Dear SALT community,

Please find the December issue of our SALT Newsletter here:

https://www.salt.ac.za/2024/12/18/newsletter-december-2024/

It presents updates on NIRWALS, LFC, slitmaks and the spectropolarimetric calibration, as well as some details on the efficiency project that was started about a year ago.

Stay safe and healthy!

Seasonal greetings,
The SALT Operations team

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Dear colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 May - 31 October 2025 (2025 Semester 1).

The Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 31 January 2025 , at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS, HRS. The new slitmask IFU for RSS will also be available. All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals linked below, including changes from previous semesters.

NIRWALS will not be offered for general science observations this semester, as further refinement and a deeper understanding of the data reduction process are required.

Please submit your proposal via the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT) - please update to the latest version available on the website. Instructions, software, and other in for mation about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website ( https://astronomers.salt.ac.za ). Note also that the web manager will still ask for some user statistics, which the SAAO is required to capture for reporting purposes.

Call for Proposals , including link to in for mation document: https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/

Instructions for submitting your proposal: https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Download the latest PIPT software: https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT RSS slitmask IFU: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qN2SDIaP1waY6Wu7dFyw-LeaANQft2xe/view

All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp(at)salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations
---
Dr. Danièl N. Groenewald
Acting Head of SALT Astronomy Operations
South African Astronomical Observatory
1 Observatory Road, Observatory, 7925, Cape Town, South Africa
P.O. Box 9, Observatory, 7935, Cape Town, South Africa
Tel: +27 21 200 6934


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Szanowni Państwo

Zapraszam do wypełnienia ankiety dotyczącej obecnego oraz przyszłego zainteresowania polskich astronomów teleskopem South African Large Telescope (SALT). Zajmie to ok 3-5 minut.

https://forms.gle/ap1s9gysEyjVoYgq9

Gwoli przypomnienia - w skład polskiego konsorcjum SALT wchodzi 5 podmiotów: CAMK PAN, oraz instytuty astronomii z UJ w Krakowie, UMK w Toruniu, UAM w Poznaniu i Uniwersytety Wrocławskiego. Poprzez konsorcjum polscy astronomowie (z tychże instytutów) mają dostęp do ok. 10% czasu obserwacyjnego na teleskopie, ORAZ do innych teleskopów, należących do South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).

Ankieta skupia się na obecnym oraz przyszłym wykorzystaniu tego czasu obserwacyjnego. Bardzo proszę WSZYSTKICH o wypełnienie formularza, niezależnie czy są Państwo obserwatorami, czy teoretykami, czy zajmują się obserwacjami optycznymi czy w innych zakresach długości fali, albo czy SALT w ogóle Państwa nie interesuje. Ważne jest, aby zebrać jak najwięcej opinii. Będą one wykorzystane do określenia udziału Polski w projekcie SALT w przyszłości.

Dziękuję za poświęcenie czasu.

Jednocześnie przypominam o przesyłaniu do mnie informacji dotyczących publikowania i prezentowania wyników naukowych z SALTa w roku 2024.

Z pozdrowieniami
Krzysztof Hełminiak

PS: Koleżanki i kolegów z innych instytutów proszę o rozesłanie tego maila dalej u siebie.

Dear Colleague,

I am collating input for the SALT Annual Report 2024. I would appreciate it if you could let me know by 19 December of any SALT-related science or activities during the calendar year 2024, e.g.:

- any unrefereed publications (we have a list of refereed publications, according to ADS PUBLICATION DATE, please check https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/public-libraries/-9GFElBmRVKK_O0Q1TFzeg to verify that all your refereed publications as published officially by October 2024 are listed);

- any student projects using SALT data, especially any graduated MSc or PhD degrees in 2024;

- if you have a long-term project going, it would be interesting to get a description/update/outlook, or maybe you have presented some results at some conference;

- if you had any DDT proposals, it would be interesting to hear about the results;

- any outreach activities using SALT material.

Finally, if you have any pretty pictures, of SALT or made with SALT, that could go into the pool of pictures for the Annual Report (with credit), please let me know.

I would appreciate if you could send your inputs by 19 December at the latest. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Regards, Anja

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Szanowni Państwo

Fundacja SALT Foundation Pty. Ltd. (SALT), która zarządza teleskopem SALT, poszukuje nowego, aktywnego członka Finance and Audit Committee (FAC). FAC jest organem wewnątrz Fundacji, podlegającym Zarządowi, którego celem jest doradzanie Zarządowi SALT w kwestiach finansowych i administracyjnych, oraz przedstawianie Zarządowi rekomendacji do zatwierdzenia lub podjęcia ostatecznej decyzji (więcej informacji w załączonym dokumencie Terms of Reference). Zarząd SALT chętnie widziałby w tej roli kogoś z Polski, tzn. osobę zatrudnioną w jednej z instytucji należących do polskiego konsorcjum SALTa. Przypominam, że Polskie konsorcjum ma ok 10% udział w fundacji SALT, co umożliwia nam nie tylko dostęp do tego teleskopu, ale także możliwość aplikowania o czas na mniejszych teleskopach, znajdujących się na terenie SAAO.

Osoba zainteresowana powinna mieć wcześniejsze doświadczenie w zarządzaniu budżetem, nie musi mieć jednak wykształcenia ekonomicznego. Nie musi być też zawodowym astronomem. Niestety, działalność ta nie wiąże się z gratyfikacją finansową.

Jeśli ktoś z Państwa byłby skłonny podjąć się tej roli, lub wskazać odpowiednią osobę, bardzo proszę o wysłanie maila do mnie i prof. Gordona Bromage (gebromage (at) uclan.ac.uk). Szczegółowych odpowiedzi odnośnie pracy FAC również może udzielić prof. Bromage.

Z poważaniem

Krzysztof Hełminiak

Dear SALT community,

Please find the August issue of our SALT Newsletter here:

https://www.salt.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/SALT_Newsletter_aug24.pdf


Beware: This newsletter is chock-a-block full of exciting news!

- First light for the Laser Frequency Comb for the HRS!

- The first slitmask IFU will be available in the 2024-2 semester on shared risk basis

- News on the polarimetry calibration

- Introducing the SALT Users Group for Astronomical Resources, SUGAR

and ...

- A new SALT Director and a new Acting Head of Astro-Ops.

And if that is not enough, you get to read some entertaining reports on visiting HET and the SPIE conference in Japan.

Enjoy!

Sincerely,
The SALT Operations team

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Dear SALT Users,

As you may be aware, the SALT Users Group for Astronomical Resources (SUGAR) was established recently to provide an independent point of contact for users to raise requests, concerns, suggestions, or to provide feedback to the SALT Team. Areas that fall within our remit include: data quality, scientific performance, software bugs, SALT provided documentation or support issues. Requests for new software, or new features of existing software, can also be sent to SUGAR.

SUGAR is also responsible for soliciting input from users on scientific directions of upcoming instrumentation and telescope capabilities, when the time comes.

Users can contact SUGAR via the dedicated email address sugar@salt.ac.za or via the permanent Google form here: https://forms.gle/79WbduuHzWhmr5pbA The Google form is anonymous unless you provide your details.

We look forward to working with the SALT User community to help to improve the end user experience of SALT.

Kind Regards,
Daniel Holdsworth
Chairperson SUGAR

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Dear SALT Community,

It has come to our attention that the 2024-2 proposal announcement email sent out in June did not reach some of our community members. Due to this, we have decided to extend the proposal deadline to next Friday, August 2, 2024, at 18:00 SAST (16:00 UTC) .

Kind regards,
Danièl
---
Dr. Danièl N. Groenewald
Acting Head of SALT Astronomy Operations
South African Astronomical Observatory
1 Observatory Road, Observatory, 7925, Cape Town, South Africa
P.O. Box 9, Observatory, 7935, Cape Town, South Africa
Tel: +27 21 200 6934

Dear SALT Community,

This is a reminder that the deadline for SALT proposals for the 2024-2 semester is this Friday , July 26 , 2024, at 18:00 SAST (16:00 UTC). Please find the full announcement with relevant links below.

Additionally, we kindly ask PIs with accepted 2024-1 SALT proposals, to consider submitting more targets that are suitable for observation under poor weather conditions (thick clouds, high seeing constraints) and/or bright conditions. The queue for these conditions is currently sparse. We remind PIs that P4 time for approved programs is free and unlimited, making it ideally suited for observing bright targets under poor weather conditions.

Kind regards,
Danièl

---
Dr. Danièl N. Groenewald
Acting Head of SALT Astronomy Operations
South African Astronomical Observatory
1 Observatory Road, Observatory, 7925, Cape Town, South Africa
P.O. Box 9, Observatory, 7935, Cape Town, South Africa
Tel: +27 21 200 6934

Dear colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 November 2024 - 30 April 2025 (2024 Semester 2).

The Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 26 July 2024, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS, HRS and NIRWALS. The new slitmask IFU for RSS will also be available. All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals linked below, including changes from previous semesters.

Please submit your proposal via the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT) - please update to the latest version available on the website. Instructions, software, and other information about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website (http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/). Note also that the web manager will still ask for some user statistics, which the SAAO is required to capture for reporting purposes.

Call for Proposals, including link to information document: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/

Instructions for submitting your proposal: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Download the latest PIPT software: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT

NIRWALS - description and performance: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MCICfb1XeLsuaylMRffqPRFnccTYX3ZNNm3tspJ8uVY/edit?usp=sharing

RSS slitmask IFU - : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qN2SDIaP1waY6Wu7dFyw-LeaANQft2xe/view

All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp(at)salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations


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Dear SALT community,

Please find the April issue of our SALT Newsletter here:

https://www.salt.ac.za/2024/05/06/newsletter-april-2024/

As usual, there are lots of exciting updates in this issue, in particular on the slitmask IFU.

Cheers, Anja Schroeder


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Dear SALT Community,

The SALT Annual Report 2023 is now ready and can be downloaded from

https://www.salt.ac.za/2024/04/24/salt-annual-report-2023/

in both low as well as high resolution. As it was last year, we are not able to send out hard copies, but feel free to pick up a copy either at the library at the SAAO in Cape Town (they will delivered from the printers in about 10-14 days), or at SALT exhibition booths of international conferences.

Kind regards, Anja Schroeder


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Dear colleagues,

The inaugural workshop on `Synergies in Non-Thermal Astrophysics in Southern Africa’ will be held from 29/7/24 to 2/8/24 at the Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany. It aims to bring together researchers from collaborations working on current and future multi-wavelength facilities located in southern Africa, such as H.E.S.S., MeerKAT, AMT, and SALT, to discuss multi-wavelength synergies. The workshop is open to all interested researchers.

Contributed sessions will be held dedicated to both extragalactic and galactic astronomy, as well as transient astrophysical phenomena and stellar intensity interferometry. There will also be a number of breakout sessions to foster new research collaborations.

Hybrid attendance will be possible. For in-person attendees there is a workshop fee of 140 EUR; this covers daily lunches and coffee breaks, as well as a drinks reception and workshop dinner. There is no fee for virtual participation. Registration is open at https://indico.ecap.work/event/80/, and is capped at 70 in-person participants.

To support attendance by early career researchers from African Nations, we have obtained a significant amount of travel funding (to cover transport, accommodation, meals and workshop fee) courtesy of Friedrich-Alexander-University’s Emerging Talents Initiative. Researchers who wish to apply for this funding should submit an abstract, and a CV with a half-page statement of interest (including a rough budget request) by email to samuel.spencer@fau.de



Important Dates:

Deadline to apply for travel funding: 19/4/24

Final abstract deadline: 17/5/24

Final registration deadline: 5/7/24



Best wishes,



Sam Spencer, on behalf of the organisers

Dear all,

As many of you know, we have been experiencing technical difficulties with the network at both the SAAO and SALT recently, which are having a negative impact on the proposal preparation and submission process. We have received several new proposals and progress reports, but we are aware that many of you are struggling.

As a result, we have decided to extend the proposal deadline by one week, to Friday 9 February 2024 at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UCT).

Please share the news widely within the SALT community. For the time being, we request that you also please also cc your liaison SA or myself whenever you send an email to salthelp.

I include below the original call as a reminder, with the updated call deadline to prevent confusion.

Apologies for the disruptions.

Sincerely,

Encarni on behalf of SALT Astronomy Operations

-----

Dear colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 May 2024 - 31 October 2024 (2024 Semester 1).

The NEW Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 9 February 2024, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS, HRS and NIRWALS. All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals linked below, including changes from previous semesters.

Regarding NIRWALS (SALT’s new IFU-Fed NIR spectrograph), the commissioning and science verification phases are essentially complete, and guaranteed time observations for the instrument team are starting. For Semester 2024-1, 30 hours of telescope time have been set aside for NIRWALS science proposals on a shared risk basis.

PIs intending to use NIRWALS during semester 2024-1 are requested to indicate in their proposal:

a) that they have the capability and willingness to reduce/analyse NIRWALS data using software tools that may require manual tweaking in the event that the full science pipeline has not been completed,

b) discuss how their proposal would help get NIRWALS into routine science operations (for example, by writing brief reports on data quality, providing feedback and suggestions for improving the PIPT and/or the science data pipeline, or describing new methodology for specific science cases).

Please submit your proposal via the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT). You may continue to use v5.5 unless you intend to use the new grating, in which case please update to the latest version available on the website. Instructions, software, and other information about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website. Note also that the web manager will ask for some user statistics, which the SAAO is now required to capture for reporting purposes.

Call for Proposals, including link to information document: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/

Instructions for submitting your proposal: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Download the latest PIPT software: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT

NIRWALS - description and performance: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16UUKsQuyB_7a3kIKp3nM5Rx-Ixt39G-OdIxThBk7U-w/edit

All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp(at)salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations

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Dear all,

It seems the announcement didn’t reach everyone in December, not sure why. In case you missed it, here it is again.

REMINDER: SALT Proposal deadline is next week Friday, 2 February 2024, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC). Please see the full announcement with relevant links below:

-----

Dear colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 May 2024 - 31 October 2024 (2024 Semester 1).

The Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 2 February 2024, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS, HRS and NIRWALS. All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals linked below, including changes from previous semesters.

Regarding NIRWALS (SALT’s new IFU-Fed NIR spectrograph), the commissioning and science verification phases are essentially complete, and guaranteed time observations for the instrument team are starting. For Semester 2024-1, 30 hours of telescope time have been set aside for NIRWALS science proposals on a shared risk basis.

PIs intending to use NIRWALS during semester 2024-1 are requested to indicate in their proposal:

a) that they have the capability and willingness to reduce/analyse NIRWALS data using software tools that may require manual tweaking in the event that the full science pipeline has not been completed,

b) discuss how their proposal would help get NIRWALS into routine science operations (for example, by writing brief reports on data quality, providing feedback and suggestions for improving the PIPT and/or the science data pipeline, or describing new methodology for specific science cases).

Please submit your proposal via the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT). You may continue to use v5.5 unless you intend to use the new grating, in which case please update to the latest version available on the website. Instructions, software, and other information about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website. Note also that the web manager will ask for some user statistics, which the SAAO is now required to capture for reporting purposes.

Call for Proposals, including link to information document: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals

Instructions for submitting your proposal: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Download the latest PIPT software: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT

NIRWALS - description and performance: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16UUKsQuyB_7a3kIKp3nM5Rx-Ixt39G-OdIxThBk7U-w/edit


All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp@salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations

Dear SALT community,

Please find the latest version of the SALT Newsletter here:

https://www.salt.ac.za/2023/12/21/newsletter-december-2023/

It includes some reports on problems fixed with Salticam and RSS. There are also good news regarding NIRWALS, which is ready for some shared-risked observations.

Enjoy the read, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas,
Anja

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Dear colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 May 2024 - 31 October 2024 (2024 Semester 1).

The Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 2 February 2024, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS, HRS and NIRWALS. All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals linked below, including changes from previous semesters.

Regarding NIRWALS (SALT’s new IFU-Fed NIR spectrograph), the commissioning and science verification phases are essentially complete, and guaranteed time observations for the instrument team are starting. For Semester 2024-1, 30 hours of telescope time have been set aside for NIRWALS science proposals on a shared risk basis.

PIs intending to use NIRWALS during semester 2024-1 are requested to indicate in their proposal:

a) that they have the capability and willingness to reduce/analyse NIRWALS data using software tools that may require manual tweaking in the event that the full science pipeline has not been completed,

b) discuss how their proposal would help get NIRWALS into routine science operations (for example, by writing brief reports on data quality, providing feedback and suggestions for improving the PIPT and/or the science data pipeline, or describing new methodology for specific science cases).

Please submit your proposal via the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT). You may continue to use v5.5 unless you intend to use the new grating, in which case please update to the latest version available on the website. Instructions, software, and other information about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website. Note also that the web manager will ask for some user statistics, which the SAAO is now required to capture for reporting purposes.

Call for Proposals, including link to information document: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/

Instructions for submitting your proposal: " http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Download the latest PIPT software: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT

NIRWALS - description and performance: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16UUKsQuyB_7a3kIKp3nM5Rx-Ixt39G-OdIxThBk7U-w/edit


All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp@salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations
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Dear SALT community,

Please find the August issue of our SALT Newsletter here:

https://www.salt.ac.za/2023/08/14/newsletter-august-2023

As usual, there are lots of news in this issue: all the nitty gritty details on how the tracker was fixed, some updates on the LFC and timDimm, and we also show you some nice pictures from the SALT conference in June.

Stay safe and healthy!

Sincerely, The SALT Operations team

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Dear Colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 November 2023 - 30 April 2024 (2023 Semester 2).

The Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 28 July 2019, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS and HRS. All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals link below, including changes from previous semesters.

NIRWALS proposals are not being requested in this call. The commissioning and integration of NIRWALS into SALT is progressing well, albeit at a slower pace than anticipated; the instrument+telescope is not yet ready for a regular science call. SALT and the NIRWALS team would like to work closely with interested PIs to start NIR science during semester 2023-2 as soon as the instrument is ready, likely in early 2024. Please get in touch with the commissioning team via salthelp@salt.ac.za if you are interested in getting involved during the early science period. We will contact PIs who have submitted NIR proposals in previous calls. In addition to engineering time, up to 30 hours of DDT will be made available for early NIRWALS science.

Proposals requesting brighter Moon or poorer seeing conditions are particularly encouraged, as we have noticed a significant drop in such proposals over the last few semesters which is leading to a very uneven observing queue (i.e. observing gaps and tight competition in the best conditions).

Instructions, software, and other information about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website.

Call for Proposals, including link to information document: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/

Instructions for submitting your proposal: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Please submit your proposal via the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT). Download the PIPT software: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT

All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp@salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations
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Dear SALT Community,

The SALT Annual Report 2022 is now ready and can be downloaded from

https://www.salt.ac.za/2023/04/06/salt-annual-report-2022/

in both low as well as high resolution. As it was last year, we are not able to send out hard copies, but feel free to pick up a copy either at the library at the SAAO in Cape Town or at SALT exhibition booths of international conferences.

Cheers, Anja Schroeder

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Dear colleagues,

A reminder that registration for the SALT conference - Science Highlights from SALT - to be held in Poland from 1-3 June 2023 is open and that the deadline for abstract submission and to apply for financial support is tomorrow, 31 January. The registration deadline is 28 February.

Kind regards, Joanna

---
We are pleased to invite the SALT community to join us for a conference "Science Highlights from SALT", to be held in Warsaw, Poland, from 1-3 June 2023. The conference aims to present the main achievements enabled by SALT and look forward to the most, also potentially, promising fields for SALT Science. We hope that this meeting will provide an opportunity for the present and future SALT users to discuss scientific highlights, upcoming projects as well and strategic plans for future, and to promote close working relationships between scientists from different partner institutions and with different professional experience. The conference is organized by Polish SALT Telescope Foundation and Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of Polish Academy of Sciences.

To find more details and to register please go to the conference website at https://salt2023.pl/.

We encourage you to register as soon as possible, since the attendance at the workshop will be limited to 80 participants. If you wish to make an oral presentation you must submit your title and abstract by 31 January, 2023 and we shall inform speakers soon after 15 February. If you apply for financial support (which is limited) the deadline is also 31 January, 2023.

We look forward to you participation!

On behalf of the SOC and LOC,
Joanna Mikołajewska & Marek Sarna

--

Prof. Joanna Mikolajewska	Phone: +48 22 3296134
N. Copernicus Astronomical Center	Fax: +48 22 8410046
Bartycka 18	Email: mikolaj@camk.edu.pl
00-716 Warszawa, Poland	Web: www.camk.edu.pl

Dear SALT Community,

We are extending the SALT phase 1 proposal deadline for Semester 2023-1 by a week, to avoid the clash with the JWST deadline. Therefore, the new deadline is Friday 3 February 2023 at 16:00 UT.

We would also like to take the opportunity to give you a brief NIRWALS update:

As many of you already know, South Africa is subject to scheduled rolling power-cuts and these have been getting progressively worse (longer and more frequent) over the past few months. Since the NIRWALS instrument is extremely vulnerable to steep temperature gradients, the danger posed by the worsening power situation has led to delays in cooling the instrument to its operating temperature. This, in turn, has knock-on effects on the commissioning schedule. The instrument enclosure is being cooled this week and the hope is that we will soon be able to continue with the commissioning process that was planned for last November. Early on-sky data in October 2022 indicate NIRWALS performance is good, however, there are still unresolved technical risks concerning the fiber instrument feed that will not be understood until Feb/Mar of 2023 and other telescope+instrument systems that have not yet been tested. Consequently, shared-risk observations with the instrument in the 2023-1 semester may be delayed, but we will keep would-be users posted as the situation evolves.

Cheers,

Encarni on behalf of SALT Astronomy Operations and the NIRWALS PI

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Dear all,

Happy New Year! :)

We have received no responses to the anonymous FP survey we set up at the end of the year, but I think most of us were done with 2022 by then, so we have decided to keep it open for another week. Please let us know whether you are interested in this niche mode so we can make an informed decision as to whether to continue with the repairs.

This is the survey link:

https://forms.gle/23nPoAaE71BZ95EP7

You can find more information about this in our latest newsletter:

https://www.salt.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/SALT_Newsletter_dec2022.pdf

And a gentle reminder of the upcoming SALT proposal deadline next week, 27th January 2023 at 16:00 UTC.

Cheers,

Encarni on behalf of SALT Astronomy Operations

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Dear colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 May - 31 October 2023 (2023 Semester 1).

The Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 27 January 2023, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC ).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS, HRS and NIRWALS. All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals link below, including changes from previous semesters.

Please note that NIRWALS commissioning has not yet been completed, so it is again being offered on a shared risk basis.

Proposals requesting brighter Moon or poorer seeing conditions are particularly encouraged, as we have noticed a significant drop for this group the last two semesters which is leading to a very uneven observing queue (i.e. observing gaps and tight competition in the best conditions).

Instructions, software, and other information about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website.

Call for Proposals, including link to information document: https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/

Instructions for submitting your proposal: https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Download the PIPT software: https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT

NIRWALS (NIR Integral Field Spectrograph) - description and performance predictions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TBX9eeVlAOflmr_M8i6xohUFlfUFGnv2

All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp(at)salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations

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Dear SALT community,

Please find the December issue of our SALT Newsletter here:

https://www.salt.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/SALT_Newsletter_dec2022.pdf

This issue is bulging with news: not only updates on the instruments, but also reports on conferences, meetings and announcements, including the plan to establish a User's group.

We hope that everyone stays safe and healthy!

Sincerely,
The SALT Operations team

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Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) community to join us for a conference “Science Highlights from SALT”, to be held in Warsaw, Poland, from 1-3 June 2023. The conference aims to present the main achievements enabled by SALT and look forward to the most, also potentially, promising fields for SALT Science.
We hope that this meeting will provide an opportunity for the present and future SALT users to discuss scientific highlights, upcoming projects as well and strategic plans for future, and to promote close working relationships between scientists from different partner institutions and with different professional experience.
The conference is organized by Polish SALT Telescope Foundation and Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of Polish Academy of Sciences.

To find more details and to register please go to the conference website at https://salt2023.pl/.
We encourage you to register as soon as possible, since the attendance at the workshop will be limited to 80 participants. If you wish to make an oral presentation you must submit your title and abstract by 31 January, 2023 and we shall inform speakers soon after 15 February. If you apply for financial support (which is limited) the deadline is also 31 January, 2023.
Please distribute this announcement to your colleagues.
We are looking forward to your participation.

On behalf of the SOC and LOC,
Joanna Mikołajewska & Marek Sarna

--

Prof. Joanna Mikolajewska	Phone: +48 22 3296134
N. Copernicus Astronomical Center	Fax: +48 22 8410046
Bartycka 18	Email: mikolaj@camk.edu.pl
00-716 Warszawa, Poland	Web: www.camk.edu.pl

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Dear SALT community,

Please find the August issue of our SALT Newsletter here:

https://www.salt.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/SALT_Newsletter_aug2022.pdf

This issue's highlight (by far) is the achievement of the long awaited NIR first light! Everyone is excited, and you all get the chance to try it out soon. Also, the RSS updates are progressing nicely, and you hear about some results of the questionnaire that made the rounds a while ago.

We hope that everyone stays safe and healthy!

Sincerely,
The SALT Operations team

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Hi all,

A quick reminder about the SALT Happenings blog, since things are ramping up on the NIR front!

https://salthappenings.blogspot.com

Cheers
Lisa

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Dear Colleagues,

Updated versions of the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT) and RSS simulator that include the NIR and PG0700 grating are now available through the SALT website: https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/

For more information on the current call for proposals, please see the email below and the Call for Proposals documentation on the SALT website (https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/).

Any queries can be directed to salthelp(at)salt.ac.za

Kind regards, SALT Astronomy Operations

Dear Colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 November 2022 - 30 April 2023 (2022 Semester 2).

The Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 29 July 2022, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC ).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS, HRS and NIR. All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals link below, including changes from previous semesters.

There are three major changes to highlight in this call:

1 - The NIR Integral Field Spectrograph is being offered for the first time, on a shared risk basis. The instrument is being installed at the telescope and it is expected to be commissioned during August/September. A document has been prepared by the NIR PI (link below) with the expected performance of the instrument to enable our users to estimate their time requests and the technical feasibility of their proposals for this phase 1 call. Please note that the phase 2 for this instrument will have its own separate deadline, which will be communicated to everyone once the instrument performance characteristics are known and the tools are ready.

2 - The RSS grating PG0300 will be permanently replaced with the new PG0700 grating.

3 - The SALTICAM imaging overheads have been increased significantly, to match the actual telescope performance.

Please submit your proposal via the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT), but please wait a couple of days if you plan to use the PG0700 grating on RSS or the NIR for the updated PIPT to be released.

Instructions, software, and other information about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website.

Call for Proposals, including link to information document: https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/

Instructions for submitting your proposal: https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Download the PIPT software: https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT

SALT NIR Integral Field Spectrograph - description and performance predictions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TBX9eeVlAOflmr_M8i6xohUFlfUFGnv2

All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp(at)salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dr. Encarni Romero Colmenero
Head of SALT Astronomy Operations
erc@salt.ac.za

For personal emails please use: romero.encarni@gmail.com


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Dear SALT Community,

We at SALT would like to improve our service to the SALT Community. In order to do this, we need your help: we need to know where we are dropping the ball and what would be most useful to work on. So we have prepared a simple anonymous questionnaire with NO compulsory answers to learn about any issues you’re having using SALT:

https://forms.gle/7qVgm4zu77e9hLch6

We will really welcome all of your answers - anything goes, as long as it doesn’t involve making SALT fully steerable!! ;)

It would be great if you could submit your responses by the end of the following week, Friday 10th June.

Thanks!

Encarni on behalf of the SALT Operations team

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dr. Encarni Romero Colmenero
Head of SALT Astronomy Operations
erc@salt.ac.za


For personal emails please use: romero.encarni@gmail.com


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Dear SALT Community,

As a little Easter egg, the SALT Annual Report 2021 is ready and can be +downloaded from

https://www.salt.ac.za/2022/04/12/salt-annual-report-2021/

in both low as well as high resolution. Hard copies will become available at the SAAO in Cape Town (next week), selected national and international libraries and at SALT exhibition booths. If you want me to send you directly a hard copy, please email me with your full postal address.

Happy Easter, Anja Schroeder

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Dear SALT community,

Please find attached the April issue of our SALT Newsletter, also available on

https://www.salt.ac.za/2022/04/11/newsletter-april-2022/

This time we report, among others, that the NIR instrument is on its way (yay!), while the new RSS collimator triplet has already arrived. Also, the HRS has undergone some much needed maintenance.

We wish you all a Happy Easter and hope that everyone stays safe and healthy!

Sincerely,
The SALT Operations team

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Dear SALT community,

Please find attached the December issue of our SALT Newsletter, also available on

https://www.salt.ac.za/2021/12/17/newsletter-december-2021/

This time we report on the success of the shutdown in October, give an update on the NIR instrument and the slitmask IFU, and show some the of testing the new PG0700 grating.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope everyone stays safe and healthy!

Sincerely,
The SALT Operations team

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Dear colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 May 2022 - 31 October 2022 (2022 Semester 1).

The Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 28 January 2021, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS and HRS. All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals linked below, including changes from previous semesters. Note that a new grating for RSS, PG0700, will be commissioned over the next few months, and is available on a shared risk basis in the next semester.

Please submit your proposal via the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT). You may continue to use v5.5 unless you intend to use the new grating, in which case please update to the latest version available on the website. Instructions, software, and other information about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website. Note also that the web manager will ask for some user statistics, which the SAAO is now required to capture for reporting purposes.

Call for Proposals, including link to information document: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/

Instructions for submitting your proposal: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Download the PIPT software: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT

All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp(at)salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations

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Dear SALT Community,

The SALT Annual Report 2020 has finally come out - you can find it at

https://www.salt.ac.za/2021/09/18/salt-annual-report-2020/

in both low as well as high resolution. If you want a hard copy, please email me with your full postal address.

Enjoy, Anja Schroeder

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Dear SALT PIs and Co-Is of 2021-1 proposals,

As mentioned in our Call for Proposals and, more recently, in our August SALT Newsletter, SALT is having a short shutdown in October. The main purpose of the shutdown, together with a description of the various tasks, was discussed in an article in the newsletter (https://www.salt.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/salt_newsletter_202109.pdf). As an update, we can now confirm that the RSS optics replacement will not happen during this shutdown.

We have now finalised the dates as follows:

10th October - last observing night.

11th October - shutdown begins.

~18th October - on sky re-commissioning and beginning of observations with HRS and SALTICAM ONLY.

~26th October - RSS on-sky re-commissioning.

~29th October - normal operations.

Please note that these dates may shift slightly, depending on how things go.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact us (salthelp@salt.ac.za) if you have any questions.

Regards,

Encarni

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dr. Encarni Romero Colmenero
Head of SALT Astronomy Operations
erc@salt.ac.za

Dear SALT community,

Please find attached our September issue of the SALT Newsletter. Among others, we report on progress with the RSS Big 5, the NIR instrument and the decision to obtain a laser frequency comb for the HRS. Our new FP postdoc reports on refurbishment plan for the LR and MR Fabry–Pérot etalons. And we look for volunteers to beta-test the new Web Manager.

We wish you all well during this challenging time of COVID-19. Hope everyone stays safe and healthy!

Sincerely,
The SALT Operations team


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Dear SALT users

Please join us for an open discussion about "SALT Science with four Mini-Trackers" on Tuesday, 13 July at 15:00 SAST (13:00 UT):

https://saastrnomical.zoom.us/j/94552392231?pwd=by9HTzR3K2xpMUxkT0xTQzhoYTJ6Zz09

Before the meeting, we would like to invite you to think expansively about this concept that is being explored, by which SALT could be augmented and used to provide spectroscopic observations of thousands of additional targets per year, even while executing its normal observing queue...

The idea is to employ multiple “mini-trackers” (MTs) to take advantage of SALT's spherical primary mirror's enormous (35 degree diameter) uncorrected field of view.  These deployable devices, each with patrol fields of 100 square degrees, would be able to range around the focal sphere to access additional targets while conventional SALT observations are made with the main tracker.  A suite of up to four MTs would therefore effectively serve as a set of individual four-to-six-metre mini-SALTs, each equipped with a low-resolution spectrograph that would likely be fibre-fed.  These "telescopes" would be additionally constrained in terms of their track times and the fields they can access due to their dependence on the main tracker, but the simpler spherical aberration corrector optics would increase their throughput.

The main MT science case centres on transient follow-up for the Rubin Observatory and broader time-domain science.  However, we need to be aware of other potential opportunities that may exist and we would particularly like to get a sense of the sorts of targets (total number, sky density, brightness range) that other science areas may provide for the MTs.  An ideal project would include a vast pool of targets brighter than 21st magnitude distributed all over the sky, though only a small fraction of the total pool could be expected to be observed.  Repeat visits would also be quite unlikely with the MTs, since their patrol fields would be governed by the main tracker observing the normal SALT queue.

Please see the attached PDFs for additional information and feel free to share this message with your networks as you consider the various kinds of science that might be pursued with such a system.   If you have any specific questions before the meeting, please feel free to contact us via salthelp.

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 13 July!

Kind regards

The SALT Team

Dear Colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 November 2021 - 30 April 2022 (2021 Semester 2).

The Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 30 July 2021, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS and HRS.  All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals link below, including changes from previous semesters.

Please submit your proposal via the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT). Instructions, software, and other information about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website.

Call for Proposals, including link to information document:  https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/

Instructions for submitting your proposal:  https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Download the PIPT software: https://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT

All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp(at)salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations

Dear Colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 April 2021 - 31 October 2021 (2021 Semester 1).

The Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 29 January 2021, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to  16:00 UTC).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS and HRS.  All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals link below, including changes from previous semesters.

Please submit your proposal via the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT). Instructions, software, and other information about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website.

Call for Proposals, including link to information document:  http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/

Instructions for submitting your proposal:  http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Download the PIPT software:  http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT

All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp(at)salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations

Dear SALT community,

Please find attached our December 2020 issue of the SALT Newsletter - a +jam-packed edition with lots of updates on SALT's various projects :)

Happy holidays!

Sincerely,
The SALT Operations team.
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Dear Colleagues,

We are now accepting SALT Phase 1 proposals for the period 1 November 2020 - 30 April 2021 (2020 Semester 2).

The Phase 1 proposal deadline is Friday, 31 July 2020, at 18:00 SAST (corresponding to 16:00 UTC).

This proposal call is for SALTICAM, RSS, HRS, and BVIT. All details of the status of specific instrument modes are available in the Call for Proposals link below, including changes from previous semesters.

Please submit your proposal via the SALT Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT). Instructions, software, and other information about proposing for SALT can be found on the SALT website.

Call for Proposals, including link to information document: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/

Instructions for submitting your proposal: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/proposals/phase-i/

Download the PIPT software: http://astronomers.salt.ac.za/software/#PIPT

All questions regarding this proposal call should be addressed to: salthelp(at)salt.ac.za

Sincerely,
SALT Astronomy Operations


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Dear SALT community,

Please find attached our April issue of the SALT Newsletter. We look at how the SALT shutdown went, report on the newly installed SPS and check-in with the progress on the NIR project. Podcasts, puppies and monkeys also make an appearance ;)

We wish you all well during this challenging time of COVID-19. Hope everyone stays safe and healthy!

Sincerely,
The SALT Operations team
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Dear colleagues,

We are currently advertising a SALT Postdoctoral Fellowship, please see the link below:

https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/2ba8c322>

Please share as widely as possible.

Thank you, and stay safe!



Encarni



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dr. Encarni Romero Colmenero
Head of SALT Astronomy Operations
erc@salt.ac.za

Dear all,

Three post-doc positions are currently being offered at the SAAO (the two links are for the same positions). We would really appreciate it if you could circulate amongst your institutions and anyone else who may be interested.

https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/f0f31c9d

https://nrfintra.careerjunction.co.za/jobs/view/2353930/saao-postdoctoral-fellowships-in-cape-town-western-cape-at-national-research-foundation

We are in the process of adding these links also to the SALT website. As always, please also let us know if there are any opportunities at your institutions that you'd like to see advertised in the SALT website and/or circulated amongst the community.

Thanks!



Encarni



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dr. Encarni Romero Colmenero
Head of SALT Astronomy Operations
erc@salt.ac.za

Dear SALT community,

Please find attached our January issue of the SALT Newsletter. We look back at accomplishments of 2019 (52 published papers!) and forward towards the Feb/March shutdown (to name but a few articles).

Happy reading!

Sincerely,
The SALT Operations team.
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