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Summer 1993 Queue Scheduling Program: A Progress...(1Jun93)
Report
(from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 34, 1 June 1993)

Although it is too early to even guess at the final numbers, it appears that
the summer queue scheduled observations will have drawn a substantial response.
The goal of the program is to obtain data in a queue scheduled mode, in which
the order of observations is dynamically determined according to factors such
as the seeing, the transparency, and the scientific ranking of the program.
This increases the efficiency of the telescope and allows the most highly
ranked proposals to be more certain of success than if they were assigned
specific nights. Our aim in running this pilot program is to learn about the
detailed issues and procedures inherent in taking data in this manner.

The first issue that we encountered was how to "advertise" the program. Early
on in this program it was decided that we would perform the additional
experiment of doing as much of the administrative work electronically as
possible. Thus, it was easy to monitor the response to various announcements by
looking at the rate of requests for the information package or the proposal
forms. We tried four different forums for announcing the program. First,
we put a lengthy article into the previous Newsletter.  Second, we placed a
short notice into the Multiwavelink electronic bulletin board. Third, we
submitted a short article to the AAS Newsletter.  Fourth, we sent out e-mail to
about 500 observers who had received telescope time at Kitt Peak in the
last two years. By far the majority of requests came in from the e-mail
distribution. At the time of writing we have received 87 requests for the
proposal form, and 54 of them were received in the week following the e-mailing.

As of the date of writing, two weeks before the proposal deadline (30 April),
we have received two proposals. While this is admittedly a small number, we
believe that most people wait until the last few days to submit proposals. For
instance, more than two-thirds of the 271 proposals received before the
31 March deadline for fall 1993 telescope time were received during the last
two days.

Now that we have made the commitment, the hard work begins. We are starting to
put together procedures for the observations. Some issues are how the flat
fields, bias frames, and standard star exposures are to be obtained, as well
as a uniform processing routine for doing at least the preliminary data
reduction. We are beginning to arrange schedules for the training of some of
the observing technicians on the mountain so that they will be able to assist
in taking the observations. We are looking into queue scheduling software that
is used at other telescopes. We also are hoping to have our "bare- bones
archiving" system, a.k.a. "save-the-bits," in place at the start of the queue
scheduled observations.

The observations will be starting just about the time the next Newsletter's
articles are being written, so we hope to be able to provide a more detailed
and complete summary of the preparation for the project at that time.

Todd Boroson, Taft Armandroff,
Caty Pilachowski, David De Young

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