A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between ISRO and IUCAA (Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics) recently for setting up an AstroSat Support Cell (ASC) at Pune.
ASC’s activities will include providing long-term support and APPS maintenance, a help desk to support proposal and data-related queries, and organising workshops to familiarize users with the techniques used to prepare proposals and analyze data. Two long-term workshops at IUCAA and several short-term workshops at different parts of the country are planned to be held each year.
The Cell will operate from IUCAA (Pune) and provide guest observers with resources, tools, training and assistance. A website has been set up (http:/astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in) that contains a portal for the AstroSat Proposal Processing System (APPS), Exposure Time and Visibility calculators. The website also offers downloadable proposal support tools, instrument response functions, AstroSat instrument sample data and software for analysis.
Launched on September 28, 2015, the AstroSat Mission has completed its verification of performance and has started science operations since April 15, 2016. A phase of guaranteed time observations is currently underway for the instrument teams. Observatory access will be open to Indian science community and guest observers from October 2016. Time for observation will be awarded on the basis of proposals reviewed by peers.