Who Can Apply for Telescope Time?
Applications for telescope time at NOAO nighttime facilities are welcome from all astronomers and students.
Applications from astronomers and students who work at non-U.S. institutions must indicate why the project cannot be done using other facilities available to the investigators and why U.S. national facilities are needed.
Telescope time at NOAO facilities will be awarded on the basis
of scientific merit.
The criteria for evaluating scientific merit of proposals for
time on NOAO nighttime facilities are:
In addition, the value of the proposed research to the educational
and career development of the investigators may be considered in
exceptional circumstances.
For CTIO proposals, preference may be given to proposals which can
only be carried out in the southern hemisphere.
A graduate student applying for time as a principal
investigator must have her/his faculty advisor send a letter citing
the graduate student's qualifications to complete an observational
program and, if the program is a
thesis, how this particular observing proposal fits into the
overall thesis plans. The letter should describe any other telescope
time being used as part of the thesis, and how many additional runs
on what telescopes will be required to finish the thesis.
This letter must be sent by the faculty advisor
to noaoprop-letter@noao.edu before the proposal deadline.
If a graduate student is to be responsible for the observing on
any program, whether that student is the principal investigator
or not, a letter must be submitted from the thesis advisor stating
that the student has sufficient experience and competence to carry
out the observations.
At KPNO, graduate student thesis work is supported on all but the 4-m
and 3.5-m telescopes through an implicit commitment for continuity of
observing time once the original program has been granted time.
On the larger telescopes, proposals for thesis observations must
compete on an equal footing with all other proposals.
NOAO will accept proposals on any of its nighttime telescopes for
scientific programs that extend beyond a single semester. Long-term
status may be granted to proposals for which a scientific result
cannot be achieved without the full allocation of time. An investigator
who wishes to request long-term status should
include a summary of the request (e.g. ``six nights per semester
for four semesters'') in the appropriate section of the proposal form.
If long-term status is granted, a progress report must be submitted
each subsequent semester to inform the TAC that appropriate progress
is being made.
Progress reports should briefly summarize the
scientific justification, provide a detailed discussion of progress
to date, restate the number of observing runs still needed to
complete the project, and give details needed for scheduling the
proposal in the next semester.
Although the granting of long status by the TAC does carry with
it a commitment for observing time in future semesters, NOAO
reserves the right to terminate long-term status on the advice of the
TAC if insufficient information concerning the progress of the
project has been supplied by the Principal Investigator.
NOAO accepts proposals from the astronomical community for time
on the 3.5-m WIYN telescope on Kitt Peak. NOAO is allocated 40%
of WIYN telescope time by the WIYN (Wisconsin, Indiana, Yale, NOAO)
Consortium; roughly 9-12 nights per month are available. Approved
WIYN programs will be scheduled in two modes: classical mode, in
which PI's are assigned specific nights, and queue mode, in which
observations are obtained by the WIYN Queue Program staff.
Assignment to the classical or queue mode will be made after
proposals are reviewed by the TAC and by NOAO. Proposals for
time on the WIYN telescope should be submitted on the standard
NOAO form and by the normal proposal deadlines.
Proposals for small amounts of time (less than 2 hours) on the
WIYN telescope may be submitted as well. Proposals for observations
from the WIYN 2-hour queue should be submitted on the standard
NOAO form and by the normal deadlines, but the scientific justification
is limited to 1/2 page. Proposals for the WIYN 2-hour queue are
reviewed internally and assigned a priority for observations.
NOAO encourages proposals for observations of targets of
opportunity on its nighttime telescopes. Target of Opportunity (TOO)
proposals may be of different types. If the targets occur unpredictably
but frequently (e.g.novae, gamma ray bursts), investigators should
prepare a standard proposal to be reviewed by the TAC. If the
scientific merit of the proposal is high, CTIO or KPNO will agree
to make available a limited amount of telescope time to the
investigator should an appropriate event occur during the
semester. Normally scheduled observers who are displaced by
a Target of Opportunity may be compensated with additional
telescope time at the discretion of the site Director.
When events which are genuinely rare and of major astronomical
significance (e.g. a supernova in a local group galaxy) occur,
interested investigators should immediately contact the appropriate
site Director by fax or email. Special arrangements may be made
by the Director to obtain critical observations. For CTIO send such
requests to ctio@noao.edu, and for KPNO send requests to
kpno@noao.edu.
Finally, investigators often submit short requests for data of
particular objects which exhibit phenomena of interest (e.g.
a Be star in outburst). A notification system is available
to alert scheduled observers to unusual events for which small
amounts of data may be useful. Such data may be obtained at the
discretion of the scheduled observer.
Criteria for the Evaluation of Telescope Proposals
Proposals from Graduate Students
Proposals for Long Term Status
Proposals for the 3.5-m WIYN Telescope
Proposals to Observe Targets of Opportunity
National Optical Astronomy Observatories, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box
26732, Tucson,
Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360
webmaster@noao.e
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Last updated: 10Jan1999
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