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Re: [Hess-ap] HESS OC: Improvements for evaluation process

by Anita Reimer

Dear All, you have probably seen the past iterations of a document by the OC members at-large to modify the AP conveners role in the proposal evaluation process. I would like to propose to discuss this topic (and Gerd's document) at our next upcoming AP-meeting; I added a corresponding point to the agenda. All the best, Anita Am 18.08.20 um 10:48 schrieb Stefan Wagner: > Dear all, > > as much as I understand the reasoning behind the considerations regarding > the roles of members-at-large (Gerd, Manami, Markus, Martin, Michal, > Stefano) and the ex-officio members (in particular WG conveners) I need to > point out the CB statement that is reflected in the text on the OC > composition > https://hess-confluence.desy.de/confluence/display/HESS/Observation+Committ… > reading: > > The Astrophysics WG convener will be explicitly informed/invited to those > OC meetings that are dedicated to and/or following up on the evaluation of > observation proposals received in response of calls for HESS observation > proposals. > > This had been the compromise between some CB members that rather preferred > the OC to be completely disconnected from the WG conveners and those that > wished the OC to be made up of WG conveners only. > > While all parties were unhappy with the procedures early this year, the > way forward would be either to challenge the CB compromise (which would > require the group of members-at-large to express their view towards the > CB) or to > iterate a workable procedure with the WG conveners. This would then target > at clarifying the ambiguous wording "informed/invited" of the above text. > I am afraid that a targeted consultation of an individual wg convener is > not in line with the CB decision unless the WG conveners would agree. > > At this stage I suggest the members-at-large and the wg conveners to > discuss the procedures - possibly based on a suitably worded version of > Gerd's document. > > best regards, > Stefan > > > >> Dear Gerd, >> >> yes. In the last version there was written: >> >> Therefore, OC believes that the presence of the science WG conveners >> during the (entire) in-person OC evaluation meeting is sub-optimal. >> >> what could mean that their presence during some part of the meeting could >> be considered. I would prefer to make >> the issue clear with their absence, but give them option to pass to us >> their ideas about the evaluation factors of >> interesting science or technicalities which we could otherwise overlook. >> Your formulation of this is a real improvement >> of my proposal. Thus we clearly say we are open for the WG conveners >> input, depending on their wish what they intend >> to communicate to us, but not allowing for interference with proposal >> evaluation. Of course this „(entire)” should be removed >> from the cited sentence. >> >> Regards, >> Michal >> >>> On 17 Aug 2020, at 18:39, Gerd Pühlhofer >>> <Gerd.Puehlhofer(a)astro.uni-tuebingen.de> wrote: >>> >>> >>> Dear Michal, >>> all, >>> >>> thanks for the feedback. >>> >>> Just to clarify, option one was not meant to imply that the conveners >>> are invited in the in-person meeting. The option was meant to imply even >>> less involvement by the science WG conveners, that they would only be >>> contacted by us individually (very much like individual proposers or the >>> OPS department) on a case by case basis, but that would be it. >>> >>> Regarding your addition to option two, I see your point. My intention >>> was to explicitely avoid that science WG conveners would convey their >>> priorities. So I would tend to say >>> >>> "but all WG conveners will be invited also to present their input on >>> general issues they consider important in the proposal evaluation >>> process. Priorities for individual proposals or grading should not be >>> discussed in this context, though." >>> >>> Best, Gerd > > _______________________________________________ > hess-oc site list > hess-oc(a)mpi-hd.mpg.de > https://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/mailman/listinfo/hess-oc

4 years, 9 months

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conferences

by Stefan Wagner

Dear all, 2020 is not a year for conferences. Nonetheless a few of them happen online which makes participation easier. An example is attached. We should reiterate the awareness for these events, and I encourage all of you to - in your next working group meetings - suggest people should remain aware of the opportunities to present our work in internet meetings. An issue to be considered (possibly with your groups) and up for discussion at the next meeting: We have a general page mentioning conferences and talks https://hess-confluence.desy.de/confluence/display/HESS/Speaker's+Bureau The old groups kept their own tables to maintain tabs on presentations. Duplication is overkill, generates extra work and results in separate pages (confusing), either one of which being less complete. I would rather suggest to keep this in one single place (current location? in general ap-page?) and provide links in the group pages. Any other suggestion? Best regards, Stefan ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: [cta-members] Reminder: Virtual mini-conference on "Compact objects and energetic phenomena in the MM era" next week From: "Santander, Marcos" <jmsantander(a)ua.edu> Date: Tue, July 7, 2020 03:17 To: "cta-members(a)cta-observatory.org" <cta-members(a)cta-observatory.org> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear all, Some time ago, I circulated an announcement for the "Compact objects and energetic phenomena in the MM era" conference which, due to the pandemic, has been moved in its in-person format to next year. In its place, there will be a virtual, 2-day mini-conference that will start next week with invited speakers giving 15-min presentations on many topics relevant to the science of CTA (e.g. XRBs, pulsars, CCSNe, TDEs, FRBs and AGN among others). We invite you to register and attend the sessions through this website: http://www.cvent.com/events/compact-objects-and-energetic-phenomena-in-the-…. We look forward to your participation! Best, Marcos for the COEPMME SOC _______________________________ Marcos Santander Assistant Professor Department of Physics & Astronomy 317B Gallalee Hall University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 +1 (205) 348 4863 _______________________________________________ cta-members mailing list is the corporate mailing list of CTA, which contains automatically all CTA members for official communications. Find out about more CTA mailing lists at https://cta.cta-observatory.org/pipermail

4 years, 10 months

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VIBE versus ZOOM

by Anita Reimer

Dear All, it seems that ZOOM services for setting up and conducting virtual meetings gain more and more supporters (more stable, more convenient) than the so far by HESS (mostly) used VIBE service. Therefore, discussions on a possible switch from VIBE/eZuce to ZOOM as a video conference tool for the entire HESS Collaboration have started. As an input for this discussion it would be useful to find out from you whether .... ..... you are able/allowed to use ZOOM as a tool for video conferences at your institute/university? ..... your institute/university provides you with professional licenses? ..... you have a preference for VIBE or ZOOM if you would have the choice? Please let me know as soon as possible. All the best, Anita

4 years, 11 months

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Fwd: AsrtoSat - Announcement of Opportuntiy : A10 Cycle

by Anita Reimer

Dear All, for your info. All the best, Anita -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: AsrtoSat - Announcement of Opportuntiy : A10 Cycle Date: Fri, 29 May 2020 11:51:28 +0000 (UTC) From: apps(a)issdc.gov.in Dear All, ISRO has established AstroSat as an astronomical observatory and over the last few years, has periodically released announcements of opportunity (AO) calls, soliciting proposals from national and international Astronomy community to observe using AstroSat instruments. This announcement of AO cycle 10 (AO10) is planned to begin from Oct 01,2020 to Sept 30th 2021. The full AO is available at https://www.isro.gov.in/announcement-of-opportunity-ao-soliciting-proposals… NOTE: We have introduced a new proposal type "AstroSat Long Term Key Proposals (ALTKP)" from this year. The full details of the same are available as an annexure I (page 13) of the full AO whose link is given above. The APPS will be opened for proposal submission from 08th June to 13th July 2020 5:00pm IST. With this early announcement, proposers are encouraged to initiate proposal planning at the earliest and ensure that final submission gets completed within the above time window. Proposers with queries on AstroSat, instruments and observation planning, are strongly encouraged to have them addressed through the Astrosat Support Cell operating at IUCAA, jointly supported by ISRO and UGC/MHRD (http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in). Instructions for submitting AstroSat proposal: Proposers will need to use the AstroSat Proposal Processing System (website: https://apps.issdc.gov.in/apps/auth/login.jsp) to create, prepare and submit proposals. The AstroSat proposers guide available online at http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in/?q=proposal_preparation provides a detailed description of various steps in proposal preparation. A brief description of these steps is given below. 1. Before preparing the proposal, decide on your target list. To start with, check if any observations of your target(s) are available in the AstroSat archives (https://astrobrowse.issdc.gov.in/astro_archive/archive/Home.jsp). An up-to-date list of observations carried out may be found using the AstroSat Observation Finder tool (http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in:8080/ObservationFinder/) and observation IDs listed there may be used in the AstroSat Schedule Viewer (https://webapps.issdc.gov.in/MCAP/) to obtain the details of the instrument configuration used. Data from some of the observations carried out may not have entered the archive yet, and some data in the archive may not have been released publicly yet. Nevertheless if your science goals are likely to be met by existing observations then the proposal will not receive priority in time allocation. If you still need fresh observations then a suitable justification must be provided in the proposal. Once you are convinced about the need for new observations, ensure that your targets can be observed with AstroSat as described below. 2. Ensure that the targets are visible to AstroSat for the A09 cycle observing period (1 October 2020 - 30 September 2021). Proposers can use the AstroSat visibility tool "astroviewer" available at http://issdc.gov.in/astroviewer/index.html. Please examine the output of this tool carefully to make sure that there is adequate visibility during the cycle period. In case of any difficulty, proposers can also use the simpler visibility tool "Avis" (http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in:8080/AstroVisCal/) for a graphical display of the visibility profile. If your science case (say coordinated observations or specific orbital phase etc) requires time constraints, then ensure that the time constraints are covered by the visibility windows. Pleaae do not enter Time Constraints just to reflect the source visibility - this is automatically taken into account. Output in the pdf format from one of the visibility tool will need to be uploaded in the APPS. While using Astroviewer, please check the button "Generate plot" to generate plots. The last plot generated gives the visibility of the target. Please attach this plot to the astroviewer output before submission. 3. If you want to observe with UVIT, it is mandatory to establish a safety check as described in the mandatory safety-check document available at ASSC (http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in/uploads/APPS/Guidelines_for_proposal_submissio…). First, find the safe FUV filters for your target using the online tool available at UVIT POC website (http://uvit.iiap.res.in/Software/gaia/). Save the output by printing in the pdf format. It is necessary to use VIS channel for tracking if you are using FUV channel. If FUV is safe for your target, find the safe VIS filter(s) using the online tool at UVIT POC website http://uvit.iiap.res.in/Software/theia/. The pdf outputs of FUV and VIS filter check tools should be merged and uploaded in APPS as the "UVIT Bright Source list". FUV gratings can be used when the count rate in FUV CaF2 filter is less than 892 in the full window of 512x512 pixels, please check the output obtained from the run of the UV filter check tool. Proposers also need to check for scattered light from nearby ultra-bright sources as described in the mandatory safety-check document. If your target is within +/-30 degrees of Galactic latitude and no Galex images are available, you will need to first establish the safety by proposing a UVIT safety check ToO proposal. Please see the AstroSat Proposers Guide for more details. 4. For observations with LAXPC, the source should be fainter than 2 Crab. SXT data will be severely piled-up if there is a very bright optical source with V magnitude less than about 4 magnitude (see AstroSat Handbook available at ASSC website). 5. Estimate exposure time, count rates and signal-to-noise etc. using the online exposure time calculators: UVIT (https://uvit.iiap.res.in/Software/etc), X-ray instruments (http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in:8080/WebPIMMS_ASTRO/index.jsp) or Spectral simulation tools such as XSPEC, Sherpa, ISIS. Perform scientific feasibility study with simulations as needed. 6. Prepare scientific and technical justification pdf files using Latex templates available at the ASSC website and following the instructions given in the latex templates. Proposals are evaluated based on the importance of science, choice of targets, justification of exposure time, technical and scientific feasibility. Hence these sections need to be carefully prepared. The scientific feasibility should be established based on spectral/timing simulations, signal-to-noise calculations, surface brightness above the background for the study of diffuse UV sources, etc. as per the case may be. 7. Login to APPS and create a proposal for A10 cycle. Select one of the proposal types Regular pointing, Monitoring or Anticipated ToO proposals as per the requirement. 8. Fill the mandatory fields such as the title, abstract, investigators, scientific category etc. 9. In the "Target list and Instrument configuration page", add target(s). Use target names recognized by NED/Simbad if available. Enter source size, V magnitude and 2-10 keV flux. In the instrument configuration page, choose a primary instrument which is most critical for your science case. Configure the instruments for each target considering the safety of the instruments. Please note that there are offsets up to several arc minutes in the pointing directions of different instruments. Choosing one instrument as primary may render the observations in other instruments somewhat sub-optimal. If a restricted window size is chosen for an instrument (for example, SXT FW mode) then that instrument must be made primary, otherwise the target may fall outside the observing window. 10. Upload the technical and science justification pdf files. For each target, upload the AstroSat visibility information either from astroviewer or Avis tool as the Astroviewer Output file and merged VIS/UV filter check pdf output as UVIT BSC. 11. Check and verify pdf copy of the proposal cover page and the attachments, edit the proposal if needed, and recheck and submit. Thanks & Regards AstroSat Team at ISRO

4 years, 11 months

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Joint projects with the other IACTs

by SCHUSSLER Fabian

Dear Stefan, dear all, Following up on the discussion on joint project with the other IACTs we had during our call, I would like to mention a project on combining our data taken during HE neutrino follow-ups. As a first step we are only using the "archival follow-ups” we did on the H.E.S.S. side in 2014/2015 (see confluence<https://hess-confluence.desy.de/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=217…> for details). We “published” our observations in two ICRC proceedings already. The joint project would allow to publish them as a journal paper. We started this joint project in preparation of ICRC2017 and published a joint proceeding<https://pos.sissa.it/cgi-bin/reader/contribution.cgi?id=PoS(ICRC2017)618>. Unfortunately the project has been stalled after that and we are now trying to get it restarted. I note that participation of MAGIC is still unclear (they raised some technical concerns about how to combine and display the results at the time of the ICRC2017) and it might end up as a H.E.S.S.-Veritas project… Cheers, Fabian --------------------------------------------- Fabian Schüssler CEA Irfu DPhP Bât. 141, 153b 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France Tel.: +33 1 69 08 30 20 http://irfu.cea.fr/Pisp/fabian.schussler

4 years, 12 months

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Introducing the HESS team

by Stefan Wagner

Dear all, I plan to change the hess-webpage for the public slightly and also use it to introduce the "people in HESS" on the right-hand side-panel below the "Source of the Month". As a start we think of a changing display (alternating for any visit or after a brief time) for the three sets of working group conveners in IT, Operations and astrophysics. It is straightforward to display the names and affiliations. It is _not_ foreseen to display any further information (Eamils, etc.) Ideally we would also display a small panel with thumbnail portraits of the conveners (as in the example attached below). This however has caveats: - For legal reasons you would have to send an explicit approval, that confirms you agree to such a (small, low resolution) portrait being displayed. - It would only make sense if a majority within each group would agree. I would hence like to ask 1) if there are any concerns mentioning on the public webpage that you (Name, Institution) are convener of your working group. 2) whether you have concerns with a display of a portrait as part of a panel. In case you are ok with #2 - please send me an image - please send me an individual Email (swagner(a)lsw.uni-heidelberg.de) Subject: Approval Text: I agree that the attached portrait may be displayed on the HESS public webpages as part of a group panel introducing HESS members in charge of specific activities. Best wishes, Stefan

4 years, 12 months

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HESS-MWL Board and 2 requests

by Stefan Wagner

Dear all, at the Heidelberg meeting in February we discussed the HESS-MWL board. The original plan had been to set it up during the Obergurgl meeting. With the subsequent delays it has taken some time, but fortunately the following HESS members agree to serve on the MWL board: Alicja Wierzcholska (SWIFT/X-ray) Catherine Boisson (ESO/Optical) Gavin Rowell (ASKAP&MOPRA/Radio-mm) Manuel Meyer (LAT/HE-Gamma) Richard Tuffs (IR-mm) & all of you. The astrophysics working group conveners will be ex-official members of the MWL board. This shall enable full participation and engagement on your side but spare you from formal duties. While many of you have both general and dedicated MWL experience, we hope to have both complemented those and nominally cover most wavebands for formal charges. Along these lines Anita invited for a Astrophysics-convener/MWL board meeting to (mostly) discuss aims and operations of the MWL board. Please identify your preferences on https://framadate.uibk.ac.at/studs.php?sondage=gmpcm6zq2e83rw7t Two additional requests: We would like to complete the introduction of the HESS conveners for the public HESS webpage, and I would like to ask those that had not yet had the time to reply to my mail sent April 21 (Subject: Introducing the HESS team) to do so. In order to keep some oversight I would like to ask all of you to send a list of projects in your groups were joint publications with MAGIC and/or VERITAS is envisioned to Anita and me. We have quite a few of them now and want to avoid iterating MOUs separately for each and every one. Best regards, Stefan

4 years, 12 months

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next HESS-AP meeting

by Anita Reimer

Dear Colleagues, over the past weeks a few points came up that need addressing, the main point being the MWL Board. I would therefore like to invite you for a vibe meeting taking place, if possible, still in May. For the scheduling please indicate your availability at: https://framadate.uibk.ac.at/studs.php?sondage=gmpcm6zq2e83rw7t by 16 May at the latest. The agenda items for this vibe-meeting are also placed at: https://hess-confluence.desy.de/confluence/display/HESS/Vibe+meeting+2020-0… Please complement these points with any items you would like to have discussed also at this next meeting. Since the main point of this meeting is the MWL Board, I also plan to invite to this meeting a few HESS colleagues with strong MWL expertise who have kindly agreed to join the MWL Board. All the best, Anita

5 years

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Fwd: Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium by Andrea Merloni about the first 6 months of eROSITA observations

by Anita Reimer

Dear All, might be interesting for some HESS-topics as well. Best, Anita ======================================================================== Andrea Merloni will be the next speaker of the Munich "Joint Astronomy Colloquium “, scheduled for Thursday April 30, at 15:15 CEST: The title of the talk is: "Mapping the hot Universe: the first six months of operations of eROSITA on SRG” Given the circumstances, the JAC is completely virtual. This offers the opportunity for all of us to follow the talk live, via the link: https://zoom.us/my/jac1604 For those that will not be able to attend live, we are also planning to have the talk available later via a YouTube channel. Information will follow.

5 years

1
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Introducing the HESS team

by Stefan Wagner

Dear all, I plan to change the hess-webpage for the public slightly and also use it to introduce the "people in HESS" on the right-hand side-panel below the "Source of the Month". As a start we think of a changing display (alternating for any visit or after a brief time) for the three sets of working group conveners in IT, Operations and astrophysics. It is straightforward to display the names and affiliations. It is _not_ foreseen to display any further information (Eamils, etc.) Ideally we would also display a small panel with thumbnail portraits of the conveners (as in the example attached below). This however has caveats: - For legal reasons you would have to send an explicit approval, that confirms you agree to such a (small, low resolution) portrait being displayed. - It would only make sense if a majority within each group would agree. I would hence like to ask 1) if there are any concerns mentioning on the public webpage that you (Name, Institution) are convener of your working group. 2) whether you have concerns with a display of a portrait as part of a panel. In case you are ok with #2 - please send me an image - please send me an individual Email (swagner(a)lsw.uni-heidelberg.de) Subject: Approval Text: I agree that the attached portrait may be displayed on the HESS public webpages as part of a group panel introducing HESS members in charge of specific activities. Best wishes, Stefan

5 years, 1 month

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