0. Holiday Greeting - The staff at the NASA Herschel Science Center send holiday greetings to all. 2009 will bring many changes to the Herschel Project, most importantly -- the launch of the Herschel Observatory! The NHSC looks forward to a fruitful year helping the US community get the very best we can from this fantastic scientific opportunity!

1. NHSC at the Long Beach AAS Meeting

As always, the NHSC will have a booth in the display area at the Long Beach AAS meeting in January 2009. This time we are excited to offer demonstrations of the soon to be released Herschel Data Processing System! This is our first opportunity to offer such demonstrations. We hope all of you attending the AAS meeting will visit our booth and see the system at work.

Our representatives for all three Herschel instruments will provided overviews of the pipelines within this system, and will demonstrate how an observer will interact with it in order to get the best results from Herschel Data.

A schedule of demonstrations will be made available at the NHSC booth and at the following link:

https://nhscdmz2.ipac.caltech.edu/sc/index.php/Events/Jan09AAS

2. Herschel Splinter Session at the Long Beach AAS Meeting

In addition to the NHSC booth and DP preview demonstrations there, the NHSC will be hosting a splinter session at Noon, Wednesday, 7 January, in the Hyatt Harbor A room.

During this session, you will hear about the current status of the Herschel Mission, about the NASA Herschel Science Center and the ESA Herschel Science Centre. We will give special emphasis on the status and plans for the Herschel Data Processing System for all three Herschel Instruments. Coming opportunities for observers will be reviewed, and we will have time for questions and answers.

This will be a great opportunity for all who are interested in Herschel to find out what is happening in the coming "Launch Year!"

3. NHSC Pre-Launch Data Processing Workshop Plans

The NHSC is narrowing down on dates for our rescheduled pre-launch data processing workshop. We are working closely with the team at the ESA Herschel Science Centre in setting the dates to make sure we will be able to give the best possible pre-launch workshop. We will also be contacting directly many of the US contacts to the Key Program teams very soon for feedback on our chosen dates.

Given the rescheduling, our plans are being revised to give a more comprehensive hands on workshop for each instrument. Further details will be provided as soon as we can make them available in the new year.

4. AAS special session, "The Far-Infrared/Submillimeter Universe in High Definition"

A Special Session will be held at the upcoming Winter AAS Meeting in Long Beach, "The Far-Infrared/Submillimeter Universe in High Definition." The session is on Tuesday afternoon, Jan 6, at 2 pm. It is being organized by Martin Harwit and David Leisawitz.

This Special Session will inform the astronomical community of the tremendous science opportunities afforded by potential successors to the Spitzer and Herschel Space Telescopes. Over the past decade, the far-infrared/submillimeter (FIR/SMM) astronomical community has periodically organized workshops aimed at developing long-range plans. At a workshop held on May 28-30, 2008, in Pasadena, CA, invited speakers representing the broad scientific community spoke of exciting recent advances across all of astrophysics and outlined the role that FIR/SMM observations could play in astronomy and cosmology in the decade ahead. Subsequently, a White Paper has been drafted that organizes and details these plans before they are made public and submitted for consideration by the Decadal Review. The Special Session at the Long Beach AAS Meeting is intended to provide a venue both for the FIR/SMM community and, more importantly, for the broader membership of the AAS to comment and express opinions on these plans and to provide suggestions for changes to the White Paper. The Session will start with a 20-25 minute slide presentation by Martin Harwit on a near-final draft of the White Paper. AAS attendees will be able to pick up advance copies of the paper at both the IPAC and Spitzer exhibits before the session and come prepared to offer opinions. Following the slide presentation a panel chaired by David Leisawitz will field questions and comments from the audience. The purpose of this hour-long segment of the Session will be to gather requests for clarification and constructive suggestions that may improve the final White Paper before transmission to the Decadal Review.

5. MORE INFO? CONTACT US!

If you have a question about the Herschel Space Observatory or the NHSC in general, please register at the NHSC helpdesk, and open a ticket at:

http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Herschel/helpdesk

or visit our website at:

http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Herschel/

6. eNewsletter SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION AND ARCHIVE

All NHSC eNewletters and other information can be found on our webpages.

If you do not wish to receive further emails concerning Herschel send an email with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line or body of the message to:
nhsc-astro-request@lists.ipac.caltech.edu

Confirm the unsubscription by simply replying to the unsubscribe confirmation email you will receive. You will then receive a second email confirming your unsubscription.