XMM-Newton-NEWS

XMM-Newton-NEWS #126, 19-Jul-2011

XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre at
ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre,
P.O. Box - Apdo. 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain

SOC Home Page:	https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/
Helpdesk web interface:	https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/xmm-newton-helpdesk
Helpdesk email address:	xmmhelp@sciops.esa.int
News Mailing List:	https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/newsletter

Reminder: Anticipated timeline for AO-11

Announcement of Opportunity	23 August 2011
Due date for proposals	07 October 2011 (12:00 UT)
Final OTAC approved programme	mid December 2011

For approved proposals only:

Start of phase II proposal submission	10 January 2012
Closure of phase II proposal submission	03 February 2012
Start of AO-11 observations	May 2012

The official "Announcement of Opportunity" will be made public in a dedicated issue of this Newsletter and on the XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre web site.

Joint XMM-Newton / HST programme in AO-11

Following the recommendation of the XMM-Newton and HST Users Groups (see issue #125 of this Newsletter) a joint XMM-Newton/HST pilot programme is going to be offered in the next call, AO-11. The procedure to request time on both observatories will be similar to the procedures established for the joint XMM-Newton/Chandra and XMM-Newton/VLT programmes. This joint programme may be extended in the future pending on the interest within both communities, and following reviews by both UG on the subscription and allocation of proposals in response to the next XMM-Newton and HST Announcements of Opportunity.

XMM-Newton Users Handbook update for AO-11

The XMM-Newton Users Handbook (UHB) has been updated to version 2.9 in preparation for the next Announcement of Opportunity (AO-11).

The UHB contains information on the instrumentation on board XMM-Newton and serves as the main technical support document for proposal preparation, based on which potential XMM-Newton users can assess the technical feasibility of their planned observations.

The XMM-Newton Users Handbook is available on-line at

https://xmm-tools.cosmos.esa.int/external/xmm_user_support/documentation/uhb/

Alternatively, pdf and postscript versions of the UHB can be downloaded from the "XMM-Newton Proposer's Info and Manuals" portal at

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/documentation

Conference announcement: IAU Symposium 284 "The Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies"

The organisers of IAU Symposium 284 wish to draw the attention of the XMM-Newton community to this symposium, which will be held from 5th to 9th September 2011 at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK.

Topics included in "The Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies" are modelling techniques relating X-ray emission from galaxies and AGN to emissions in other spectral regimes, as well as application of these techniques to the interpretation of X-ray data from individual sources and populations of sources in the local and distant Universe.

Further information can be found at

http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/sed2011

Conference announcement: "The first LOFT Science Meeting"

The LOFT consortium is pleased to announce the first LOFT Science Meeting to be held in

        Science Park, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
                26-28 October 2011

LOFT, the Large Observatory For X-ray Timing, is a newly proposed space mission concept, selected by ESA as one of the four M3 mission candidates that will compete for a launch opportunity at the start of the 2020s. The scope of the meeting is to solicit full involvement in this opportunity from the wider astronomical community and make a full study of the exciting science that could be done with the instruments on-board LOFT.

Perspective participants are encouraged to visit the meeting web page at

     http://www.isdc.unige.ch/loft/index.php/meetings/loft-science-meeting

and to subscribe to the LOFT newsletter

     http://www.isdc.unige.ch/loft/index.php/structure-of-the-consortium/loft-newsletter

Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC