APEX News and updates

May 2013	Orion's Hidden Fiery Ribbon. A dramatic new image of cosmic clouds in the constellation of Orion reveals what seems to be a fiery ribbon in the sky. This orange glow represents faint light coming from grains of cold interstellar dust, at wavelengths too long for human eyes to see. It was observed by the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) in Chile.
April 2013	The APEX water vapour radiometer is back into operations. PWV data is available from the APEX weather page.
February 2013	Edouard Gonzalez has joined the APEX team as telescope and instruments operator. Welcome to APEX Edouard !!!
January 2013	Setting the Dark on Fire. A new ESO photo release from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile shows a beautiful view of clouds of cosmic dust in the region of Orion. While these dense interstellar clouds seem dark and obscured in visible-light observations, APEX's LABOCA camera can detect the heat glow of the dust and reveal the hiding places where new stars are being formed. But one of these dark clouds is not what it seems.
November 2012	APEX's Icy Companions featured in the ESO Picture of the week.
November 2012	OTF (On-The-Fly) Observing time calculator released and available here.
September 2012	We have started to transfer the APEX data to the Archive in Garching via network. This drastically reduces the time between observations being made and data delivery to the PIs. For more information, check this poster presented by F. Montenegro at the APEX Ringberg meeting.
July 2012	APEX takes part in sharpest observation ever - Telescopes in Chile, Hawaii, and Arizona reach sharpness two million times finer than human vision. An international team of astronomers has observed the heart of a distant quasar with unprecedented sharpness, two million times finer than human vision. The observations, made by connecting the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope to two others on different continents for the first time, is a crucial step towards the dramatic scientific goal of the Event Horizon Telescope project: Imaging the supermassive black holes at the centre of our own galaxy and others. More info at ESO Organisation Release 1229
May 2012	APECS User Manual (Revision 2.5, April 11th, 2012) released and available here
May 2012	A new image of the region surrounding the reflection nebula Messier 78, just to the north of Orion's Belt, shows clouds of cosmic dust threaded through the nebula like a string of pearls. The observations, made with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope, use the heat glow of interstellar dust grains to show astronomers where new stars are being formed. More info at ESO Photo release 1219
February 2012	ESO Science Release eso1209 - APEX Turns its Eye to Dark Clouds in Taurus. A new image from the APEX (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment) telescope in Chile shows a sinuous filament of cosmic dust more than ten light-years long. In it, newborn stars are hidden, and dense clouds of gas are on the verge of collapsing to form yet more stars. It is one of the regions of star formation closest to us. The cosmic dust grains are so cold that observations at wavelengths of around one millimetre, such as these made with the LABOCA camera on APEX, are needed to detect their faint glow. More info at ESO Science release 1209
January 2012	ESO Science Release eso1206 - The Wild Early Lives of Today's Most Massive Galaxies - Dramatic star formation cut short by black holes. Using the APEX telescope, a team of astronomers has found the strongest link so far between the most powerful bursts of star formation in the early Universe, and the most massive galaxies found today. The galaxies, flowering with dramatic starbursts in the early Universe, saw the birth of new stars abruptly cut short, leaving them as massive --- but passive --- galaxies of aging stars in the present day. The astronomers also have a likely culprit for the sudden end to the starbursts: the emergence of supermassive black holes. More info at ESO Science release 1206
January 2012	The positions of Claudio Agurto and Felipe Mac Auliffe have changed from Telescope Instruments Operators (TiO) to Observing Specialist (OS)
December 2011	Paulina Venegas has joined the APEX team as telescope and instruments operator. Welcome to APEX Paulina !!!
November 2011	The Cool Clouds of Carina: APEX gives us a new view of star formation in the Carina Nebula. More info at ESO1145 - Photo Release
September 2011	First announcement of the "Science with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment" Ringberg meeting is now out. In case of interest, please preregister by sending an email to apex@mpifr.de.
September 2011	New version for LABOCA and SABOCA time estimator. The new version are avaible here LABOCA and SABOCA
August 2011	Starting with the 1st of August Frederic Schuller has taken up the appointment as APEX staff astronomer. He will take over the responsibilities as head of science operations. Frederic has long record of APEX visits and is known well at APEX.
July 2011	ESO Science Release eso1123 - Hydrogen Peroxide Found in Space. Molecules of hydrogen peroxide have been found for the first time in interstellar space. The discovery gives clues about the chemical link between two molecules critical for life: water and oxygen. On Earth, hydrogen peroxide plays a key role in the chemistry of water and ozone in our planet atmosphere, and is familiar for its use as a disinfectant or to bleach hair blonde. Now it has been detected in space by astronomers using the ESO-operated APEX telescope in Chile. More info at ESO Announcement 1123
June 2011	Kiriako Markar has joined the APEX team as the new administrator, taking over the duties of Ernesto Orrego who is leaving APEX after 6 years. Thanks Ernesto for all of these years of good work and welcome Kiriako to the APEX team!
March 2011	New version (2.03-1) of CRUSH is released. Now supports LABOCA and SABOCA photometry mode. Download the new version here.
January 2011	The article "The end of star formation in Chamaeleon I ? A LABOCA census of starless and protostellar cores", by A. Belloche, F. Schuller et al., has been accepted for publication on A&A and the preprint is publicly available here. This article is going to be the best reference for reconstruction of faint extended emission in LABOCA data reduction
December 2010	Andreas Lundgren is leaving APEX after 6 years working at the science operations group, first as support astronomer and during the last three years as head of the science operations group. Andreas is moving to the ALMA project.
December 2010	LABOCA image of Centaurus-A made it on "Best Cosmic Mindblowers of 2010 From Nat Geo News"
September 2010	The APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) article was published in the ESO Messenger, available here.
September 2010	APEX commemorates the 5th anniversary with the creation of its own facebook page, available here.
August 2010	SABOCA calibration data (Zenith opacities and calibration factors) is available on-line
June 2010	New BoA version was released (2010 June 24 version). See http://www.eso.org/sci/activities/apexsv/labocasv/ for more information
April 2010	The APEX End-Of-Mission-Report system is online and ready for our visiting observers under this link. At the end of your observing mission, please take some minutes to evaluate the APEX project. Your feedback will be very much appreciated. Thanks!
March 2010	The paper "Intense star formation within resolved compact regions in a galaxy at z = 2.3" has been published in Nature (Nature 21/03)
March 2010	ESO Science Release eso1012 - APEX Snaps First Close-up of Star Factories in Distant Universe.For the first time, astronomers have made direct measurements of the size and brightness of regions of star-birth in a very distant galaxy, thanks to a chance discovery with the APEX telescope. The galaxy is so distant, and its light has taken so long to reach us, that we see it as it was 10 billion years ago. A cosmic gravitational lens is magnifying the galaxy, giving us a close-up view that would otherwise be impossible. This lucky break reveals a hectic and vigorous star-forming life for galaxies in the early Universe, with stellar nurseries forming one hundred times faster than in more recent galaxies. More info at ESO Announcement 10/12
February 2010	APECS 2.1 migrated to APECS 2.2 (ACS 8.1 and Scientific Linux 5.3). New functionality in APECS comprises log audiences and 2SB frontend handling.
February 2010	The paper "Intense star formation within compact regions in a galaxy seen 3 Gyr after the Big-Bang" has been accepted for publication in Nature. The results published on this paper are partly based upon observations done with APEX and the bolometers LABOCA and SABOCA. Furthermore, the APEX staff members Giorgio Siringo and Andreas Lundgren are among the authors of the paper.
January 2010	APEX featured in the "ESO Highlights in 2009": The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope keeps on achieving outstanding results, such as mapping the dust content of the inner regions of the Milky Way in unprecedented detail (ESO 24/09) or imaging the jets and lobes emanating from the central black hole of the active galaxy Centaurus A ( ESO 03/09). More info at ESO Announcement 10/01
December 2009	LABOCA Survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (LESS) published in the ESO Messenger. December 2009 (No. 138)
December 2009	Oriel Arriagada has joined the APEX team as hardware engineer.
November 2009	"ALMA Weather forecast" page linked from the APEX weather page.
July 2009	ATLASGAL: Astronomer's new guide to the galaxy. Largest map of cold dust revealed. More info at (ESO 24/09)
June 2009	Giorgio Siringo has joined the APEX team as support astronomer at APEX.
June 2009	Alejandra Di Césare has joined the APEX team as support astronomer at APEX for a period of 4 months (July - October).
Junio 2009	Juan Pablo Araneda has joined the APEX team as software engineer.
May 2009	New version of the APEX Safety Regulations released.
April 2009	LABOCA paper published and featured as cover page in Astronomy and Astrophysics Vol. 497 No. 3 (April III 2009, pp. 951, 961)
April 2009	APEX Data on Messenger March 2009 (No.135) cover page. More info at ESO 03/09
April 2009	Watch the recorded movie of the APEX webcast here.
January 2009	APECS 1.1 migrated to APECS 2.0 (ACS 8.0 and Scientific Linux 5.2) and a new control network successfully installed at APEX.
January 2009	Black hole outflows from Centaurus A detected with APEX (ESO 03/09)
December 2008	Franciso Montenegro has joined the APEX team as support astronomer at APEX.
November 2008	VLT and APEX team up to study flares from the black hole at the Milky Way's core ESO 41/08 - Science Release
November 2008	APEX reveals glowing stellar nurseries ESO 40/08 - Press release
October 6 2008	SABOCA first light at APEX.
October 2008	LABOCA calibration data (Zenith opacities and calibration factors) is available on-line
September 2008	Gundolf Wieching has joined the APEX team as RF Engineer in charge of the scientific instrumentation at APEX.
September 2008	Andreas Lundgren is the new APEX deputy station manager.
August 2008	Call for APEX SABOCA Science Verification.
August 2008	Javier Gallardo has joined the APEX team as software engineer.
July 2008	Michael Cantzler has joined the APEX team as mechanical engineer.
July 2008	APEX data made it to the cover page of A&A for the first time ever.
July 2008	APEX data mentioned in the highlights of this week in A&A.
April 2008	Andreas Lundgren is the new APEX head of science operations.
February 2008	Swedish Heterodyne Facility Instrument (SHFI) Call for Science Verification projects.
February 2008	SHFI receivers - Preliminary specifications web page at APEX
January 2008	Swedish Heterodyne Facility Instrument Science Verification
January 2008	BoA package (2008 January 23 version, 451 kB)
September 2007	David Rabanus is the new APEX station manager, replacing Lars Nyman who has moved to the ALMA project.
August 2007	Official LABOCA website at MPIfR
July 2007	DELTA CALL for the LABOCA bolometer array at APEX
September 2006	Call for LABOCA Science Verification
November 2005	LABOCA Science Verification Projects
November 2005	APEX-2A Science Verification
September 2005	Apex Inaguration
July 2005	ESO Press Release 18/05