The European ARC network is launching the new virtual talk series "ALMA recounts of Cosmic Conundrums". In every talk of this series a major astronomical question is discussed. The invited speaker will describe the context of the question and then focuses on the ALMA contribution to the field, past and future. The aim of the series is to highlight the unparalleled contribution of ALMA to the broader astronomical landscape and to provide an outlook towards the future. 

The first talk of this series will take place December 1 at 14:00 CET. The talks will be broadcast through the Youtube channel of the European ALMA Regional Centre network.  More information on the first talk will be included in the November newsletter.

The European ARC Network invites users to an online training on using the software tool LineStacker. The session will be held on Friday October 15th, 2021, 11:00 CEST [Zoom link]. Line-Stacker (Jolly et al. 2020) is a new tool for stacking of spectral lines that can stack both 3D cubes or already extracted spectra. 

The European ARC Network invites users to an online training on solar observations with ALMA on November 19th, 11:00 CET [Zoom link]. In this tutorial you will learn a specific procedures for calibration & imaging of solar ALMA data downloaded from the ALMA Science Archive.  

ALMA is very pleased to share the news that on the evening of 1 October, the first observations for Cycle 8 2021 were successfully completed and observing has continued since then. The data sets are currently being quality-assessed and some data have already been delivered to the respective principal investigators.

The European ARC Network invites users to an online training on using the software tool ALminer -ALMA Archive Mining & Visualization Toolkit (Ahmadi & Hacar, 2021). The session will be held on Thursday September 30th, 2021, 11:00 CEST [Zoom link].

The German ARC node in cooperation with the University of Bonn offers an introduction to radio astronomy for students, postdocs and more senior astronomers. For more information, please see the course homepage.

The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) is now accepting observing proposals for Cycle 8 2021 that request to use the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) in stand-alone mode. Instructions on how to submit proposals can be found on the Cycle 8 2021 Supplemental Call web page.

Users of any nationality or affiliation are invited to submit proposals before the deadline of 15:00 UT on Wednesday 6 October 2021.

PI science observations have been continuing with the 12-m and Morita Arrays. As reported in the previous status update, there was a delay in the antenna configuration schedule due to the bad weather since May, in addition to the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. There were no further delays since then, and the relocation to the hybrid C43-9/10 configuration was completed on 1 September, 2021.