Subject: NIC-FPS science collaborations

From: John Barentine

Submitted: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 14:48:42 -0600 (MDT)

Message number: 843 (previous: 842, next: 844 up: Index)

Dear ARC Astronomers,

By now many of you are aware that the University of Colorado in
conjunction with APO will soon deliver a new, state-of-the-art
near-infrared imaging camera and Fabry-Perot spectrometer (code named
"NIC-FPS") for operations on the 3.5m telescope.  "First light" tests
conducted on the 3.5m recently were highly successful; we anticipate that
the instrument will go into routine service on or about Q2 of 2005.
During November and December 2004, we will be commissioning the instrument
at the site.  We would like to solicit participation by scientists at ARC
institutions in the "demonstration science" phase of the commissioning,
which we expect will consist of 6-8 full nights of telescope time
available on a shared-risk basis.

Proposed rules for collaborations:

1) Participants explicitly acknowledge the shared-risk nature of the
observations, and that instrument engineering needs take precedence over
ALL science.  Time lost to engineering or weather will not be compensated.

2) All persons involved in the design/fabrication and lab testing of the
instrument, management individuals, and observers -- including students --
may claim authorship rights on any publications resulting from the use of
data obtained during the agreed upon period.

3) Data will remain proprietary at the discretion of the science PI on
individual observing proposals.  Certain results may be used for in-house
documents assessing instrument performance; any such use will carry a
disclaimer regarding unauthorized release.  An embargo date may be set
prior to which results may not be released for publication.  Details of
release of results to media outlets for publicity purposes will be
negotiated with PIs on a case-by-case basis.

Interested individuals are welcome to offer their efforts as science PIs
or participants willing to help in data reduction, analysis, etc.  Contact
either myself (instrument liaison for APO) jcb\apo.nmsu.edu or the
instrument PI, James Green (jgreen\casa.colorado.edu) with enquiries.  As
usual, to thwart the spammers, replace the backslashes with "at" symbols
in the email addresses.

For more information about the instrument's capabilities, see these web
pages:

	nicfps.colorado.edu
	http://tycho.apo.nmsu.edu:81/35m_manual/instruments/nicfps/nicfps_basic_info.html



John Barentine, on behalf of the NIC-FPS Team


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