funding to the meeting by applying to the program described at this link.


Sam Barden will join the MSE Project Office as systems engineer in February 2020. In addition to his practical 4MOST design & build experience, Sam brings over 25 years of wide field fiber-fed spectroscopic knowledge, specifically in VPH gratings and fiber optics that he pioneered for astronomical applications. Sam’s credentials will be a tremendous asset for MSE in the preliminary design phase and beyond.


CASCA 2019 at McGill University and MSE EPO


The MSE Project Office team attended CASCA 2019 at McGill University in Montreal June 17-21, helping to staff a joint CFHT/MSE booth to answer community questions about the project. Also at the meeting, MSE featured at the CFHT Lunch, and a poster was presented on the MSE EPO programme by Kelly Lepo (McGill). Dr. Lepo and Dr. Jesse Rogerson (Canada Aviation & Space Museum) are Canada’s representatives on the MSE Education and Public Outreach committee, co-chaired by Dr. Lepo and Mary Beth Laychak (CFHT). The committee is charged with coordinating EPO activities sponsored by, and relating to, the MSE project on both the national and international level. Ongoing MSE EPO efforts will be exhibited at CASCA 2020 at York University in Toronto, May 25-28.

Square Kilometer Array (SKA) Update


By Kristine Spekkens (Canadian SKA Science Director) (Cassiopeia – Winter 2019)


There have been exciting developments in the SKA project over the last six months, and the project is progressing quickly. A detailed account of the recent history and current status of the SKA project in Canada can be found in the final report to the 2020 LRP Panel by Spekkens that was submitted at the end of September, as well as the SKA White Paper by Spekkens that recommends Canada’s continued participation in the project from 2020-2030.


The SKA1 Baseline Design is mature, and the main tasks of the SKA Organisation (SKAO) over the last several months have been a) the post-critical design review (CDR) closeout of element consortia and b) the planning and execution of System CDR. The only outstanding element CDR is that for the Dish (DSH) consortium, which has been pushed back to Q4 2020 to provide enough time for prototyping lessons learned to be incorporated into the design and for outstanding IP issues to be resolved. SKA1 System CDR was passed on 13 Dec 2019 – this is a major milestone for the project. Among the documents produced for System CDR, the revised operations plan and first complete cost book have improved the reliability of the costing estimates for SKA1. Both are scheduled for external review in Q2 2020 and constitute key inputs to the definition of the SKA1 Deployment Baseline (ie. the instrument that will initially be built), which will take place on the same timescale. The SKAO Board expects to endorse the SKA1 Construction Proposal, Operations Plan, and Business-Enabling Plan in Q3 2020 for transmission to the IGO Council (see below) to enable a construction start in Q2 2021. The next six months of the SKA project are thus arguably the most critical in its 20-year history, and Canadians are deeply engaged.


As SKA1 moves from pre-construction to construction, governance of the project will transition from the SKAO, a not-for-profit company in the UK, to an intergovernmental organisation (IGO) that is established by treaty convention. Among the seven countries that signed the convention in March 2019 (Australia, China, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom), the Netherlands was the first to ratify it in August 2019. The IGO will come into existence when five signatories ratify the convention, which is anticipated in Q3 2020. This schedule implies that the IGO will become fully functional in Q4 2020 and will take control of the project in Q1 2021. In the interim, a Council Preparatory Task Force (CPTF) is representing the interests of current and anticipated IGO signatories, its main activities are focussed on drafting accession, procurement and IP policy documents. Among the 13 current SKAO members, only New Zealand has confirmed that it will not contribute to the SKA beyond pre-construction; a number of countries including Canada are therefore exploring mechanisms for participating in the IGO. Permission for NRC to participate in the CPTF as an Observer was obtained in April 2019. This represents an important step forward for Canadian participation in SKA1 construction and operations, with Full IGO Membership, Associate IGO Membership or an alternate Collaborative Agreement all being explored.

SKA Science Data Challenges offer an opportunity for the astronomical community to familiarize itself with the kind of data that SKA1 will produce in order. They inform the development of data reduction workflows, including demonstration of the quality and reliability with which one may extract science from the images to be provided by the SKA Regional Centres. The first Science Data Challenge focussed on SKA1-Mid radio continuum source detection and characterization. The next Challenge will feature datacubes containing HI emission and absorption, and is in the planning stages. Keep an eye on the SKA Canadian email exploder for the announcement, or check the main SKA web page.

As SKA1 ramps up towards construction, a large number of scientists, engineers, software designers, and support and administrative personnel will be hired, both in the UK and in the host countries (South Africa and Australia). Those interested should keep an eye on recruitment.skatelescope.org, which includes a “job alert” tool to set up personalized emails filtered by field of expertise, location, duration and employment type (permanent, contract, secondment, etc.). There are many opportunities to dip your feet in SKA waters, both for those not quite ready to take the plunge into permanent employment as well as those seeking permanent jobs. Expect this area to heat up significantly over the next year!

For more information and updates on the SKA:

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