Previous Article
Next Article
Table of Contents

Queue Scheduling at KPNO in the Fall 1993 Semester (1Mar93)
(from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 33, 1 March 1993)

In order to gain experience in queue scheduling in a preliminary way,
we will be conducting a queue scheduling experiment this summer during
the shutdown period. The preceding article, which describes this
experiment, also outlines some of the virtues of queue scheduling and
our motivations for doing it. In order to discover what problems need
to be solved in queue scheduling over longer periods and during a
regular observing season, we will be offering this service at a modest
level in the fall 1993 semester.

During this semester queue scheduling will be offered on the 2.1-m
telescope with GoldCam and on the 0.9-m telescope in CCD direct imaging
mode using the T2KA chip. Queue scheduling will be offered only with
these telescope and instrument combinations and only for a portion of
the available observing time.  The fraction of time devoted to queue
scheduled observations will be a function of the demand for such an
observing mode and the availability of resources to provide this
service. At the 2.1-m, observations will be taken by a combination of
KPNO staff members working with the 2.1-m LTO, and at the 0.9-m
observations will be taken by the KPNO staff. As discussed in the
article on queue scheduling this summer, remember that you are more
likely to get your data in a queue scheduled mode, and queue scheduling
can result in more science per unit time.

If you are proposing for time on one of these telescopes with the
instruments described above, and if you wish to have your program
considered for queue scheduling, simply write the word "queue" on the
first page of the observing form in the space following the words "None
of these". If your queue proposal is accepted, you will be notified
that it is part of the queue program shortly after the initial TAC
letters are sent, and we will contact you about the precise parameters
for the observations requested. Further information about the fall
queue scheduling program can be obtained by sending a request to
queue-help@noao.edu. We hope you will be interested in participating in
this program and will wish to realize the economies and efficiencies
made possible by queue scheduling.

David De Young

Previous Article
Next Article
Table of Contents