Category: Workshop

Maunakea Wonders Teacher Workshop 2022 – A Success!

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The Maunakea Wonders Teacher Workshop classroom visit on October 28th included students in the UH Hilo Master’s in Teaching program with presenters Yuko Kakazu, Leinani Lozi, and Callie Matulonis.

The 2022 Maunakea Wonders Teacher Workshop took place on October 28th and November 4th adding success to a collaboration with the University of Hawaiʻi that has reached more than 100 participants since it began in 2017.

On October 28th, guest speakers Callie Matulonis (EAO/JCMT), Leinani Lozi (TMT), and Yuko Kakazu (NAOJ) provided enthusiastic and engaging presentations to 14 soon-to-be teachers at UH Hilo in the Master’s in Teaching Program. Presentations included “An Introduction to Maunakea Wonders, MKAOC Opportunities, and Hawaii Discovers Science Highlights”, “Hawaiian Navigational Starlines and Moon Phases”, and “Hands-On Engaging Astronomy Activities.”

On November 4th, participants were treated to a private planetarium show at the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center before visiting the East Asian Observatory headquarters. At EAO, participants split into two groups and visited stations set up to learn about our JCMT Remote Operations Control Room with Telescope System Specialist Jasmin Silva (EAO/JCMT), and also shown the Fast Radio Burst Dish with Derek Kubo (SMA). Afterwards, we had an informal career-panel talk story session with EAO staff from all departments over pizza!

We look forward to our future collaborations with UH Hilo and hope that these soon-to-be teachers reach out to us as a resource throughout their teaching careers.

2022 Maunakea Wonders participants at the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center.

Touring the JCMT Remote Operations Control Room with TSS Jasmin Silva.

Learning about the FRB Dish with Derek Kubo.

JCMT/SOFIA Joint Virtual Workshop: Magnetic Fields Spill Secrets Of Star Formation

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“Magnetic Fields and the Structure of the Filamentary Interstellar Medium”, a JCMT and SOFIA Joint Virtual Scientific Workshop

 

During the period of 22nd – 25th of June, 2021, a virtual workshop on “Magnetic Fields and the Structure of the Filamentary Interstellar Medium” was held online. This workshop brought together more than 150 staff and user community members of the ground-based James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) and the aircraft-based Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) for a range of exciting scientific presentations, papers and discussions.

Much of the meeting discourse focused on the presence of interstellar magnetic fields at a range of size scales, and their impact on the lifecycle of Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs). IRDCs are the coldest, densest regions interstellar of Giant Molecular Clouds. Sub-millimeter and infrared observations of these IRDCs are particularly important to astronomers because they play a central role in the formation of stars. As a part of this process, the complex interplay of magnetic fields, gravity, chemistry, pressure and density within these regions gives rise to complex clumpy and filamentary structures, which in turn provide hints about their origins.

Since magnetic fields are invisible, astronomers must use indirect methods to trace them. This is made possible because a large number of  tiny interstellar dust grains in these cold, dense regions tend to become aligned by the local magnetic fields. These large collections of aligned dust grains then polarize the infrared and sub-mm light passing between them, in a manner akin to that of polarized sunglasses lenses. These astronomical polarization effects, the details of which were also discussed extensively during this meeting, can therefore be mapped with instruments such as JCMT’s SCUBA-2/POL-2 and SOFIA’s HAWC+, and have already provided a detailed picture of the competing physical influences within the clouds, and hence their effects on the formation of stars.

For further information, please visit the main workshop page here:

https://sofia-science-series.constantcontactsites.com

Videos of the invited talks are available here:

https://sofia-science-series.constantcontactsites.com/w2-abstracts

Videos of the pre-recorded contributed talks are available here:

https://sofia-science-series.constantcontactsites.com/w2-pre-recorded-talks

 

Maunakea Wonders Teacher Workshop 2019

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October 30th, 2019 kicked off the fourth “Maunakea Wonders Teacher Workshop” in collaboration with the University of Hawaii Hilo Masters of Arts in Teaching program.  The “Maunakea Wonders Teacher Workshop” program gives participants a background on the existing Maunakea Observatories, the scientific discoveries being made, the engineering/instrumentation capabilities, the jobs and career paths available to our island’s students, and our Education and Public Outreach efforts. EAO staff had a great time talking story with the students and sharing hands-on activities that they can take back to their own classrooms. A big mahalo to Alyssa from Gemini Observatory for giving an ‘out of this world’ demonstration on how to use the portable starlab planetarium for many different lessons and age ranges. On Saturday, November 2nd participants had a fantastic time at the Imiloa Astronomy Center where they were treated to a custom planetarium show, a special cultural presentation with Kumu Leilehua Yuen, and a Maunakea Resource presentation by the Office of Maunakea Management.  On our final day in the classroom, November 13th, Senior Scientist Steve Mairs had us recreating the scale of our solar system with a golf ball. Telescope System Specialist Miriam Fuchs got us to do a dance battle between gravity and fusion. Our panel of five EAO/JCMT employees shared stories and experiences that set them on their career path. It’s been a fantastic workshop and we’ve had a blast connecting with these passionate soon-to-be teachers.

   

Maunakea Wonders – Teacher workshop success

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For two days at the end of June EAO/JCMT hosted its first “Maunakea Wonders Teacher Workshop” primarily aimed at newly qualified teachers here on the island of Hawai’i. One day was spent learning about the cultural, environmental and astronomical role Maunakea plays combined with a trip to visit the CFHT (Canada France Hawai’i Telescope), and the JCMT. The second day was spent in the classroom discovering what Hawaii more about astronomy on the big island and the resources available to the community, teachers and students in Hawaii.

The workshop was kindly supported by MKAOC/CFHT and the University of Hawai’i Hilo’s School of Education.

First day of the Maunakea Wonders Teacher workshop included a trip to the Canada France Hawaii Telescope and then to JCMT.

Discovering cosmic distances

Discovering Teaching opportunities in Hawaii – with Gemini’s Starlab.

– 20170703

JCMT holds reduction workshop in Shanghai

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At the start of October the JCMT held a Data Reduction workshop for JCMT astronomers. The workshop was held at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in China. Over 20 astronomers attended with a variety of backgrounds. The material presented at the workshop can be found here. Information on past workshops can be found here. If you are interested in having JCMT staff visit your institution for such an event please contact helpdesk@eaobservatory.org.

Participants at the JCMT reduction workshop, China, October 2016.

Participants at the JCMT reduction workshop, China, October 2016.

– 2016/10/25

Users Meeting – Nanjing 2017

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JCMT-UsersMeeting-2017-annoucement

Dear JCMT users

You are invited to attend the second EAO JCMT Users Meeting. This 2017 JCMT Users meeting will be held in Nanjing, China. The two day meeting will be held on Monday, 13th and Tuesday 14th of February. An additional 1 half-day data reduction workshop will be held immediately after the meeting on Wednesday 15th of February.

To register for the 2017 Users Meeting please use the online registration form.

Note: If you cannot access the registration form (which is a Google document), then please use this text form and email to jcmt_um_2017 “at” eaobservatory.org.

Note: All participants coming from outside of mainland China will likely require a visa. Therefore to  request a letter of invitation to attend this meeting please email:  jcmt_um_2017 “at” eaobservatory.org This process can be lengthy. You are encouraged to request this invitation letter and begin the visa application process as soon as possible.

For more information visit: www.eaobservatory.org/jcmt/science/nanjing2017/

– 2016/09/13

JCMT workshop, Shanghai, October 16th 2016

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The JCMT would like to announce that the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory will hold 1-day workshop on JCMT data reductions and analysis on Oct. 16 at SHAO in Shanghai. JCMT staff, Dr. Harriet Parsons and Dr. Mark Rawlings, will give these tutorials.  The agenda can be found below.

This workshop is scheduled before JINGLE team meeting in Shanghai (Oct. 17-18) and MALATANG team meeting in Nanjing (Oct. 19-21) as a united conference. We aim to open this tutorial to all interested researchers and students, and high priority will be given to members of JINGLE, MALATANG and other JCMT large programs due to space limitation.  If you are interested to attend, please contact Ting Xiao (xiaoting@shao.ac.cn) as soon as possible to help us get a rough head account.

Agenda for the workshop on Oct. 16:

Morning session:

  • introduction to STARLINK
  • introduction to HARP and RxA3m
  • Heterodyne beginner
  • Heterodyne advanced

Afternoon session:

  • introduction to SCUBA-2
  • SCUBA-2 basic
  • SCUBA-2 advanced

In addition if requested we could cover any of the following (time permitting):

  • Hedwig session – Proposal submission to the JCMT
  • JCMTOT – how to submit JCMT project MSBs
  • POL-2 introduction and basic data reduction in an extended session
  • General JCMT project support for existing users

 

If you are interested in any additional topics listed above, please inform us in the email.

– 2016/09/09

Face-to- face workshop for “SAMPLING-TOP- SCOPE”, December 14-16, Beijing -1 st announcement

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The Planck satellite has discovered more than ten thousand Galactic cold clumps, the so-called “Planck Galactic Cold Clumps” (PGCCs). The PGCC catalog, covering the whole sky, hence probes wildly different environments, and represents a real goldmine for investigations of the early phases of star formation. After the successful start of the pioneer survey with the PMO 14-m telescope, we are conducting a joint survey (“SAMPLING-TOP- SCOPE”) towards 1000-2000 PGCCs with the SMT 10-m, TRAO 14-m, and JCMT 15-m telescopes. “SAMPLING” (SMT “All-sky” Mapping of PLanck Interstellar Nebulae in the Galaxy) is an ESO public survey inJ=2-1 12CO/13CO emission using the SMT 10-m telescope. “TOP” (TRAO Observations of Planck cold clumps) aims at an unbiased J=1-0 12CO/13CO survey of 2000 Planck Galactic Cold Clumps with the Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory 14-meter telescope. “SCOPE” (SCUBA-2 Continuum Observations of Pre-protostellar Evolution) is a legacy survey using SCUBA-2 at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) of the East Asia Observatory (EAO) to survey 1000 Planck galactic cold clumps at 850 micron. We are also actively developing follow-up observations towards the SCUBA-2 cores detected in “SCOPE” with other ground-based telescopes (e.g. KVN 21-m, NRO 45-m, Effelsberg 100-m, Arecibo 300-m, SMA, and ALMA). Through these observations, we will study how dense cores form and how star formation varies as a function of environment, the universality of filaments in the cold ISM and their roles in generating dense cores, the existence of a density threshold for dense core formation, how dust properties change in different environments, and how dust properties affect the chemical evolution of dense cores.

To promote collaborations among team members on using the survey data for science, we will hold a face-to-face workshop on Dec. 14-16 at Peking University, Beijing, China. To indicate your interest in attending the workshop, please sign your name on the following doodle page:

http://doodle.com/poll/443gppgf4mc4y5rc

More details of the workshop can be found on our wiki page:

https://topscope.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/tiki/tiki-index.php

Program (preliminary)

Dec 14: registration and reception
Dec 15: talks and discussions
Dec 16: talks and discussions

SOC: Tie Liu; Mark Thompson; Sheng-Yuan Liu; Gary Fuller; Ken Tatematsu; Yuefang Wu; Di Li; James di Francesco; Kee-Tae Kim; Ke Wang; Isabelle Ristorcelli; Mika Juvela

LOC: Jie Yao; Chao Zhang; Shuxian Li; Huawei Zhang; Yuefang Wu (ywu@pku.edu.cn); Tie Liu (liutiepku@gmail.com)

– 2016/07/21

JINGLE meeting Oct. 16-18 in Shanghai – 1st announcement

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The JINGLE Team meeting and JCMT Data Reduction & Analysis Workshop will be held on Oct. 16-18 in Shanghai at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, China.

JINGLE (The JCMT dust and gas In Nearby Galaxies Legacy Exploration) began in Dec. 2015, and the overall program completion is about 1/4.  Team members are encouraged to join the team meeting on Oct. 17-18 to discuss the survey status and plan, data reduction and evaluation, data analysis, and most importantly the scientific projects based on survey data.  The JINGLE meeting and MALATANG meeting are scheduled in one week for a united conference focusing on two main themes: 1) cold gas and dust in large sample of galaxies and 2) dense gas and gas/dust in the nearest 20+ brightest infrared galaxies.

Before the JINGLE team meeting, we will have 1-day tutorial on JCMT data reductions and analysis provided by JCMT staff.  We will open this tutorial to all interested researchers and students.  But due to space limitation, high priority will be given to JINGLE members and members of JCMT large programs .

If you need an invitation letter for VISA application, please contact the LOC as soon as possible!

SOC:  Amelie Saintonge, Chris Wilson, Ting Xiao, Cheng Li, Yu Gao, Lihwai Lin, Ho Seong Hwang, Tomoka Tosaki

LOC:  Ting Xiao (xiaoting@shao.ac.cn), Yang Gao (gaoyang@shao.ac.cn), Yang Yang (yyang@shao.ac.cn)

Please visit the wiki page and add your name there if you plan to attend the meeting:

https://www.eao.hawaii.edu/JINGLE/Fall2016MeetingPage

– 2016/07/14

MALATANG meeting Oct. 19-21 in Nanjing – 1st announcement

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The coordinators for the MALATANG Large Program invite you to attend thier first face-to-face  team meeting on Oct. 19-21 in Nanjing.   Team members are highly encouraged to join the meeting, to discuss survey status, data reduction and evaluation, data analysis, future observations, and all the potential scientific projects.

To indicate your interest in attending the meeting please add your name to the following doodle page:

http://doodle.com/poll/duudphqvdiidq668

If you need an invitation letter for VISA application, please contact the LOC as soon as possible!

Note that prior to the MALATANG meeting, the JINGLE meeting will be held on Oct 16-18 in Shanghai, including a JCMT tutorial on Oct 16. Further details regarding the JINGLE meeting will follow soon.

MALATANG and JINGLE share some common/related subjects and overlap members, so you may consider attending both!

MALATANG logo

Agenda (preliminary)

Oct 19: reception

Oct 20: MALATANG discussion 1

Oct 21: MALATANG discussion 2

SOC

Yu Gao

Thomas Greve

Zhiyu Zhang

LOC

Hongjun Ma (hjma at pmo.ac.cn)

Xuejian Jiang (xjjiang at pmo.ac.cn)

Qinghua Tan (qhtan at pmo.ac.cn)

Traffic info

It only takes less than 2 hours from Shanghai to Nanjing by high speed trains

train schedule: http://english.ctrip.com/trains/schedule/shanghai/

– 2016/07/07