Semester 2010B call for proposals

Semester 2010B call for proposals on Faulkes Telescope North and Faulkes Telescope South.

There are changes in the process relative to last semester; please read the instructions carefully.

Starting 1 Oct 2009, access to observing time on the Faulkes Telescopes has been through a process of written proposals, mediated by an LCOGTLas Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network Telescope Allocation Committee (TAC). The purpose of this note is to notify those who are eligible to respond to this call, and to describe how to prepare and submit proposals.

The time period being scheduled in response to this call is 1 Oct 2010- 31 Mar, 2011.

The proposal due date will be July 30, 2010 at 20:00 UT.

Who is eligible to apply for telescope time?

Eligibility to apply to this call is limited to members of institutions with which LCOGT has formal agreements, and to individuals from other institutions who are principal investigators on an observing projects that have been granted Faulkes Telescope time during the last 2 years. The list of eligible institutions includes LCOGT itself, UCSB, UH, ANU, MacQuarie U., ARI, and the Faulkes Telescope Project. I am sending this to a representative (but not exhaustive) list of people at those institutions. If you are one of these, please pass this message to your interested colleagues. I have tried to make an exhaustive list of eligible individuals from other institutions; if you are getting this email directly from me, you may assume you are on my list and are eligible.

If you get this call by other means and think you qualify, then please excuse my oversight, and get in touch.

Users accessing FTN and FTS through the RTI during usual education times do not need to apply.

To those connected with programs to which we already have made major commitments (e.g. the schools programs, U. Hawaii, ANU, ARI, and Robonet.) I ask that you please submit proposals anyway. In particular, please tell me the fraction of hours that you expect to use for fixed-group observing, for queue-scheduled observing, (flexible and monitor groups), and for ToO observing. I will email each of these groups separately in a few days with the number of hours that they may expect to receive this semester.

Instructions for making an application

Here are instructions on the mechanics of proposing for time on the Faulkes telescopes (FTN and FTS) for the semester running 1 Oct 2010 -
31 Mar 2011 (Semester 2010B).

Note that we have created a new submission portal. It is easier to use than what we had in the past, but will require you to register once again. Any account you already have on the LCOGT web site will not work on the new system. To register and submit proposals please go to:

http://lcogt.net/science/tac

We have modified the latex proposal template. It is available, with advice about editing the latex template and converting to pdf format here:

http://lcogt.net/en/science/article/guidelines-applying-telescope-time

It may also be found by clicking ‘Guidelines for applying for telescope time’ in the sidebar of the TAC submission portal.

We ask users to propose for time based on the type of observing required by their programs, as reflected in the Proposal Template. These types are Fixed-block, Queue-scheduled, and Target of Opportunity (ToO) observations. This distinction is necessary because the observation types differ with respect to the mechanism by which observations are scheduled, and the expected cost in telescope resource per hour of on-sky time.

If you desire fixed-block time, do not pad your request to allow for possible bad weather; ask for what your science requires. The TAC will take weather into account (up to a factor of 2 padding) without your asking. If, however, such padding does not make sense (perhaps you wish to observe a once-in-a-century event, for which repeat observing is not possible), then please put a statement to this effect in the body of your proposal.

If the TAC awards you fixed-block observing time, please coordinate the scheduling of this directly with your LCOGT contact person, who will be assigned to you at the end of the TAC process for successful proposals. Please give as much advance warning as possible, but at least 3-5 weeks (ordinarily the schedule is done in 2-week blocks, with requests due 3 weeks before the start of the block).

Best wishes — Tim Brown, Scientific Director, LCOGT

Time Charging Policy:

The rules for how time is deducted from a user’s observing program based on the observation type is as follows:

Fixed-block Observations

For every fixed-block observation scheduled to be observed, an equal amount of time is deducted from the total available to that program in the semester, regardless of the quality of the data collected or whether any data were collected at all.
Programs may release a requested block (by instructing your LCOGT contact) up to 7 days prior to the date of the scheduled observation. If they do, they will not be charged for the time. After that point, all requested blocks are treated as scheduled blocks and will be charged accordingly. This policy is in place to prevent users from gaming the system, whereby many blocks may be scheduled in advance and then released before the observations are made in order, for example, to avoid predicted bad weather conditions or to flood the schedule early on to prevent competitors from scheduling observations at times which might later be deemed valuable.

Queue-scheduled Observations

These observations are charged by adding open-shutter time, instrument cycle time (including readout and other dead time), and a flat fee for other observational overhead.
Queue-scheduled observations are charged if the observations are attempted and data are delivered, regardless of data quality. No time refunds will be given for cloudy conditions, poor focusThe point at which a lens or mirror forms an image of a distant point of light., and/or other technical problems with the camera or telescope, for instance.

ToO Observations

ToO observations will be charged once triggered, regardless of the quality or delivery of the data. If the ToO agent is controlling the telescope, that time is debited from the program.