The institute has two regular seminars held in the Hoyle Lecture Theatre:
Wednesday seminars: two half hour talks at lunch time (13:15-14:15). These are usually internal speakers (students, postdocs, staff) and are preceded by bread and cheese lunch. New postdocs will be encouraged to give a Wednesday seminar soon after they arrive.
Colloquium: Thursday at 16:00, followed by wine & nibbles. Colloquium speakers are chosen termly by the IoA Colloquium Committee. Postdoc hosts are sought at the start of each term. This means you look after the speaker while they are around and take them to dinner afterwards. You and the speaker get dinner for free. Otherwise the IoA subsidises dinner, staff/postdocs pay £15, students pay £10 including a drink or two.
Several research groups also regularly have talks, and there are regular talks at the surrounding institutes: DAMTP, Cavendish and the Kavli. See http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/talks for upcoming astronomy talks in Cambridge. Upcoming talks are also posted on a screen in the lobby of the IoA, and you can register to get emailed notifications about talks at talks.cam.ac.uk.
There are kitchen facilities (toaster/microwave/fridges) at the IoA if you prefer to bring your own lunch. The Institute is some distance outside of central Cambridge (~30 minutes on foot, ~10 minutes by bike), and so nearby food purchasing options are somewhat limited:
Some of the postdocs go for lunch at Churchill College, typically every day at around 12:45 (on Wednesdays, 12:15).
The Greenwich House Cafe is 2 minutes' walk, located behind the Observatory Building next to the Gardner's Cottage.
West Hub is 5 minutes' walk away, halfway down JJ Thomson Avenue.
West Cafe in The Hauser Forum is 7 minutes' walk, at the end of JJ Thomson Avenue.
An assortment of food vans gather on Charles Babbage Road, Wednesday 12:00-14:00, about a 10 minute walk from the IoA.
There is a Sainsburys and a small café in the under-construction village of Eddington, about 15 minutes' walk from the IoA.
Wednesday during term time, a bread & cheese lunch is served in the foyer of the Hoyle building beginning at 12:30.
Tea, coffee and biscuits are served every day in the foyer at 11:00 and 15:30. This is a good chance to meet and chat with other members of the Institute.
The kitchen in the Kavli building also hosts a fancy coffee maker that can make mochas, espressos, cappuccinos etc. If you're interested, they ask for a ~£50/year contribution from postdocs to cover unlimited coffees.
Computing related queries should be sent to helpdesk@ast.cam.ac.uk. The IT support office is H42. Information on computing can be found on the IoA website (you'll need a Raven account to access it, though).
You'll be provided with a workstation and laptop (in most cases) upon arrival. You'll likely receive an email from IT discussing the specifications before you arrive, and you may want to talk with your supervisor/science contact if you have special needs.
There's wireless on campus called UniOfCam, which can sometimes be unreliable. The better alternative is eduroam, which you can set up when you arrive. This is a wireless network that's used by most of the European universities. We can provide UniOfCam passwords/accounts for visitors via the intranet.
Raven is the University-wide intranet. It's used for things like booking rooms, signing up for University mailing lists and development courses, and logging in to local information pages. You'll be supplied with a Raven account upon arrival, and you'll need it to access the IoA intranet.
Joy McSharry (Ashley Worman?) is probably your primary contact so far and does all the paperwork associated with new postdocs. She also maintains the official IoA Postdoc website (http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/postdoc) which has useful official information complementary to this website.
Angela Macharia is the Department Administrator. She takes care of the department alongside our co-directors, Cathie Clarke and Mark Wyatt.
Joy and Angela are the main support staff for postdocs -- they're always more than happy to answer our questions and help. Bev is the IoA receptionist, by the front door -- you'll need to contact her if you have visitors and you'd like them to stay at the Gardener's Cottage. She'll also help with your post, which you can have stamped at the front desk (i.e., no need to go in to town to post things).
This is an on-site cottage which can be used for cheap accommodation for visitors (currently ~£45 per night). It's basic but convenient.
There are many ways you can contribute to the IoA's programme of public outreach. Volunteers are needed to give short talks to the general public at our weekly open evenings on Wednesdays during the Winter season; there are plenty of other opportunities to talk to local astro-societies, community groups and schools, or you could be part of the 'Ask-an-astronomer' team that answers astronomical queries. In mid-March it's 'all hands on deck' for our annual Open Afternoon afternoon as part of the Cambridge Science Festival, with the department full of displays, demonstrations and talks.
If you're interested in helping with any of the outreach activities -- or indeed, have your own suggestions about what we could be doing -- please get in touch with Carolin Crawford (H60, csc@ast.cam.ac.uk) and Matt Bothwell (H59, bothwell@ast.cam.ac.uk).
When you make that exciting and newsworthy discovery, Carolin can also help organise the writing and liaison with the very efficient University Press & Publications Office. Even if your PR is being initiated by another institution (such as NASA or ESO), an accompanying University of Cambridge press release is usually very successful in drawing local attention.
There are two main carparks -- one in the front of the IoA and the other towards the rear. See Bev at the reception desk or Angela to arrange a carparking badge.
The library is located in the Observatory building.