Technical system summary

The current available instruments are the following:

Facility receivers: 2 -SB 350RX (line, 324-384 GHz), and AzTEC Bolometer Camera (Continuum, 270 GHz)

more detailed information can be found in the instruments and observing modes section.

Proposal submission for Chilean community observers

Proposal deadlines are set up once a year. Consult the call for proposals section.

Performing observations with ASTE

Observations are performed by the observers at ASTE office and control room in San Pedro de Atacama. ASTE office is located in "Don Esteba" Facility, Pasaje San Juan s/n, Ayllo de Larache, San Pedro de Atacama. There is several flights from Santiago to Calama (El Loa Airport) which is the nearest major city to San Pedro de Atacama. Transportation from El Loa Airport to San Pedro is available in several counters in the arrival lounge. Since San Pedro is mainly a turistic town, hotels are usually full, so is recommended to make your reservations in advance. Also "Don Esteban" facility has some room available for visitors. In this case, please take contact with Javiera Vergara (javiera@astronorte.com) in order to check if there is any room available .

It is recommended to inform to the local representative of the ASTE team at least two weeks before your observations, about your frequency settings in order to check the tunning parameters. You can make your observing tables with the help of the on-duty postdoc at the ASTE office and control room in any time before your observing run stars. It is expected that your bring your dat-tapes for bringing back your data with you.

Reducing ASTE data

The ASTE raw data are in RAW FITS format. The data can be reduced using the NEWSTAR software. NEWSTAR offers the option to write to Random-group fits format from which you can use your preferred analysis software. Some useful utilities for transforming the Random-group fits to other more portable fits format can be found in the Utilities section.