Presented by David Nutter, the poster for the ‘JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey’ is listed as part of the ‘Star Formation: The First Three Million Years’ session.

Abstract: With the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) Gould Belt Legacy Survey, we will map almost all of the well-known star-formation regions within 0.5 kpc, with the Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array 2 (SCUBA2). Most of these regions are associated with a ring of star formation, known as the Gould Belt. We will produce a flux-limited snapshot of nearby star formation over almost 700 square degrees of sky. The resulting images will yield the first catalogue of prestellar and protostellar sources selected by submillimetre continuum emission. We will also obtain maps of a large sample of prestellar and protostellar sources in three CO isotopologues using the Heterodyne Array Receiver Program (HARP). Finally, we will map the brightest hundred sources with the SCUBA2 polarimeter (POL-2), producing the first statistically significant set of polarization maps in the submillimetre.

If you would like to see your NAM poster on the NAM Blog then email either a picture file or a link to namblog@orbitingfrog.com.

From authors Robert J. Simpson and Derek Ward-Thompson, the poster ‘SCUBA on Google Sky’ is listed as part of the ‘Education and Outreach’ session.

Abstract: The submillimetre maps produced by the SCUBA instrument on the JCMT have been made available on Google Sky. Using the complete SCUBA catalogue (Di Francesco et al 2006) and Google Earth’s new ‘Sky’ feature (Christian et al 2007), SCUBA data can now be easily accessed by the public, worldwide (Simpson 2008). Complete 850µm and 450µm autoreduced maps, along with the point source catalogue, have been made available. A short list of ‘interesting features’ is also included Some examples and uses are presented here, along with instructions on how to access the data.

If you would like to see your NAM poster on the NAM Blog then email either a picture file or a link to namblog@orbitingfrog.com.

From authors Stuart Lowe, Nick Rattenbury, Tim O’Brien, Ian Morison, Megan Argo & David Ault, the poster ‘The Jodcast’ is listed as part of the ‘Education and Outreach’ session.

Abstract: Portable MP3 players are now seemingly ubiquitous and are becoming an integral part of the daily commute to school or work. Although commonly used for listening to music, they are increasingly used to experience podcasts - audio and video content delivered using RSS feeds. We report the development of Jodrell Bank Observatory’s astronomy podcast - The Jodcast - over the past two years. We also describe our plans to produce video podcast content in the run up to the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

If you would like to see your NAM poster on the NAM Blog then email either a picture file or a link to namblog@orbitingfrog.com.

From authors Eric Saunders, Tim Naylor & Alasdair Allan, the poster ‘An Autonomous Adaptive Scheduling Agent for Period Searching’ is listed as part of the ‘Current facilities and new instruments’ session.

Abstract: What is the best way to practically observe undersampled, periodic, time-varying phenomena using a network of robotic telescopes? We implement an autonomous software agent that uses an optimal geometric sampling technique to cover the period range of interest, but additionally implements proactive behaviour that maximises the optimality of the dataset in the face of an uncertain and changing operating environment. The agent has been successfully demonstrated using the three 2m robotic Faulkes North, Faulkes South, and Liverpool Telescopes.

If you would like to see your NAM poster on the NAM Blog then email either a picture file or a link to namblog@orbitingfrog.com.

From authors Robert J. Simpson and Derek Ward-Thompson, the poster ‘3D HARP Data’ is listed as part of the ‘Star Formation: The First 3 Million Years’ session.

Abstract: HARP-B data from the JCMT in Hawaii consists of large data cubes covering a wide range of velocity data. This data has been processed here to produce 3-dimensional images (RA, declination, velocity) that can be rotated and manipulated by the user to gain insight into the mechanisms behind the motions of the material being observed. Different 3D velocity shapes are shown here and discussed. 3D glasses can be found attached to the poster.

If you would like to see your NAM poster on the NAM Blog then email either a picture file or a link to namblog@orbitingfrog.com.

If you have a poster up at NAM and want to share then send us an email via namblog@orbitingfrog.com with either an image file or a link to an image file online. We can either link to your poster via the blog or add it to our Flickr feed with a description you can provide.

We can take posters via email as JPEG, JPG, PNG, PS or PDF files. We will also need a quick text description (one paragraph ideally).

We look forward to seeing your posters on the blog.