Subject: New template for 3.5m scheduling requests
From: elt@astro.Princeton.EDU
Submitted: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 16:07:33 -0500 (EST)
Message number: 419
(previous: 418,
next: 420
up: Index)
The attached new template and instructions for 3.5m scheduling requests
should be used for 2Q2000 requests if possible and will be required for
all 3Q2000 and beyond requests. The changes from the previous version
involve only the specification of required DIS gratings, slit masks, filters
for imaging instruments and so forth. Special attention is called to the
implications of requesting two DIS gratings as described in the instructions
for the template.
Also please note that the requests submitted via these templates is now
processed by software to produce the web and postscript versions of the
observing schedule. Failure to fill them out properly and consistently
can cause this system to crash (thus delaying the appearance of the
schedule) or produce erroneous results. Institutional schedulers should
proof read the templates provided by PIs to make sure that they are
correctly and completely filled out.
Ed Turner
############################################################################
2/17/00
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):
UNCERTIFIED/UNTRAINED OBSERVERS:
COLLABORATORS:
CONTACT INFORMATION:
HALF NIGHTS OR HOURS REQUESTED:
INSTRUMENT:
PRIMARY DIS GRATING:
SECONDARY DIS GRATING (IF REQUIRED):
SLITS/FILTERS/ETC NEEDED:
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:
0) IMPORTANT NOTE - PLEASE READ!: Any material included on the above
form when it is submitted for scheduling WILL APPEAR VERBATIM ON
A PUBLICALLY ACCESSIBLE WEB SITE. If you wish for your TAC to
consider information that you want kept confidential or restricted
in any way, it should be submitted to them separately (from the
above form) or you should arrange to have it removed before
submission for scheduling. If you feel it is important for the
3.5-meter Director and/or APO staff to also have access to such
confidential/restricted information, you must make special and
separate arrangements with them; simply identifying such material
on the template scheduling request will be ineffective.
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. See message #219 in the apo35-general archive at the URL
http://www.astro.princeton.edu/APO/apo35-general/INDEX.html
for a detailed statement of the policy.
3) For programs carried out remotely, list all observers who are *not*
certified for remote operations and state plans for the participation
of certified remote observers for all remote observing. For programs
which will be carried out on-site, list all observers who are
untrained/inexperienced and state plans for providing the necessary
supervision and instruction. See point #2 immediately above for
further details.
4) List all project scientific collaborators and include their
institutional affiliation if not from an ARC institution.
5) 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.
6) 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.
7) 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.
8) 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
UNCERTIFIED/UNTRAINED OBSERVERS: remote observers who are not certified for
remote operations or on-site observers in
need of training/supervision should be
listed here, along with plans for satisfying
the 3.5m policy described in apo35-general
message #219 and point #3 above
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
PRIMARY DIS GRATING: if using DIS, indicate the grating you most need to use
SECONDARY DIS GRATING (IF REQUIRED): if you need to use a second DIS grating,
indicate it here. since only 2 of the
3 available gratings can be mounted for
any given night, programs requiring a
second grating are significantly more
difficult to schedule. please only
indicate a second grating if you are
quite likely to use it, and then be
sure to indicate whether or not this
is a soft or hard requirement (and why)
under OBSERVING SCHEDULE CONSTRAINTS
below. note that low TAC priority
programs with a hard requirement for
two gratings may not be scheduled at all.
SLITS/FILTERS/ETC NEEDED: list DIS slit masks needed and filters for any
imaging instrument.
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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