A New SCOPE at NOAO

This NOAO Newsletter marks the beginning of a reorganization to reflect the new structure of the NOAO nighttime program. In the past, the divisions of NOAO have been site-based; KPNO and CTIO existed as independent observatories before NOAO was formed. USGP was added in 1993 to represent US interests in the international Gemini project. Although there has been substantial interaction among the night time divisions of NOAO, there remain many aspects of the programs that are undertaken separately. With Gemini operations on the horizon and with national access time becoming available at independent observatories in exchange for NSF instrument funding, NOAO has recognized an opportunity to improve operations by unifying functions common to all facilities. These include the processes by which astronomers apply for and are granted telescope time, and the support that they receive while writing proposals, planning observing runs, and reducing data.

Why unify these functions? Obviously, in trying to provide access to more facilities, we can be more efficient if we do things in a common way for all facilities. More important, however, is the potential scientific gain of looking at the evolution of those facilities in a broad context. Should we undertake a high-resolution spectroscopic facility on the KPNO 4-meter that duplicates a capability on the HET? Possibly not. Should we provide a wide-field IR imager to feed the spectroscopic capabilities of the Gemini telescopes? Probably, if that imaging cannot be done elsewhere. In addition to this, we can make it easier for people to learn what's out there and what they can do with it.

How will this work? A group of five astronomers, transferred from KPNO, together with a small technical and administrative support staff, form the new SCience OPErations (SCOPE) Division. SCOPE includes the Central Computing Services (CCS) group (IRAF, too) and the US Gemini Program. Over the next two or three years, we hope to develop new procedures consistent with our principle of maximizing the scientific effectiveness of the facilities that NOAO provides to the community. This will be done with the help and participation of the staff of the other divisions. Some of the areas that we have targeted are:

1. A new telescope proposal process with a single electronic form to apply for time on any nighttime telescope to which NOAO provides access. This process will include a uniform set of policies by which proposals are reviewed.

2. A redesign of the NOAO Web site to assist the community in understanding the facilities that are available to them and how they can best be used.

3. Development of a data archive for selected data sets from telescopes to which NOAO supplies national access.

4. New and better use of scientific outreach to work with the astronomical community to define the role that the NOAO nighttime program should play within the context of US astronomy, and to develop innovative approaches to observatory operations that will allow the most astronomers to do the best science.

The modest change presented here is the addition of a new section of the NOAO Newsletter. The SCOPE section will contain information about the proposal/time allocation procedures as well as other items of broad interest to all users of NOAO facilities. To ease the transition we will put pointers to these articles in the KPNO and CTIO sections.

The NOAO Newsletter is an important tool for scientific outreach. Watch this space for information about using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and the MMT, announcements of scientific and technical workshops, and requests for input on how to best shape our program for the science that you want to do.

Todd Boroson, on behalf of the SCOPE astronomers,
Dave DeYoung, Buell Jannuzi,
Tod Lauer, and Caty Pilachowski