For the first time, NOAO is soliciting proposals for telescope time at CTIO and KPNO using a uniform process and proposal form. Rather than submitting proposals to individual sites, proposals should be submitted to NOAO directly, using either our new Web proposal form or the new LaTeX template (see the next article in the Newsletter for details).
Centralizing the proposal submission process reduces the work of maintaining two separate and slightly different installations of the LaTeX template, style files, and code that processes proposals. We also hope that investigators will find it easier to find current proposal information and forms if they only need to check a single source.
Proposals received at NOAO will be sorted and sent on to KPNO or CTIO as indicated in the proposal. Be sure to designate to which observatory your proposal should be directed. Following a CTIO tradition, proposals will be assigned running numbers beginning at 0001 each semester, with CTIO and KPNO proposals intermixed. You will receive by return email your proposal number after it is submitted. For proposals submitted via email, this proposal number must be used to submit any figures included in the proposal. Proposal numbers of active, long-term proposals will be reserved until the program is completed.
Once proposal submission is complete, the proposals will be handled in the usual way at each NOAO site. At present, CTIO and KPNO will continue to operate independent Telescope Allocation Committees.
If you have questions about submitting proposals for time on NOAO's nighttime telescopes, you can find help by sending email to noaoprop-help@noao.edu.
Caty Pilachowski
for the SCOPE Proposal Team