NOAO > Observing Information > 2014A Instruments List
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NOAO > Observing Information > 2014A Instruments List |
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Observing time at the facilities available through the National Optical Astronomy Observatory is allocated via peer review twice a year. Proposals must be received by Thursday, 26 September 2013 for the upcoming 2014A semester (February through July 2014). All proposals are due the evening of the due date by 11:59pm MST.
Please read the following sections for information on telescope and instrument availability at Gemini North and South, Keck, Subaru, AAT, CHARA, CTIO, and KPNO for the 2014A semester.
The following changes to instrumentation at all facilities available
through NOAO are
noted here to alert investigators preparing proposals. For
more information, see the NOAO Newsletter.
The Gemini Observatory is eexpected to release a Call for Proposals for 2014A on August 30. Proposers requesting Gemini time only are advised to use the Gemini Phase-I Tool (PIT) as opposed to the NOAO Web Proposal Form.
Gemini and Subaru are continuing their time-exchange program. Five to ten classically-scheduled nights will be available to the Gemini community, including up to two shared-risk nights with the new Hyper Suprime-Cam wide-field imager. Please see the Gemini call for proposals for more information.
Keck: A total of seven nights of classically-scheduled observing time will be available to the community on the 10-m telescopes of the W.M. Keck Observatory in 2014A. All facility-class instruments and modes are available to the community.
AAT: Due to a time-exchange program between CTIO and the Australian Astronomical Observatory, ten nights of classical observing time at the 3.9m Anglo-Austrlian Telescope will be available to the community during 2014A. All facility instruments are available.
CHARA: About 50 hours of service observations with the CHARA Interferometer Array at Mt. Wilson will be available to the community during calendar year 2014. All proposals are due by 26 September (even for observations that would nominally fall in 2014B).
Availability of the Blanco in 2014A: CTIO has completed commissioning of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Blanco 4-m telescope and has begin regular science observations as of the start of 2013. The Dark Energy Survey (DES) has been granted 105 nights per year over a period of five years, primarily in "B" semesters. Community access in "A" semesters will be largely unaffected. For more information see the article on page 22 of the September 2013 issue of the NOAO Newsletter.
Pending successful recommissionning of the f/8 secondary, ISPI will be available in 2014A. Hydra might be offered as well, depending on demand. See http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/blanco-f8-secondary-incident, which will be updated as more information is available.
SOAR Service & Remote Observing: Given limited staff availability, we cannot support service observing for NOAO proposals at SOAR.
For 2014A remote observing is being offered for NOAO and CNTAC proposals requesting time with SOI, Spartan, OSIRIS, or the Goodman Spectrograph, provided: (a) the person who will carry out the observations has previously observed at SOAR using the instrument(s) requested in the proposal; and (b) our review of the proposal does not reveal any special technical requirements which would make it preferable to have an observer on-site.
If you are requesting remote observing, please make a note of this in the "Scheduling constraints and non-usable dates" section that appears at the bottom of the first page of the NOAO proposal form.
Remote observers are strongly advised to contact us well in advance of the date of their run to arrange a check to ensure that their hardware and software are correctly configured, and in particular that there are no firewall issues; this may require the help and participation of their local computer support experts. Please note that while our connection to the US internet is quite reliable, network outages do occasionally occur, often without advance warning, and typically at points along the route not under our control. Such failures will certainly impact the efficiency of remote observing, and may cause the loss of part or all of the night's observing.
For more information, see http://www.soartelescope.org/observing/remote-observing-at-soar
SOAR Goodman Spectrograph: The Goodman spectrograph will be available for 2014A in single slit mode with the full complement of gratings (see http://www.soartelescope.org/observing/documentation/goodman-high-throughput-spectrograph/goodman-manual/overview) . Commissioned gratings include 400, 600, 930, 1200 and 2100 l/mm. Imaging mode may also be used as a supporting component of a primarily spectroscopic program. Filters other than the U, B, V, and Rc set normally installed in the spectrograph, must be requested in the proposal, or it may not be possible to make them available.
SOAR Spartan IR Imager: The Spartan IR Camera is available in the low resolution mode. The high resolution mode is commissioned, but has seen very little use. Spartan should be preferred to OSIRIS for most NIR imaging applications.
SOAR Adaptive Module (SAM): The SOAR Adaptive Module (SAM) is offered in shared-risk mode during the 2014A semester.
CTIO Small Telescopes: Time on the small telescopes at CTIO will be available to NOAO users in 2014A via the usual proposal process. The telescopes are operated by the SMARTS consortium with up to 15% of time available to the NOAO community. For more information, please see the article "The SMARTS Consortium Continues" on page 17 of the September 2013 issue of the NOAO Newsletter.
The 1.5-m and 1.3-m telescopes are only available in service/queue mode. The 0.9-m is only available in classically-scheduled "user" nights, with requests for 7 full nights strongly preferred. The 1.0-m telescope is no longer available.
Non-sidereal tracking is no longer supported as service or queue observing. The only option for non-sidereal is user time on the 0.9m.
Note: Useful information for planning observations with KPNO Instruments Available for 2014A is summarized In the September 2013 NOAO Newsletter and at http://www.noao.edu/kpno/instruments.html
NEWFIRM (4m): Permanently installed filters include J, H, and Ks. See http://www.noao.edu/ets/newfirm/ for further information, filter availability, and policy on filter changes.
Phoenix (4m): Phoenix, the NOAO high-resolution, 1- to 5-micron, infrared spectrograph is now offered only at the 4-meter. See http://www.noao.edu/kpno/phoenix/ before preparing a proposal.
KOSMOS (4m) Proposers should write proposals using the capabilities offered by RCSP, but an interest in adapting the proposal to use KOSMOS may be expressed. See the article by Jay Elias and David Sprayberry on page 12 of the September 2013 NOAO Newsletter for more details.
WIYN Instrument Blocking: Please see the article "WIYN Instrument Availability in 2014A" on page 17 of the September 2013 issue of the NOAO Newsletter for important information on instrument scheduling in 2014A. Please also check http://www.wiyn.org/observe/status.html for updates before writing a proposal.
2.1-m Imager (2.1m): The optical imager with an STA CCD and Monsoon controller will be the only instrument offered at the 2.1-m telescope in 2014A, which will be the last semester of open access for the KPNO 2.1-m telescope.
HDI (0.9m): The Half-Degree Imager (HDI) is offered on a shared-risk basis for 2014A. Please check http://www.wiyn.org/observe/status.html for updates before writing a proposal.
Remote Observing: KPNO offers remote observing for selected programs in 2014A. If you are interested in this opportunity, please see the requirements for observing remotely at http://www.noao.edu/kpno/remote.html . If you are requesting remote observing, please make a note of this in the "Scheduling constraints and non-usable dates" section that appears at the bottom of the first page of the NOAO proposal form and include any additional details in the "Technical Description" text of your observing run.
The following telescope/instrument/detector combinations are available in 2014A. This list is revised twice a year and is published in the NOAO Newsletter and on this web page (http://www.noao.edu/noaoprop/help/facilities.html .)
QUESTIONS? You can contact staff scientists using the information linked below.
Gemini assistance is available by sending email to an NOAO Gemini Science Center Instrument Support Scientist, to ngsc@noao.edu, or through the Gemini Help Desk at http://helpdesk.gemini.edu/.
Send email to this general email address: keck@noao.edu, or (for instrument questions only) directly contact the "CARA Contact" listed on the Keck Instruments Page.
Please see CTIO's Staff Contact List.
Please see KPNO's Staff Contact List.
Proposal questions, as well as any comments and/or suggestions, may be
directed to noaoprop-help@noao.edu
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Inc. under cooperative agreement with the
National Science Foundation. |
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NOAO > Observing Information > 2014A Instruments List |
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