Interested in submitting a proposal to ALMA and want to know how to go about it? Do you want to determine whether Early Science is useful to you?  The members of the North America ALMA Science Centre (NAASC) are here to help.

Several universities and institutes around the country are hosting, with the assistance of HIA's Millimetre Astronomy Group (members of the NAASC), a series of (very) hands-on tutorials focussing on how to prepare for ALMA Early Science. The tutorials will demonstrate the ALMA Observing Tool, through which all proposals will be submitted, as well as the sensitivity calculator and the ALMA simulator within CASA, the ALMA software package. Participants will require their own laptop and will ideally come with proposal ideas in hand to implement in the OT. More details will be sent to registrants well in advance of the tutorials, including installation instructions for the OT and CASA.  Please note that these are not detailed workshops on interferometry or radio astronomy although background will be provided as time permits.

People attending the tutorials are strongly encouraged to install and "play" with the software before arriving for the tutorial, so that it's not necessary to spend time grappling with installation problems, possible compatibility issues, etc.  Instructions for installing and testing the software can be found here.  To download the pdf files of the talks, please go to the links to the Toronto or to the Victoria tutorials.

If you would like to attend any of these tutorials, or would like more information, click on the link associated with each one.  If you would be interested in organizing a tutorial in your region, please contact Gerald.Schieven(at)nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.

Early Science training tutorials will be held on the following dates:

• April 18 & 19 at the University of Toronto
• This workshop is being organized and sponsored by the Dunlap Institute.
• Will be limited to approximately 55 participants.
  
• For information and/or registration, click on http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/~mreid/alma/
  
• May 4 & 5 at HIA, Victoria, BC
• Registration will be limited to approximately 35 participants.
• For information/registration, go to http://almatelescope.ca/HIAtutorial.html
  
• May 10 at Université Laval, Québec, QC
  
• For information, contact Gerald.Schieven(at)nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
  
• May 12 & 13 at University of Calgary
• This event is being organized by University of Calgary and UBC Okanagan
• Registration will be limited to approximately 30 participants.
• For information and/or registration, click on http://sites.google.com/site/almaworkshopcalgary/
  
• June 3 at University of Western Ontario (following the CASCA meeting)
• Organized in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA)
• A few spots are still available!
  
• Email Brenda.Matthews@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca to secure your place at the last ES tutorial in North America before the deadline

Tutorials and "Community ALMA Days" in the US can be found at http://science.nrao.edu/alma/community1.shtml.

For a rough guide to the program of these events, go to the web page of the tutorial held in Victoria, BC on 18 January 2011.   For an introduction to ALMA during Early Science, download "Observing with ALMA:  A Primer for Early Science".