Previous Article Next Article Table of Contents
Successful Strategies for the "New" Kitt Peak (1Mar95) (from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 41, 1 March 1995) While the new operations plan for KPNO offers many new opportunities, it also requires new strategies in applying for telescope time. Some proposals will be assigned telescope time directly, and some will be assigned to be done as service observing during other programs. How should you prepare your proposal for telescope time to optimize your chances for success? The most important factor is, of course, the scientific justification. Be sure the justification explains carefully what your scientific goals are, how the proposed observations will lead to that goal, how the scientific problem you are addressing fits into the context of your field, and why the problem is important in your field. Consider also the best choice of instrumentation for your program. Here, a call or e-mail to the staff astronomer associated with the instrumentation you need can provide valuable advice. Staff contacts for each scientific capability (IR imaging, faint object spectroscopy, and so forth) are listed in the previous article. Determine how much clear time (in hours or nights) you need to complete your program for the semester you are proposing for time. Include calibrations, acquisition, overhead, etc. but don't pad it for weather - we will do that. Again, a call to the capability scientist can be helpful. We encourage short programs as well as long ones. Note that to achieve savings in operations, we will blur somewhat the distinction between bright and dark instruments, especially on the 2.1-m telescope. IR instruments will be available during dark time, and the GoldCam CCD spectrograph will be on the telescope during some bright time. For telescope time on the small telescopes (2.1-m, Coude‚ Feed, 0.9-m, and Burrell Schmidt), check the list of recent observers for each telescope (available over the World Wide Web via the NOAO/KPNO Home Page, or give us a call). If your project team does not include a recent observer, you can become one by coming early for your run to learn from the previous observer, or coming to learn to use the telescope during someone else's run. Alternatively, you can request that your program be carried out via service observing, as long as it is relatively short. Submit your proposal via e-mail or on paper (we strongly encourage electronic submission, as described in an accompanying article). The Telescope Allocation Committee will review all proposals and rank them in order of scientific merit. After the review process is complete, KPNO staff will prepare the telescope schedule. We will define instrument blocks based on the scientifically highest ranked proposals, assign telescope time to proposals which request large amounts of time, and assign shorter proposals to be done as service observing during longer programs. Caty Pilachowski
Previous Article Next Article Table of Contents