Subject: New 3.5m template/DIS gratings
From: elt@astro.Princeton.EDU
Submitted: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 16:08:01 -0500 (EST)
Message number: 42
(previous: 41,
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Attached please find a copy of a new ascii template for submitting
APO 3.5m scheduling requests. The only modification is an entry for
specifying the desired DIS gratings. Since we now have three pairs
(low, medium and high dispersion) available but DIS can only mount
two pairs at once, it will be necessary for the APO staff to know
which one(s) you want in advance. We will, of course, try to avoid
the need to change gratings during the night if at all possible.
Thus, please include this information in all requests using DIS. If
you only need one dispersion, please only specify that one in order
to allow scheduling flexibility.
Some details about the available gratings are given in the Minutes of
the 7 Jan 1998 Users Cmte. meeting, which is message #237 in the
apo35-general archive.
Ed Turner
++++++++++++++++++++
2/17/98
The first item is a blank ascii template which should be filled out for each
program granted time. The second is some general instructions, and the third
gives more detailed instructions to standardize use of the various items
in the template.
-------------------------cut-here--------------------------------------
INSTITUTIONAL ID NUMBER:
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE:
PI:
OBSERVER(S):
COLLABORATORS:
CONTACT INFORMATION:
HALF NIGHTS OR HOURS REQUESTED:
INSTRUMENT:
DIS GRATINGS:
OBSERVING MODE:
OBSERVING SCHEDULE CONSTRAINTS:
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:
SPECIAL PROTECTION JUSTIFICATION:
BRIEF SCIENCE JUSTIFICATION:
PUBLICATIONS BASED ON APO 3.5m DATA:
-----------------------------cut---here-----------------------------
A few explanatory notes follow:
1) The PI is considered to be responsible for the productive use of
the observing time and the safe use of the equipment. If the PI is
not a member of the faculty or senior research staff, such an individual
should be identified as a "sponsor" (and therefore responsible in the
above sense). This is a general APO policy.
2) List all observers. Remote observing may only be undertaken by,
or with the direct help/supervision of, observers with on-site
experience and training. Normally, this is taken to be at least
3 nights of time at APO. At the site, some help for experienced
observers can be provided by the Observatory staff but training
of graduate students or other inexperienced observers is not
available; it is the responsibility of ARC institution faculty and
staff.
3) List all project scientific collaborators and include their
institutional affiliation if not from an ARC institution.
4) Indicate whether the time you request is bright, grey or dark or some
mixture. Dark is moon below the horizon; grey is moon up but less than
50% phase, and bright is moon up and greater than 50% phase. It is helpful
if you indicate the least restrictive (most moon) conditions which you
can use without serious impact on your data. If omitted, you will probably
be given whatever fits most conveniently into the schedule, probably bright
time.
5) Telescope time will be scheduled in half night blocks (split at APO
solar midnight) for most programs, and time should be requested in
these units in most cases. Scheduling of smaller blocks of time
is also routinely accommodated when there is a scientific need.
Such programs should request time in units of hours and should clearly
state the need for smaller blocks under the OBSERVING SCHEDULE
CONSTRAINTS section. IN EITHER CASE, THE UNIT (HALF NIGHTS OR HOURS)
SHOULD BE EXPLICITLY INDICATED.
6) Scheduled science operations must sometimes be canceled for engineering
or other purposes. In some cases Observatory management has limited
discretion in the scheduling of such closures. If there are any reasons
that a program deserves special or unusual protection (which, of course,
is not always possible) from such interruptions, please state them clearly
in the "special protection justification" section.
7) The science justification need be no more than a paragraph or two. It is
only intended to give readers an idea of what you are doing and how for
scheduling purposes. Of course, if your institution uses this same form
to allocate time, your TAC may require a more detailed justification.
It is also useful to give enough information to allow the personnel at
the site to appreciate any subtleties of the demands your program will
place on the telescope or instrument(s). Similarly, the item requesting
information on publications based on 3.5m observations will be used by
the Observatory only to keep a record of the telescope's scientific
contributions. Institutional TACs might use the information in allocation
decisions if they wish.
---------------------------------------------------------------
In order to make the job of preparing our monthly requests easier
and quicker, please observe the following instructions.
---------------------------------------------------------------
ID NUMBER: leave this blank
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE: (but not extremely long)
PI: one PI only, this name will appear on the 3.5m schedule; if the PI is
not a member of the faculty or senior research staff, please also
indicate who is sponsoring the proposal
OBSERVER(S): additional observers; it is assumed that the PI will also
participate in the observations unless it is explicitly
indicated otherwise
COLLABORATORS: additional scientific collaborators; it is assumed that the PI
and the observers listed will also be scientific collaborators
unless explicitly indicated
CONTACT INFORMATION: email address(es) and phone number(s) of at least
the PI and principal observers; this information
will be used, for example, if last minute technical
problems or questions arise at the site.
HALF NIGHTS OR HOURS REQUESTED: please use units of hours or half nights;
please specify on or the other explicitly. also please
indicate whether you need dark, grey or bright time
or some combination. do *not* put any other information
in this item, such as how you want the time broken up into
different nights, what part of the night you want, etc.
INSTRUMENT: just say which instrument(s); no details of internal instrument
modes or why you need a particular instrument are needed here
DIS GRATINGS: indicate which two, of the available three, pairs of DIS
gratings you will want to use; low, medium and high dispersion
are available; if you only need one pair, specify only it.
OBSERVING MODE: this does *not* mean instrument mode; it means "remote" or
"on-site" or "training" again with no particular justification
needed. do keep in mind that you should have "on-site"
experience, preferably with the instrument in question, before
you can use it remotely. "training" means going to the site
with an experienced observer/user.
OBSERVING SCHEDULE CONSTRAINTS: this is the place to indicate how you need
the time scheduled for astronomical or
scientific reasons. the most obvious such
constraint is that the target object(s)
should be well placed in the sky but many
others are also possible. please state
BOTH the reasons for the restrictions AND
explicitly list those dates/times which
will satisfy them. preferred, acceptable
and unusable dates/times would be useful.
in other words, please do not leave it as
an exercise for the scheduler to determine,
say, what dates/times have M31 at least 45
deg above the horizon for a minimum of 3
hours during dark or grey time at either the
beginning or end of the night, and also
please do not leave the scheduler guessing
why you need to, say, observe jupiter on
either october 7-11 or november 10-12.
in addition, please make sure that what you
request is physically possible; for example,
don't request dark hours and then specify
dates/times which are bright. in order to
expedite the cumbersome chore of scheduling,
inconsistent requests MAY simply be dropped
without further consultation or recourse.
also, if you have an explicit scientific
reason to prefer whole or split nights,
note it under this item. *at minimum* you
should give the coordinates or coordinate
ranges of your targets here and indicate which
nights and times you consider optimal, even
if "any time" will do. in many requests,
this will be the longest and most complex
entry. if you request observing times in
blocks smaller than hours, please give
the explanation in this section.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: this is the place to indicate scheduling constraints
which are not directly related to the sky or the
science to be done, e.g., "i will be out of the country
nov 1-12", "not on tuesday nights due to early wed am
lectures", or "hot date next sat night". any other
sorts of special needs, such as housing on site for
a large observing group or use of your own instrument
would also go under this item.
SPECIAL PROTECTION JUSTIFICATION: please list any special reasons (e.g., a
time critical occultation, last data needed
to finish a thesis) that the program should
be protected from unscheduled closures
(for engineering or other purposes) when
possible.
BRIEF SCIENCE JUSTIFICATION: this will be used to help schedulers understand
why you need what you request and to help those
working at the site to better understand your
requirements.
two or three hundred words should be
plenty for any but the most complex programs.
distribution of these forms to each ARC
institution also allows your colleagues elsewhere
to see what you are up to.
PUBLICATIONS BASED ON APO 3.5m DATA: list all publications during the past
three years which were based in
significant part on data obtained with
the 3.5m telescope. submitted and "in
press" papers may be included, but
please do not list papers "in
preparation".
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