Frequently asked questions

  • Inscription
    • When is the application deadline? June 21st 2019
    • When will I be notified? Along the SECOND week of July
    • Who is invited to apply for the summer school? PhD students or active astronomers who have little or no experience in millimeter/submillimeter astronomy, especially from the Herschel network.
    • Is there an age limit?  No
    • Who should not apply?  Experts in mm-astronomy, persons not active in astronomy.
    • What can I do in order to increase my chances to be accepted for the school?Explain your research interests and, in particular, your interest in mm-/submm-astronomy.
    • Can I get funding? We have limited funding possibilities to support lodging and waiver the registration fee. Please indicate in the registration form whether you apply for such funding.
    • Please indicate on the inscription form, in case you are vegetarian or have other diet requirements.
  • Travel
    • How should I arrange my flights? 
      • Arrival: You should arrive in Granada or Malaga on Friday, September 6th. We will organize a shuttle bus to pick you up at the Malaga and Granada airports, and at the IRAM Granada residencia, to bring you to the hotel in the Sierra Nevada. We plan for the bus to leave Malaga airport at 7:00pm (exit of customs), Granada airport at 8:30pm (exit of customs), and IRAM/Granada at 9:00pm. The meeting points at the two airports is the public area directly after leaving customs. Our driver will wait for you in this area, holding-up the IRAM logo and conference poster. Arrival time at the hotel Kenia in Pradollano/Sierra Nevada will be at about 10:00pm. Light dinner snacks will be available.
      • Departure from hotel Kenia on Friday 13th. The school will finish at about 12am to bring you back to Granada and Malaga airports. The bus will take about 1.5 hours to Granada airport and 2.5 to 3 hours to Malaga airport, and will stop on the way at the Jardines de Triunfo in the center of Granada near the IRAM offices. For students who have to leave early, we will organize taxis.
    • Are there buses or trains? In case you cannot use our bus transport, here you can find the web page of the bus company, which does the shuttle service Malaga - Granada and vice versa: ALSA. There is a regular shuttle from the Granada Airport to downtown (price 3.-€.) with a stop at the Jardines de Triunfo, near the IRAM office. For more information, see our dedicated page on Access to Granada.
    • Which clothes do you recommend? Pradollano is at 2000m altitude, the telescope at 2850m. Weather conditions throughout September are usually sunny and dry. However, on your travel from Granada to the mountains you could still expect any weather conditions from summer conditions to rain (yes, from time to time it is raining in southern spain!). It is yet too early for snow showers, though temperatures may vary between 0 C and 30 C. We also recommend to bring sun glasses, sun lotion, and solid shoes if you plan to have a walk.
  • Attendance
    • Is there a conference fee? Yes, the fee is 150 Euro. It includes the social events (excursion, conference dinner, coffee breaks) and the transport between Granada, Sierra Nevada, and the telescope. It does not include the hotel accomodation. The conference fee should be paid by bank transfer.
    • Do I have to organize my hotel/meals? No, all participants will stay at the hotel Kenia in Pradollano. Full board and lodging per person and night is 74,6 Euro + 10% VAT in double room and single occupancy, and 59,1 Euro +10% VAT in double room and double occupancy. Please indicate your preference at the hotel registration.
    • What about health insurance? IRAM has no health insurance for visitors. Either you should have a travel insurance or, if you are in a European social security system, bring the necessary international documents or cards.

    • Should I bring my laptop? Yes! we are no longer providing workstations for data reduction. Rather, each user should bring his/her own laptop with the IRAM data reduction software GILDAS in advance. We will only have a small stock of laptops for contingency use.

      During the working sessions, you will reduce and analyse the data observed at the 30m telescope with the Gildas software package. For your comfort and future reuse we advise you install Gildas on your laptop. If Gildas is already installed on your laptop, please upgrade it to one of the versions described below. The installation steps for Max OS, Linux, and MS Windows are described here:
          www.iram.fr/~gildas/dist/gildas.README

      - Mac users, please install/upgrade the Gildas version to jul19b or newer. The latest version is automatically selected by MacPorts.
      - Linux users, please pick up the jul19b version or newer at this url www.iram.fr/~gildas/dist/ e.g. www.iram.fr/~gildas/dist/gildas-src-jul19b.tar.xz
      - MS Windows users, we also offer an installer but with minimal support. If possible, you should better install and run Gildas in a Linux virtual machine.

      We suggest you install Gildas at your institute before the school, since network traffic will be limited and building time can be large on some systems. In case of trouble, please feel free to contact gildas@iram.fr for support, or ask the Gildas people during the school.