AAS Electronic Announcement #113 -- May 2002
[Mailed from aas.org at 3:40pm 30 MAY 2002]
CONTENTS
- HOW TO AVOID INTERNET INTERRUPTION AT THE AAS MEETING
- NSF FINALIZES NOAO AND NSO MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT WITH AURA
- NSF MPS ASSISTANT DIRECTOR STEPS DOWN
- GOLDSTONE RADAR OBSERVING OPPORTUNITY
______________________________________________________
1. HOW TO AVOID INTERNET INTERRUPTION AT THE AAS MEETING
If you plan on attending the AAS Meeting in Albuquerque, NM, 2-6 June 2002, you will most likely want to use the Meeting's Cyber Cafe for Email and Web Browsing. In order to ensure continuous access to your home site, please notify your local system and security administrators of the following:
The Internet traffic flowing from the meeting attendees, will be coming from the IP addresses ranging from
198.59.158.0/24
204.134.105.0/24
204.134.106.0/24
204.134.107.0/24
In the past government sites have become aware of heavy traffic from our meetings and without notice shut off ALL access to attendees. This was done as a security measure, unaware that the traffic was originating at an AAS Annual Meeting. It caused several days of service interruption for meeting registrants. Informing your system administrators of the IP addresses could save you a lot of distress later!
Any further questions can be directed to Debbie Kovalsky, AAS Manager Information Systems - mailto:kovalsky@aas.org.
______________________________________________________
2. NSF FINALIZES NOAO AND NSO MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT WITH AURA
The competition for the management of National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and National Solar Observatory (NSO) has been completed. The National Science Foundation (NSF) received three highly competitive proposals, each putting forward a very different approach to the stewardship of our national observatories. After careful evaluation of the proposals by a review panel and exhaustive discussion within NSF, the National Science Board (NSB) approved our negotiating a new Cooperative Agreement with Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), to manage NOAO and NSO for the next five years. In keeping with AURA's proposal, we do not expect business as usual. In proposing this award to the NSB, we also stipulated that the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST) would form a high-level advisory committee to assist us in setting the mission and roles of NOAO and in evaluating AURA's implementation of these roles. By doing this we will assure that the priorities and progress of NOAO are overseen by the entire community and not only by AURA.
G. W. Van Citters
Director, Division of Astronomical Sciences
National Science Foundation
Arlington, VA 22230
703-292-4908
mailto:gvancitt@nsf.gov
______________________________________________________
3. NSF MPS ASSISTANT DIRECTOR STEPS DOWN
The NSF Astronomy Division regrets to inform the AAS membership that Dr. Robert Eisenstein, Assistant Director of NSF's Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate, will be stepping aside as of 31 May 2002. Astronomy has been fortunate to have had Bob serve as MPS Assistant Director during his five year tenure; his support of the Gemini Observatory and his championship of ALMA have been essential to their realization. His concern for the health of the grants program, its PI's and students, has enabled the Astronomy Division to make significant progress in the past few years in increasing funding rates among research grants. He will be missed.
Bob will be spending the next year at CERN, in Geneva, on professional development leave. Dr. John Hunt becomes acting Assistant Director effective 1 June while a nationwide search is conducted for the next MPS Assistant Director.
______________________________________________________
4. GOLDSTONE RADAR OBSERVING OPPORTUNITY
The Task Manager for the Goldstone Solar System Radar would like to remind the community that the deadline for observing proposals for the period 01 January 2003 through 01 June 2003 are due no later than 15 June 2002. The procedure and on-line observing cover sheet application form is available at:
http://www331.jpl.nasa.gov/radar/gssrpropform1.html
The forms are also available in Word 6 and ASCII text formats at
http://www331.jpl.nasa.gov/radar/
The scientific justification to be sent separately should ideally be in PDF format (no more than two pages or 500 words) for the convenience of reviewers.
Martin A. Slade
Goldstone Solar System Radar Task Manager
mailto:marty@shannon.jpl.nasa.gov
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
An American Astronomical Society (AAS) Electronic Announcement is mailed to all members around the 10th of each month. Included are important items that do not fit into the schedule of the AAS Newsletter. Because of volume, Meeting Announcements are generally not included.
Items for possible inclusion in this announcement series should be sent to mailto:johnson@aas.org. Keep announcement short and refer readers to sources of additional information.
Address corrections should be sent to mailto:address@aas.org.