These three telescopes, being operated by NAOJ, offer respective open–use observation programs in which observations are carried out based on proposals from researchers at various research institutes and universities. The NAOJ holds the Users Meeting as a forum for researchers who use the telescopes and the NAOJ staff members who operate them to share and discuss a range of topics such as the current status of the telescopes, the latest observation results, and future operation plans.

Previous Users Meetings were held face-to-face every year, but this year’s meeting was held online to prevent infection of COVID-19. In the ALMA session, the program includes the reports on the current status of ALMA operations and development, the explanation of the call for proposals for the next observation cycle, and the presentation of the study results on the synergies when ALMA is used in combination with the James Webb Space Telescope scheduled to be launched this year and theoretical research.

Along with ALMA, there were sessions of Nobeyama 45-m radio telescope and ASTE, which include the explanations of recent research highlights and future operation policies of the 45m telescope, as well as the current status of ASTE and a new research plan for ASTE with support from the community by means of the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Users and the operation staff of NAOJ held discussions on these topics. In addition, there were 29 research presentations in the form of poster presentations. Regarding these research works, questions and answers were exchanged using the presentation materials and spreadsheets on the Web.

The participants of this Users Meeting consist of students (nearly 20%) and young researchers (nearly 30%), which was a well-balanced age structure.

Alvaro Gonzalez, East Asia ALMA Project Manager at NAOJ, introduced the current status of ALMA.
Credit: NAOJ