Users Meeting 2025

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We are pleased to announce that JCMT Users meeting will be held from July 1st to July 4th, 2025, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The meeting will consist of both talks (invited and contribution) and posters on the current progress and updates on JCMT sciences and instrumentation. We also plan to arrange hands-on tutorial sessions and lectures for JCMT observations and data reduction, which would help beginners become more familiar with JCMT. As many of you may know, the partnership of the East Asian Observatory and JCMT has been changed, which may require reorganize the JCMT user community, but at the same time allows the community to start new collaborations using JCMT. The users meeting would provide an excellent occasion for the community to have such discussions. We will make rooms available for teams that are carrying out current JCMT Large Programmes and for those who wish to discuss future collaborations.

More details will be circulated shortly, and in the meantime, please mark your calendar.

Registration will be opened soon!

Closed Observing Proposals

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South Korea Call for Proposals – for Semester 25A

The East Asian Observatory is now accepting proposals PIs from South Korea for Semester 25A at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org

This Call for proposals closes on  Feb. 5th, 00:00 UTC. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and repeated re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their preexisting proposals, in order to simplify the process of proposal re-submission.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 25A

The East Asian Observatory is now accepting proposals for the Principal Investigator (PI) queue for Semester 25A at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 25A Call for PI Proposals closes on November 9th 2024 00:00 UTC time. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and repeated re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should use the ‘Log in’ button to generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their previous approved proposals that were not completed (‘Continuation Request’), in order to simplify the process of proposal resubmission.

Proposers might be interested to note the proposal pressure in terms of RA and DEC. The figure below shows the distribution of target RA proposed in the past under Semester A. When allocating time the TAC is mindful to ensure that time is awarded across a range of RAs.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

 

Call for Proposals – for Semester 24B

The East Asian Observatory is now accepting proposals for the Principal Investigator (PI) queue for Semester 24B at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 24B Call for PI Proposals closes on March 17th 2024. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and repeated re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their preexisting proposals, in order to simplify the process of proposal re-submission.

Proposers might be interested to note the proposal pressure in terms of RA and DEC. The figure below shows the distribution of target RA proposed in the past under Semester B. When allocating time the TAC is mindful to ensure that time is awarded across a range of RAs.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

 

South Korea Call for Proposals – for Semester 24A

The East Asian Observatory is now accepting proposals PIs from South Korea for Semester 24A at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org

This Call for proposals closes on January 10th 2024 00:00 UTC. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and repeated re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their preexisting proposals, in order to simplify the process of proposal re-submission.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

 

Call for Proposals – for Semester 24A

The East Asian Observatory is now accepting proposals for the Principal Investigator (PI) queue for Semester 24A at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 24A Call for PI Proposals closes on September 10th 2023. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and repeated re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their preexisting proposals, in order to simplify the process of proposal re-submission.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

 

Call for Proposals – Supplemental Call for 23B for United kingdom & Ireland

The East Asian Observatory invites astronomers from UK & Ireland institutions to propose for time in 23B under the UK & Ireland supplemental call for proposals. More details can be found in the JCMT Hedwig proposal system. The supplemental call will cover the 23B semester running from August 1st to January 31st 2023.

The call opened 2023-07-13 00:00 UT and will close 2023-07-26 23:59 UT. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

 

Call for Proposals – for Semester 23B

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for Semester 23B at the JCMT. Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 23B Call for PI Proposals closes on 2023-03-16 01:00 UT. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and repeated re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that from this semester onward, Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their preexisting proposals, in order to simplify the process of proposal re-submission.

For further details regarding current or previous Calls for Proposals, please see the proposal web pages.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

Call for Proposals – Supplemental Call for 23A for South Korea

The JCMT invites astronomers from South Korea to propose for time in 23A under the South Korean supplemental call for proposals. More details can be found in the JCMT Hedwig proposal system. The supplemental call will cover the 23A semester running from February 1st to July 31st 2023.

The call opened 2023-01-05 23:00 UT and will close 2023-01-26 23:00 UT

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

 

Call for Proposals – for Semester 23A

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for Semester 23A at the JCMT. Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 23A Call for PI Proposals closes on the October 12th 2022. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and repeated re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that from this semester onward, Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their preexisting proposals, in order to simplify the process of proposal re-submission.

For further details regarding current or previous Calls for Proposals, please see the proposal web pages.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

 

Call for Proposals – for Semester 22B

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for Semester 22B at the JCMT. Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 22B Call for PI Proposals closes on the 2nd of April, 2022 at 01:00 UT. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and repeated re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that from this semester onward, Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their preexisting proposals, in order to simplify the process of proposal re-submission.

For further details regarding current or previous Calls for Proposals, please see the proposal web pages.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

– 20220221

The Call for Proposals for Semester 22A has closed.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 22A

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for Semester 22A at the JCMT. Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 22A Call for PI Proposals closes on September 15th, 2021. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and repeated re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that from this semester onward, Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their preexisting proposals, in order to simplify the process of proposal re-submission.

Call for Large Programs (IV) – for Semester 22A

The East Asian Observatory is also happy to invite applications for the fourth Call for JCMT Large Programs. At this time, 4,200 hours in weather Grades 4 and 5 will be available for Large Programs up until the end of the 24B semester. Submissions will be accepted until the September 15th, 2021 deadline. Please see here for more details. The proposal handling system, Hedwig, is available here.

For further details regarding current or previous Calls for Proposals, please see the proposal web pages.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

– 20210815

The Call for Proposals for Semester 21B has closed.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 21B

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 21B at the JCMT. Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 21B Call for Proposals closes on the 16th of March, 2021.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions.

The Call for Proposals for Semester 21A has closed.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 21A

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 21A at the JCMT. Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 21A Call for Proposals closes on the 16th of September, 2020.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions.

JCMT Semester 21A Proposal Review Timeline

Due to an exceptional combination of contributing factors this year, the JCMT TAC Meeting for Semester 21A is now expected to be take place on January 20th – 22nd, 2021. As this is much closer to the start of the new semester than usual, JCMT users that have submitted proposals targeting the semester 21A observing period should please bear in mind that, in the event that their proposal proves successful, the pre-semester window of opportunity for the upload of MSBs will be shorter than usual. In particular, proposers with astronomical target objects already observable in early-mid February may wish to plan ahead accordingly.

The Call for Proposals for Semester 20B has closed.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 20B

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 20B at JCMT (for details see here).

Semester 20B runs from 01 August 2020 to 31 January 2021. You can reach the proposal handling system, Hedwig, and find complete details of this Call at:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

Any further questions should be directed to our help desk:

helpdesk@eaobservatory.org

If this is your first visit to Hedwig, you should go to ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner, and individual Help tags at many other places.

The 20B Call for Proposals closes on the 31st of March 2020 (a two-week extension was granted in light of the COVID-19 crisis).

JCMT Rapid Turnaround Proposal Submission Opens on October 1st, 2019

The East Asian Observatory is pleased to invite proposals requesting Rapid Turnaround (RT) time at the JCMT. All prospective PIs should review the JCMT eligibility requirements page prior to the preparation and submission of a proposal.

A new RT submission cycle shall begin at the start of every month and close at the start of the next month. Any proposals not yet submitted by this time will be treated as still in preparation, and can be submitted during a subsequent cycle for the same semester. RT requests are limited to a maximum of 8 hours for Band 1 – 4 time requests, but are unlimited for Band 5 time requests. The Observatory shall aim to complete successful RT proposals within six months of their formal approval, after which time they shall be removed from the observing queue (regardless of their level of completion).

All RT proposals submitted shall be peer-reviewed by the proposal creator (or designated co-author) of other proposals submitted during the same submission cycle. The proposal peer review deadlines shall normally be two weeks after the close of the regular end-of-month RT proposal submission deadlines.

By submitting an RT proposal, all proposing teams are committing themselves to providing ratings and brief written assessments of several other proposals submitted for this Call by the corresponding deadline. Any proposing team that fails to provide a full set of reviews for their assigned proposals by the corresponding review deadline shall have their own proposal removed from the review process.

The MSBs for all approved RT projects should be created as soon as possible after their corresponding monthly RT review period has completed, ideally before the end of the month following the proposal submission deadline.

For further details regarding RT proposals, please see the relevant Call for Proposals page here. Any further questions should be directed to helpdesk@eaobservatory.org.

New Hedwig users should select ‘Log in’ and create an account. A ‘Help’ facility is available in the upper right corner, and individual Help tags at many other places.

The Call for PI Proposals for Semester 20A has closed.

JCMT Call for Semester 20A PI Programs

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 20A at the JCMT. Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 20A Call for PI Proposals closes on the 16th of September, 2019. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and repeated re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that from this semester onward, Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their preexisting proposals, in order to simplify the process of proposal re-submission.

The Call for Large Program Proposals for Semester 20A has closed.

JCMT Call for Large Programs (III)

The East Asian Observatory is also happy to invite applications for the third Call for JCMT Large Programs. At this time, 4,800 hours will be available for Large Programs up until the end of the 22B semester. Submissions will be accepted until the September 16th deadline. Please see here for more details. The proposal handling system, Hedwig, is available here.

For further details regarding current or previous Calls for Proposals, please see the proposal web pages.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

The Call for Large Program Proposals for Semester 20A has closed.

Announcing the JCMT Call for Large Programs (III)

The East Asian Observatory is pleased to provide an announcement of the third Call for JCMT Large Programs. This information is being provided ahead of the opening of the 20A Call in order for current and new teams to pursue discussion and planning. Submissions will be accepted from August 15th (TBC) up until the September 15th deadline (TBC). This will likely coincide with the 20A PI Call. Fore more details click here. To reach the proposal handling system, Hedwig, and submit a proposal click here:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

Please note the scientific justification may be up to 8 pages in length and the technical justification may be up to 5 pages in length.

The Special Supplementary Call for South Korean Proposals – for Semester 19B has now closed.

Special Supplementary Call for South Korean Proposals – for Semester 19B

The East Asian Observatory invites JCMT observing proposals with Principal Investigators (PIs) affiliated with a South Korean institution only for a special Supplementary Call for Proposals. All prospective PIs should review the JCMT eligibility requirements page prior to the preparation and submission of a proposal. The length of the proprietary period for all data taken for successful proposals shall be the usual 1 year.

Proposals for this “Rapid Turnaround”-style Call are limited in accordance with the following constraints:

  • All proposals must be led by a PI affiliated with a South Korean institution;
  • Specific time allocation limits:
    • Time allocations may be made for up to 24 hours for proposals requesting weather bands 1 – 3 (with no guarantee of a full allocation);
    • Time allocations may be made for up to 48 hours for proposals requiring weather band 4;
    • There is no time allocation limit for proposals requesting band 5 weather.

The proposal submission deadline for this special 19B Supplementary Call for Proposals is July 8th, 2019.

All proposals submitted for this Call shall be peer-reviewed by the proposal creator (or designated co-author) of other proposals also submitted for this Call.

The proposal Peer Review deadline for this Call is July 22nd, 2019.

By submitting a proposal, all proposing teams are committing themselves to providing ratings and brief written assessments of several other proposals submitted for this Call by this deadline.

Any proposing team that fails to provide a full set of reviews for their assigned proposals by the above review deadline shall have their own proposal removed from the review process. All such proposals shall be regarded as abandoned by the Observatory.

Semester 19B runs from August 1st, 2019 to January 31st, 2020. You can access the proposal handling system, Hedwig, and find complete details of this Call at:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/jcmt/semester/12/rapid

Any further questions should be directed to our help desk:

helpdesk@eaobservatory.org

If this is your first visit to Hedwig, you should go to ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner, and individual Help tags at many other places.

The Call for Proposals for Semester 19B has closed.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 19B

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 19B at JCMT (for details see here).

Semester 19B runs from 01 August 2019 to 31 January 2020. You can reach the proposal handling system, Hedwig, and find complete details of this Call at:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

Any further questions should be directed to our help desk:

helpdesk@eaobservatory.org

If this is your first visit to Hedwig, you should go to ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner, and individual Help tags at many other places.

The 19B Call for Proposals closes on the 15th of March 2019.

The Call for Proposals for Semester 19A has now closed.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 19A

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 19A at JCMT (for details see here).

Semester 19A runs from 01 February 2019 to 31 July 2019. You can reach the proposal handling system, Hedwig, and find complete details of this Call at:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

Any further questions should be directed to our help desk:

helpdesk@eaobservatory.org

If this is your first visit to Hedwig, you should go to ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner, and individual Help tags at many other places.

The 19A Call for Proposals closes on the 15th of September, 2018.

The Call for Proposals for Semester 18B has closed.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 18B

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 18B at JCMT (for details see here).

Semester 18B runs from 01 August 2018 to 31 January 2019. You can reach the proposal handling system, Hedwig, and find complete details of this Call at:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

Any further questions should be directed to our help desk:

helpdesk@eaobservatory.org

If this is your first visit to Hedwig, you should go to ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner, and individual Help tags at many other places.

The 18B Call for Proposals closes on the 15th of March 2018.

The Call for Proposals for Semester 18A has closed.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 18A and for Urgent Observing

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 18A at JCMT (for details see here).

Semester 18A runs from 01 February 2018 to 31 July 2018. You can reach the proposal handling system, Hedwig, and find complete details of this Call at:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/jcmt/semester/other

Any further questions should be directed to our help desk:

helpdesk@eaobservatory.org

If this is your first visit to Hedwig, you should go to ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner, and individual Help tags at many other places.

The 18A Call for Proposals closes on the 15th of September 2017.

The Call for Proposals for Semester 17B has closed.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 17B

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 17B at JCMT (for details see here).

Semester 17B runs from 01 August 2017 to 31 January 2018. You can reach the proposal handling system, Hedwig,  and find complete details of this Call at:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

Any further questions should be directed to our help desk:

helpdesk@eaobservatory.org

If this is your first visit to Hedwig, you should go to ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner, and individual Help tags at many other places.

The 17B Call for Proposals closes on the 15th of March 2017.

The Call for Large Programs (II) has closed.

Announcing the JCMT Call for Large Programs (II)

The East Asian Observatory is pleased to provide an announcement of the second Call for JCMT Large Programs. This information is being provided ahead of the opening of the Call in order for current and new teams to pursue discussion and planning. Submissions will be accepted from February 13th up until the March 15th deadline. This will coincide with the 17B PI Call. Fore more details click here. To reach the proposal handling system, Hedwig, and submit a proposal click here:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

Please note the scientific justification may be up to 8 pages in length and the technical justification may be up to 5 pages in length.

The Call for Proposals for Semester 17A has closed.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 17A and (NEW) for Urgent Observing

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 17A at JCMT (for details see here).

Semester 17A runs from 01 February 2017 to 31 July 2017. You can reach the proposal handling system, Hedwig,  and find complete details of this Call at:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

Any further questions should be directed to our help desk:

helpdesk@eaobservatory.org

If this is your first visit to Hedwig, you should go to ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner, and individual Help tags at many other places.

The 17A Call for Proposals closes on the 15th of September 2016.

NEW: The East Asian Observatory invites requests for Urgent Observing at any time – and you can now submit these request via a special Call in our Hedwig proposal system. You can find details here.

Constraints and guidance on applicant eligibility, the available instrumentation, the required content of the proposal, and other aspects of the proposal are as described in the Call for Proposals for the current semester – except as itemized below.

Urgent Requests should clearly describe the following:
1. The urgency for the observations, and why a response to the regular, semi-annual Call for Proposals is/was inappropriate.
2. The time span over which observations may be made or the specific times at which they must be made.
3. The timescale for analysis of resulting data and for publication thereof; which ought to be proportionately urgent . . .

The above information should appear in the Scientific Justifications section of the proposal; itemized as above, please. If approved, proposals will be graded with respect to the approved projects in the current semester and executed via JCMT’s Flexible Observing scheme.

 

The Call for Proposals for Semester 16B has closed.

Call for Proposals – Semester 16B

The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 16B at JCMT. Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission go to:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

New in 16A: the likely availability of POL-2. If you are interested in conducting polarimetry observations with SCUBA-2, please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org.

The 16B Call for Proposals closes on the 15th of March, 2016.

If this is your first visit to Hedwig, you should ‘Log in‘ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags at many other places.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions.

 

The Call for Proposals for Semester 16A has closed.

The next Call – for 16B – opened on 16 February 2016.

Semester 16A runs from 01 February 2016 to 31 July 2016. We are launching this Call through a new proposal handling system: Hedwig. You can reach Hedwig and find complete details of this Call at:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

At your first visit, you should go to ‘Log in’ and generate an account. We hope you will find Hedwig easy to use: there is a ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner, and individual Help tags at many places on the proposal pages.

The 16A Call for Proposals closes on the 22nd of September 2015.

In addition, it should be noted that we will embark on survey observing in the 16A semester – and as such, PI time is more limited than the current semester, however we still strongly encourage PI submissions as at least 800 hours of time will be available to EAO and partner region investigators. Some alterations have also been made to the PI eligibility for Canada – please see the Call for details.

It should be noted that proposals will now be accepted via the Hedwig Proposal Submission System. Please see the above link for details and proposals requirements.

The Call for JCMT Survey Proposals has now CLOSED

The Call for Proposals for Semester 15B  has now CLOSED.

 

Call for Proposals – for Semester 25A

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Call for Proposals – for Semester 25A

The East Asian Observatory is now accepting proposals for the Principal Investigator (PI) queue for Semester 25A at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 25A Call for PI Proposals closes on November 9th 2024 00:00 UTC time. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and repeated re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should use the ‘Log in’ button to generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their previous approved proposals that were not completed (‘Continuation Request’), in order to simplify the process of proposal resubmission.

Proposers might be interested to note the proposal pressure in terms of RA and DEC. The figure below shows the distribution of target RA proposed in the past under Semester A. When allocating time the TAC is mindful to ensure that time is awarded across a range of RAs.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

 

 

JCMT Science Highlight: Unlocking the mystery of the Cosmic Infrared Background

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Utilizing the SCUBA-2 camera mounted on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, an international team led by graduate student Qi-Ning Hsu and Dr. Chian-Chou Chen from the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) has successfully resolved the cosmic infrared background (CIB) at 450 μm and confirmed its origin from galaxies beyond the Milky Way. The result has published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters in March, 2024. You can find more details here.

(Background) Illustration of cosmic background radiation taken by the COBE satellite. The origin of the background light in infrared remains an open question. (Right panel) An example 450 μm image taken by the SCUBA-2 camera where the red circles show the detected galaxies. This groundbreaking observations clearly show that these galaxies are the origin of the 450 μm background light. Image Credit: COBE/Hsu et al.

 

Call for proposals for semester 2024B

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The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 24B at the JCMT. Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 24B Call for Proposals closes on the 17th of March, 2024 (2024-03-17 00:00 UT).

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions.

Hours available

The median award of hours to successful program is 14 hours. This ranges to fewer hours in Grades 1-3 due to pressure and weather availability and more in Grade 4/5. Awards range in hours from 1-80 hours in total.

Instrumentation availability

All instrumentation are expected to be available.

24B RA Pressure

Proposers might be interested to note the proposal pressure in terms of RA and DEC. The figure below shows the distribution of target RA proposed in the past under Semester A. When allocating time the TAC is mindful to ensure that time is awarded across a range of RAs.

 

Weather

Proposers should also be mindful of the historical fraction of time in each weather Grade in particular noting the wide variation in ours per weather Grade obtained in any one semester.

 

The Expanding Partner Program

PIs from Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Brazil and Argentina are welcome to apply for a limited amount of time (<9 hours per program this time constraint is not limited in Grade 5 time) under the “Expanding Partner Program” – a program to encourage astronomers from new JCMT partners to make use of the JCMT.

*** Completion of any science program awarded time is not guaranteed. Approval reliant upon the program being technically feasible, without clashing with existing proprietary data. Data collection is dependent on weather/instrument/queue pressures with adjustments in line with recommendations by the TAC. Under the “Expanding Partner Program” priority will be given to new users of the JCMT.

The 2024 East Asian Observatory (EAO) Research Fellow

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To promote East Asian regional astronomy research cooperation, the East Asian Core Observatory Association (EACOA) and The East Asian Observatory (EAO) jointly encourage and support highly qualified young researchers from all over the world to join and conduct joint research activities with colleagues at the EACOA member institutes which are Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, National Astronomical Observatories Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Purple Mountain Observatory Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The EAO Fellowship is a postdoctoral position to work at the EAO, Hilo, Hawaii, USA. One EAO Fellowship will be awarded in 2024. The Fellow is expected to spend 50% of time supporting the EAO (JCMT) operations and have the opportunity to work with colleagues at the EACOA member institutes.

The Fellowship Program is administered by the EAO and the EACOA Secretariat. Awards to support the EAO Fellows are made directly by the EAO.

Visit the AAS Job Register for details: https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/c5978d43
EACOA details: https://www.eacoa.net/job/

Application Deadline: Monday, April 1, 2024
Selection Deadline: Friday, May 31, 2024

Call for 24A

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The East Asian Observatory is happy to invite PI observing proposals for semester 24A at the JCMT. Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see:

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org/

The 24A Call for Proposals closes on the 9th of September, 2023 (2023-09-10 00:00 UT).

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions.

Hours available

The median award of hours to successful program is 14 hours. This ranges to fewer hours in Grades 1-3 due to pressure and weather availability and more in Grade 4/5. Awards range in hours from 1-80 hours in total.

Instrumentation availability

All instrumentation are expected to be available thought the observing period with a caveat that `Āweoweo may only be available from March. Therefore please provide HARP time estimates for targets accessible early in the semester for requests submitted using `Āweoweo.

24A RA Pressure

Proposers might be interested to note the proposal pressure in terms of RA and DEC. The figure below shows the distribution of target RA proposed in the past under Semester A. When allocating time the TAC is mindful to ensure that time is awarded across a range of RAs.

 

Weather

Proposers should also be mindful of the historical fraction of time in each weather Grade in particular noting the wide variation in ours per weather Grade obtained in any one semester.

 

The Expanding Partner Program

PIs from Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Brazil and Argentina are welcome to apply for a limited amount of time (<5 hours per program this time constraint is not limited in Grade 5 time) under the “Expanding Partner Program” – a program to encourage astronomers from new JCMT partners to make use of the JCMT.

*** Completion of any science program awarded time is not guaranteed. Approval reliant upon the program being technically feasible, without clashing with existing proprietary data. Data collection is dependent on weather/instrument/queue pressures with adjustments in line with recommendations by the TAC. Under the “Expanding Partner Program” priority will be given to new users of the JCMT.

JCMT Users Meeting 2023 a success

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The observatory wishes to thank all those involved in the 2023 JCMT Users Meeting held at the University College London, UK. This was the first meeting held in person since the COVID pandemic and was wonderful to see some of our JCMT community in person. Further deals on the meeting can be found here. We look forward to connecting with our community at future Users Meeting.

 

Molokai’i High School alumna captures the first look at magnetic fields within the Horsehead Nebula.

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Molokai student Mallory Go has co-authored a paper published in The Astronomical Journal under the title “Magnetic Fields in the Horsehead Nebula using data from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Go (who graduated in 2021) was awarded time under the Maunakea Scholars program – a program that gives students at High Schools in Hawaii access to the telescopes on Maunakea.

Using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in 2018 Go obtained unique images of the Horsehead Nebula in polarized light – a technique astronomers use to reveal the magnetic field within the Nebula. Despite the Horsehead Nebula being such an iconic cloud, which is famous amongst astronomers, Go was the first to propose such observations.

“When I heard about the Maunakea Scholars program I was excited. It seemed to me to be such a fantastic opportunity to use the Telescopes on Maunakea” said Go reflecting on her experience “I chose to study the Hosrehead nebula because I thought it was beautiful and I didn’t find much research on it.” Once the proposed observations were taken, and working with astronomer Dr Parsons, Go presented her work as part of her Science Fair representing Molokai`i High School. After this, the data were shared with top astronomers in the field who perused the work further. Jihye Hwang, Kate Pattle and Jongsoo Kim built on Go’s observations to perform a quantitative analysis of the strength and role of magnetic fields in the region.

Magnetic field detections overlaid on a two-color composite of Hubble Space Telescope image taken at two near-IR wavelengths (Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes). Black and orange segments show magnetic field orientations inferred from JCMT and Palomar Observatory. Credit: Hwang et al. 2023.

“The data are impressive and what they tell us is even more impressive,” said co-author Dr Kate Pattle, from University College London (UCL), UK. “I am delighted that Mallory has given us the chance to work on such a beautiful and iconic region of the sky – and what we’ve found helps us to understand why the Horsehead Nebula has the shape that it does. These observations tell us a story of two dense regions hidden in the Horsehead. We see a ridge of warm gas and dust – the head and mane of the horse – that is interacting with the ultraviolet photons from nearby bright young stars. But sheltered behind that ridge, we see a cold clump of dense material which we think will go on to form a new solar system like our own. What’s so new and exciting about these observations is that we get to see for the first time what the magnetic field within these regions is doing.”

The observations obtained by Go in 2018 were taken by one of the JCMT’s most cutting-edge instruments: POL-2. POL-2 is a polarimeter which is able to take measurements of the alignment of interstellar dust that can be influenced by magnetic fields in space. “You can think of POL-2 as a pair of polarized sunglasses sitting in front of the telescope,” said Head of Operations Dr Harriet Parsons. “In Hawaii many of us are used to wearing polarized sunglasses – they help us to see better by cutting down glare – but at the telescope by rotating the polarized lenses we analyze the brightness of the light being observed and deduce if it is under the effect of magnetic fields. Astronomers can look at clouds of gas and dust using such instruments – regions both within our own galaxy or beyond – and expand their understanding of what shapes them.” In addition the published paper makes use of additional data observed with two of the other instruments available at the JCMT.

Commenting further on this data Dr Pattle said “The JCMT is a fantastic tool: we have used data from three of the telescope’s instruments to measure how bright and how dense the region is, and what its gas and magnetic fields are doing. We see that the interaction between the head and mane of the horse and the nearby young stars has significantly reordered the magnetic field – we suggest that the magnetic field has been folded back on itself along our line of sight as the Horsehead formed. Interestingly, though, the magnetic field in the cold clump sheltered by the ridge seems not to have been affected by the interaction that created the Horsehead – it behaves exactly as we would expect magnetic fields in an isolated dense clump to do. This supports the theory that the dense clump is sheltered by the ridge. This gives us important insight into how stars can continue to form even in regions like the Horsehead, where the cold gas that provides the material for new stars is being eroded by photons from nearby young and hot stars. We expect that our own Sun formed as part of a cluster of stars, and so looking at how stars form in the Horsehead Nebula may give us an insight into our own Solar System’s past.”

As a participant of the Maunakea Scholars program Go understands that some people might be surprised to find that she is now a student at Brown University studying Public Health. Commenting on this Go said “even back in 2018 I knew I would go to college to major in Public Health but I joined the Maunakea Scholars program because it sparked my interest. That’s a personal philosophy of mine; pursue the things that interest you.”

Reflecting on the publication of the data taken back in 2018 Go said “it’s wild to see that this work is now published for other astronomers to build on. That region is even more beautiful to me now I know this story of the two clumps with subtly different stories hidden within.” And for her current career path “I love Brown University and I am really enjoying studying Public Health, I’m the Class of 2025 but I might also look at doing post-graduate studies here.”

Mallory Go (left) presenting her work on the Horsehead Nebula (right: JCMT astronomer Dr Harriet Parsons) at the Molokai High School Science Fair 2019.

Additional information

The Research

This research was published under the title “Magnetic fields in the Horsehead Nebula” by Jihye Hwang, Kate Pattle, Harriet Parsons, Mallory Go and Jongsoo Kim. It was published in the Astronomical Journal, an open access journal publishing original astronomical research, with an emphasis on significant scientific results derived from observations. A copy of the full scientific paper can be accessed at: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/acc460

The data

The data obtained by Mallory in 2018 (with additional data obtained in 2019) was observed using POL-2, a linear polarimeter working at sub-mm wavelengths. Additional C18O spectral line data observed using the HARP instrument at the JCMT was also collected under the same program. This data was also used by the authors of this paper. The data were obtained under the Maunakea Scholar program under Directors Discretionary time for which the authors wish to thank Paul Ho.

Maunakea Scholars

The JCMT data presented in this paper was awarded under the Maunakea Scholars program. Maunakea Scholars is an innovative program designed to bring Hawaii’s aspiring young astronomers into the observatory community, competitively allocating observing time on world-class telescopes to local students. In particular the authors wish to thank Doug Simons and Mary Beth Laychak as leads of the Maunakea Scholars program.

Additional thanks

Additional thanks to Emilio Macalalad and Kapua Adolpho at Molokai High School.

JCMT

Operated by the East Asian Observatory, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is the largest astronomical telescope in the world designed specifically to operate in the submillimeter wavelength region of the spectrum. The JCMT has a diameter of 15 meters and is used to study our Solar System, interstellar and circumstellar dust and gas, and distant galaxies. It is situated near the summit of Maunakea, Hawai‘i, at an altitude of 4,092 meters.

The East Asian Observatory is a collaboration between our partner regions in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

The East Asian Observatory wishes to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.