*************************************************************************** BOLETIM ELETRÔNICO SAB N. 302 - 30/11/2005 *************************************************************************** SEÇÃO: OPORTUNIDADES/INFORMES/EVENTOS Responsável: Vera Ap.F. Martin (vmartin1963@hotmail.com) *************************************************************************** 1. IUPAP YOUNG SCIENTIST'S PRIZE IN ASTROPHYSICS 2. OBSERVATORIO GEMINI - SYSTEM VERIFICATION - NIFS 3. 10a. ESCOLA DE VERAO: DINAMICA ORBITAL E PLANETOLOGIA **************************************************************************** 1. IUPAP YOUNG SCIENTIST'S PRIZE IN ASTROPHYSICS (comunicado por Odylio D. Aguiar) IUPAP YOUNG SCIENTIST'S PRIZE IN ASTROPHYSICS The Commission on Astrophysics of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics expects to present a prize to an outstanding young astrophysicist in December, 2006 at the 23rd Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics in Melbourne, Australia. Candidates for the prize must not have completed more than 8 years of post-PhD research and related activities at the time the prize is awarded. The prize will consist of a IUPAP Medal, travel expenses to the meeting where the prize is presented, and possibly a small cash award. The winner will probably be asked to give a short talk about the work for which the prize is awarded. Nominations can come from any astrophysicist who knows the nominee's work well. A nomination should consist of a letter explaining the nominee's qualifications, a complete CV and list of publications, and two letters of support, at least one of which must come from someone who is not at the nominee's institution, is not a past mentor, and is not a frequent co- author or other close collaborator. Materials must arrive by 1 June 2006 for full consideration. Nominations should be sent to the chair and the secretary of the Commission and to the chair of the selection committee: Commission Chair: Alexei M. Fridman (Inst. of Astronomy, Pyatnitskaya Ul. 48, 109017 Moscow, Russia. flexa@online.ru) Commission Secretary: Patricia A. Whitelock (SAAO, PO Box 9, 7935 Observatory, South Africa, paw@saao.ac.za) Selection Committee Chair: Virginia Trimble (Physics Dept, Univ of California, Irvine CA 92697 USA, vtrimble@uci.edu) ===================================================================== 2. OBSERVATORIO GEMINI - SYSTEM VERIFICATION - NIFS (comunicado por Max Faundez Abans) ___________________________________________________________________ Observatorio Gemini System Verification - NIFS - O LNA/NGO anuncia a oportunidade de participar no NIFS System Verification. As propostas tem que ser submetidas o quanto antes. Veja a continuacao para maiores informacoes. ___________________________________________________________________ Dear Colleagues, Our newest facility instrument, NIFS, has now been commissioned at the Gemini North Observatory. NIFS, the Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrograph, will provide users with R~5000 integral field imaging spectroscopy in the 0.9-2.5 micron wavelength range. NIFS is an image slicing IFU, and each spectral pixel corresponds to one rectangular 0.1"x0.04" spatial region on the sky. NIFS was designed to be used with the Gemini North facility adaptive optics system, Altair, but seeing-limited IFU spectroscopy with NIFS has also been commissioned. While first light with NIFS was on October 19, 2005 and we are still reducing the commissioning data, we have verified the basic instrument performance and we feel that NIFS is ready for verification of the main observing modes. Therefore, we are pleased to invite the Gemini community to propose System Verification (SV) programs for NIFS Integral Field Spectroscopy. We anticipate 6 nights of SV time will be available during January and February 2006. You are receiving this because you are either Gemini staff or a member of a National Gemini Office. Collaborations within the Gemini partner countries are highly encouraged as we have a limited number of observing nights and cannot do a large number of projects. Please circulate this call within your community. System verification is the final step of testing prior to general use of the instrument by the Gemini community. It is intended to be "end-to-end" testing, verifying the readiness of the entire system from observation definition to data reduction. It is also intended to exercise the various modes of an instrument and demonstrate to the community, through interesting and challenging science programs, the potential of NIFS integral field spectroscopy. The following summary is extracted from the Gemini SV web page: "SV observations will be selected by SV team members and approved by the Gemini Director. They will span a wide range of targets and perspectives and the SV teams will be responsible for providing written, in depth assessments of SV observations and mode verification within two months of data acquisition. The data obtained during SV will be made available by ftp to the international Gemini community and the assessments will be published on the Gemini SV web pages. Community participation.will help ensure that Gemini+NIFS spectroscopy is a success from the first date of scheduled observations." NIFS spectroscopy on Gemini can be considered as having four main observing modes (NOTE - only three are offered in this call - LGS spectroscopy with NIFS will be available at a later date): 1. Adaptive Optics NIFS+Altair Spectroscopy in the Z, J, H and K-bands - medium resolution (R~5000) IR imaging spectroscopy at adaptive optics spatial resolutions. We anticipate that three nights will be available for observations in this mode. (options: with or without an OIWFS star,with or without the Altair field lens). 2. Non-Adaptive Optics NIFS Spectroscopy in the Z, J, H and K-bands - R~5000 IFU spectroscopy at seeing-limited spatial resolutions. We anticipate that 1 night will be available for observations in this mode. 3. Adaptive Optics NIFS+Altair Spectral Coronography in the Z, J, H and K-bands - medium resolution (R~5000) IR imaging spectroscopy at adaptive optics spatial resolutions using either the 0."2 or 0."5 diameter occulting disks. We anticipate 2 nights will be available for commissioning observations in this mode. (options: Better performance achieved using OIWFS stars) 4. Laser Adaptive Optics NIFS+Altair Spectroscopy in the Z, J, H and K-bands - (NOT OFFERED IN THE CURRENT CALL) medium resolution (R~5000) IR imaging spectroscopy at adaptive optics spatial resolutions. For all modes we are interested in both point sources and extended objects, and in observations that cover a range of the 0.9 - 2.5 micron wavelength intervals. More information about NIFS and its capabilities can be found at http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/nifs. Note that sensitivity estimates for spectroscopy are available only in table form on the NIFS webpage. The NIFS component of the Integration Time Calculator is not yet available. You will need to use the sensitivity table to estimate total time needed for your proposed program. To submit a program, you must use the 2006A Phase I tool and include observing constraints, target lists, and instrument configuration information. Submit the program through the Phase I tool interface by December 16, 2005 for full consideration. Before submitting, select the button labeled "Demo Science or SV" in the PIT and enter the time requested; do not submit NIFS SV proposals to any other Gemini partner. Scientific justifications should be brief and clearly state which modes are being tested. Technical justifications should be complete enough that feasibility can be assessed easily. PIs seeking SV time will be informed of the results of the selection process by January 6, 2006, and Phase II files (using the Observing Tool) for selected programs will need to be completed by January 12. Disclaimer: Submitting an SV program or even having a SV program selected as high priority does not guarantee that data will be taken. Selection for SV will also be based on the abilities of the proposers to reduce the data and return feedback within a reasonable time. The proprietary period for SV data is two months. At the end of the 2 month period, PIs and their collaborators will need to provide reduced data for public release. This message is also available on the Gemini NIFS webpages at: http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/nifs/NIFSSVCall.html Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments-- we look forward to hearing from you and reading your NIFS SV proposals. Sincerely, Tracy Beck (tbeck@gemini.edu) Gemini Observatory NIFS Instrument Scientist ================================================================== 3. 10a. ESCOLA DE VERAO: DINAMICA ORBITAL E PLANETOLOGIA (comunicado por Othon Cabo Winter) 10a. Escola de Verao DINAMICA ORBITAL & PLANETOLOGIA. O evento ocorrera' na UNESP - Guaratingueta', no periodo de 20 a 24 de fevereiro de 2006. Inscricoes e demais informacoes na pagina do evento: http://www.feg.unesp.br/~orbital/escola/index.html **************************************************************************