It is a pleasure to invite you to submit proposals to the first “Announcement of Opportunity” for observations to be performed with the AstroSat observatory. 

AstroSat is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission.  It was launched on 28th September 2015 by PSLV C30 and offers a unique opportunity to observe cosmic sources in X-rays, optical and ultraviolet wavelengths simultaneously using five state-of-the-art instruments.

AstroSat has  X-ray  instruments  covering  the  energy range of  0.3  to 100 keV  for  pointed  observations.  There are Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) using X-ray reflecting mirrors and X-ray CCD for imaging and spectral studies in 0.3 – 8 keV, three identical Large Area X-ray Proportional Counters (LAXPC) covering 3-80 keV region and Cadmium Zinc-Telluride Imager (CZTI) array with coded mask aperture sensitive in 15-100 keV. The UV and Visible bands are covered by an Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) consisting of two identical telescopes, one covering the Far UV band (130 – 180 nm) and the second sensitive in Near UV (200 – 300nm) and Visible (320 – 550 nm) bands.   There is a Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM) for detection and monitoring of new and known X-ray sources in 2.5 – 10 keV region.

This AO solicits proposals to be carried out in the period from October 2016 to March 2017.  This announcement is open to Indian scientists residing and working at institutes/Universities/colleges in India, involved in research in the area of astronomy and who can submit proposals as Principal Investigators (PIs) for specific target observations with necessary scientific and technical justification.

 Interested students, researchers, faculty and astronomy community at large, involved in scientific research in the field of astronomy are welcome to participate.  This is an exclusive opportunity to Indian Principal Investigators (PIs) for utilizing AstroSat observatory.

It is expected that funding support for carrying out the data analysis project will be utilized from respective host institutions. 

The AO procedures documentation for this announcement is available in the ISRO website at: http://www.isro.gov.in/

The deadline for submission of proposals is July 2016.  Exact date will be announced in Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) website (www.issdc.gov.in)

We invite you to submit proposals and wish you success in using the AstroSat observatory. 

We appreciate if you would distribute this information to the interested colleagues in your institution who wish to submit proposals for observatory time.

If you have any queries regarding the AO, please email to issdc[at]istrac[dot]gov[dot]in, astrosathelp[at]iucaa[dot]in.