############### ASTRO-F Newsletter Vol 24  September 2008 ##############
This newsletter E-mail will be circulated occasionally to report the
up-to-date status of the AKARI (ASTRO-F) project. It is sent to the
iris_observer mailing list, which includes anyone interested in the
AKARI project.

######### AKARI Pointed observation data opened to the public ##########

The pointed observation data taken in AKARI Phase 1 and 2 are now mostly
opened to the public. Data can be accessed from the DARTS archive:

  http://darts.isas.jaxa.jp/astro/akari/
  (Query in the left-hand side menu)

The AKARI mission data access policy provides in the public domain the
pointed observation data of the Large Area Survey (LS) and Mission
Programmes (MP) one year after the data are available to the observers,
Open Time (OT) observation data are in public domain one year after the
end of Phase 2. As Phase 2 ended on August 26th, 2008, almost all data
will now be open to the public. Note that the FIS spectroscopic mode
(AOT FIS03) data and IRC Slow-scan mode data (AOT IRC11 and 51) are not
released at this time, as their clock started later, due to the delay
of data reduction software development for these very special modes.

We are confident that more science results will appear from the AKARI
data.


##################### Phase 3 Open Time Programmes #####################

Forty observation proposals were submitted for the AKARI Phase 3 (post-
Helium phase) Open Time observation opportunity from researchers in
Japan/Korea and ESA related countries. The proposals peer review has
been made in parallel in Japan/Korea and ESA, and 33 successful proposals
(22 for Japan/Korea time and 11 for ESA time) have been selected.

The approved proposals abstracts can be found in the following URL:
   http://www.ir.isas.jaxa.jp/AKARI/Observation/OTP3/OTP3_apprv_JK.html
   http://www.sciops.esa.int/index.php?project=ASTROF&page=OTP3_apprv_ESA

The observations scheduling of the selected proposals is ongoing until
the end of September. The observation of Phase 3 Open Time programmes
will start on October 15th.


########################## AKARI Status ################################
+  The FIS All-Sky Survey point source catalogue is expected to be
   provided to the team members one year after the end of Phase 2.
   The processing is still ongoing with a slight delay. We expect to
   have the first release in October. The public release of the
   catalogue is one year after the team release.


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#### AKARI Newsletter Vol.24 (September 2008)
####
#### AKARI Web: http://www.ir.isas.jaxa.jp/AKARI/
#### AKARI Helpdesk at ISAS: iris_help @ ir.isas.jaxa.jp
####
#### The AKARI Newsletter is open for any researchers who are interested
#### in observations with AKARI. Subscription/unsubscription of this
#### Newsletter, and any matters or general opinions related to AKARI,
#### are also sent to the Helpdesk.
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