The deadline for Gemini proposals in Semester 2010A has now passed.
We will begin accepting proposals for Semester 2010B in early March 2010.
This page contains a summary of the Gemini call for proposals,
together with Australia-specific information and
some hints on how to maximise your chances of getting
data. It should be read in conjunction with the Gemini
Observatory Call for Proposals web page, which gives more details
on the operational modes available.
What's new in 2010A?
- In the interests of consistency, ATAC now expects all applicants
to list the full set of literature references cited in their
scientific and technical justification sections as a text
attachment to that section, rather than within the body of the
section itself. Applicants may then use the full quota of 1000 words
in each section for their science and technical cases, without
worrying about the number or formatting of references cited.
- Following the Joint Subaru/Gemini Science Meeting in May 2009,
the time exchange agreement between Gemini and Subaru has been
significantly expanded. At least 5, and up to 10 classical nights on
Subaru are available to the Gemini community, with all facility
instruments (see below).
- The near-infrared camera and multi-object spectrograph FLAMINGOS-2
was delivered to Chile in July 2009. Acceptance Tests are now underway
on Gemini South, and pending successful commissioning it is
anticipated that a call will be made sometime during Semester 2010A
for Science Verification proposals.
- The refurbished GNIRS near-infrared spectrograph will be commissioned on Gemini North
in 2010A, but a Call for Science Verification proposals is not likely until
2010B.
- New CCDs with much-improved red sensitivity are due to be
installed in GMOS North late in 2010A, but applicants should assume the use
of the current CCDs in their proposals.
The Gemini Observatory has announced the
2010A
Call for Proposals for use of the Gemini North and Gemini South Telescopes,
as well as exchange time access to the
HIRES
instrument on Keck, and
all facility instruments
(except FMOS) on Subaru.
The instruments available on Gemini North are:
- the GMOS optical imager, multi-object, and integral field spectrograph.
- the NIRI near-infrared imager and spectrograph.
- the NIFS near-infrared integral field unit spectrograph. As NIFS and Michelle
currently share the upward-looking port, NIFS will be available between
March and June only.
- the Michelle mid-infrared imager and spectrograph. As NIFS and
Michelle currently share the upward-looking port, Michelle will be available
in February and July only.
Both NIRI and NIFS can be used in conjunction with the ALTAIR
adaptive optics system, using natural or laser
guide stars.
The instruments available on Gemini South are:
- the GMOS optical imager, multi-object, and integral field spectrograph.
- the NICI near-infrared adaptive optics-fed, dual-channel coronagraphic
imager. As NICI and T-ReCS currently share the upward-looking port, NICI
availability will be somewhat limited between April and July.
- the T-ReCS
mid-infrared imager and spectrograph. As NICI and T-ReCS currently share the
upward-looking port, T-ReCS will only be available between April and
July.
- the Phoenix near-infrared high resolution spectrograph. Note that
Phoenix availibility in the second half of 2010A may be limited due to
commissioning of MCAO and GSAOI.
The instruments available on Subaru are:
- COMICS,
a mid-infrared camera and spectrograph.
- FOCAS,
an optical imager and spectrograph with longslit, multi-slit, polarimetry,
and spectropolarimetry modes.
- HDS,
an optical high dispersion spectrograph with a resolution up to
R=160,000.
- IRCS,
a near-infrared camera with coronagraphic and natural guide star adaptive
optics (AO188)
modes, as well as longslit spectroscopy with resolution up to
R=20,000.
- MOIRCS,
a wide-field near-infrared imager and multi-object spectrograph.
- Suprime-Cam,
a prime-focus optical wide-field imager.
Note that Subaru proposals can be submitted for a minimum of 1 night,
and a maximum of 4 nights, in specific date ranges only:
- Bright - May 23-June 3 or June 20-30,
- Grey - February 19 - 23,
- Dark - March 12-19 or April 10-16.
Due to the constraints of instrument scheduling on Subaru, the requested
dates may not be matched exactly.
The only instrument available on Keck is
HIRES, an
optical high-dispersion spectrograph offering resolutions up to
85,000. Proposals must request between 1 and 2 nights in the periods
20 Feb - 6 March, 21 March - 4 April, or 19 June - 5 July. All
applicants for Keck/HIRES time must also complete a
Keck cover
sheet (you will need to register for a login name and password
first), which should then be e-mailed to the Australian Gemini Office
(ausgo -@- aao.gov.au) before the proposal deadline.
There are strict target accessibility
limits in force. Targets for Gemini North should have
7 < RA < 22 and -37 < Dec < +79; for
Gemini South targets should have 7 < RA < 23 and
-89 < Dec < +28. Exceptions may be allowed for very short
observations, or with relaxed observing constraints. Note however that
Michelle, T-ReCS, and Laser Guide
Star target constraints are even more restrictive than these.
Available Time
A total of 55 hours of time on Gemini North, and 43 hours on
Gemini South will be available for ATAC to allocate. This is still
less than in earlier semesters, but takes account of Australia's share
of the NICI
Planet-Finding Campaign nights, as well as reflecting the fact
that Australian programs have achieved a much higher completion rate
than other partners, and the resulting imbalance in partner share
still needs to be rectified. If one telescope is far more
oversubscribed than the other, we may arrange a swap of nights with
another partner country with an opposite imbalance, so as to even out
demand.
ATAC encourages applications which can tolerate a wide range of
observing conditions on Gemini. Note that by being able to relax their
observing
condition constraints, and avoiding the most
sought-after right ascensions, every single ATAC program in Band 3
for Semester 20008B was able to be 100% completed! ATAC would also
welcome more ambitious Gemini proposals seeking substantial fractions
of Australian time, as well as large programs seeking time jointly
with other Gemini partners.
Submitting a Proposal
The Gemini Phase I Proposal Tool (PIT) is a Java program which
must be installed on the applicant's own computer (Solaris, Mac OS-X,
Linux, or Windows); a new version is available for the 2010A
round, and must be used. It can be downloaded from PIT
Installation. Please see the Supporting Information web page for further details about:
Applicants are strongly encouraged to ask for a fraction of time
in a multi-partner (Joint) proposal proportional to their
intellectual involvement in the project, rather than divided up
in proportion to the partner share of the proposers from different
countries.
Prospective applicants should familiarise themselves with the
various
modes of observing offered by Gemini, as well as the web
pages of the instruments they want to use.
The electronic submission process built into the PIT for
Australian proposals will send the proposal XML file and associated
attached files to the Australian Gemini Office at the Anglo-Australian
Observatory, which is the service organization for ATAC. As part of
the submission process, the proposal will be automatically validated
and if errors are found, these will be reported via a pop-up window
within the PIT. Invalid proposals are not accepted and it is the
proposer's responsibility to fix the error(s). If validation is
successful, receipt of the proposal XML file and attachment will be
acknowledged and the proposal will be assigned a reference
number. Again this occurs via a pop-up window within the PIT.
Poor
weather proposals can be submitted at any time. These are
submitted directly to Gemini and assessed by the Head of Science
Operations at each Gemini telescope, so there is no need to worry
about proposal rounds (or getting the proposal past ATAC).
ATAC Specific Requirements
- If time is being requested on both Gemini North and Gemini South
for the one scientific program, then separate proposals need to
be submitted for each telescope.
- You should enter raw text only (no LaTeX markup commands) into the PIT,
and may attach up to three figures individually.
- Abstract: should have a maximum of 120 words.
- Scientific (and Technical) Justification: These fields within the
PIT need to be completed, with a maximum of 1000 words each. Note
that the full list of References cited should now be included as a text
attachment within the PIT. Up to three figures can also be attached;
formats accepted
include JPEG, GIF, and PDF but not Postscript. Postscript figures
should be
converted
to PDF first.
- Publications: limited to (a) PI and/or Co-I papers relevant to
the current proposal, and (b) PI publications resulting from previous
allocations of Gemini time, both within the previous two years
only.
- Previous Time Allocations: limited to the previous 4 semesters,
include all Gemini allocations, but only allocations on other
telescopes relevant to the current proposal.
Need Help?
All requests for assistance and information regarding new
proposals, the available instruments, the PIT, etc, should be
handled through the Gemini
HelpDesk. This Web-based system will forward the query initially
to AusGO staff, who may then escalate it to
other National Gemini Office staff, or Gemini Observatory staff, as required.
Some hints on maximising your chances of
getting time (and data!)
- Due to the very high demand for a limited number of exchange
nights on Keck and Subaru, ATAC applicants are strongly encouraged to
consider submitting Joint proposals with other Gemini partners in
order to improve their chances of getting exchange time.
-
ATAC proposals have to be read and assessed against a cohort of
proposals extending across all of astronomy. ATAC members
therefore have a wide range of backgrounds and expertise spanning all
areas of astronomy. However, not all committee members may be experts
in your area, and familiar with all its acronyms and jargon.
Even when all acronyms are defined as they are used, the
excessive use of acronyms can quickly exhaust the mental stack of even
the most careful and committed reader. Proposals that assume all
readers have an intimate knowledge of all the acronyms and jargon used
across all of astronomy, and/or an infinite capacity for remembering
new acronyms, may therefore put themselves at an unnecessary
disadvantage when it comes to being easily read and understood by ATAC
members.
- Applicants are advised to clearly state (in your technical
justification) a realistic minimum total time required for
their project to be viable. Please note that there is no penalty
involved in quoting a minimum time less than the requested time, as
ATAC does not normally allocate less than the requested time. Indeed,
allocations in Band 3 will sometimes be for larger amounts of time
than originally sought, to partly compensate for the poorer observing
conditions under which such programs will need to be executed. Such a
statement could help you in two circumstances:
- Firstly, if your proposal is ranked near the cut-off, there may
not be enough Australian time left to give you your full
allocation. Your statement will help ATAC decide whether it is
scientifically useful to give you less than your requested time, or
whether the time should be given to another smaller proposal. Several
proposals that set "minimum time = requested time" have in the past
been unsuccessful for exactly this reason.
- Secondly, if your proposal asks for time from several partner
countries, and Australia ranks it highly but other partners rank it
poorly, it will help ATAC decide whether it is worth giving you
just the Australian time, or whether this is scientifically useless by
itself. This too is a not infrequent occurrence.
-
Applicants are also required to state clearly what you would do if your
proposal was awarded time in Band 3. There is a special tab in the
PIT to do this. Note that filling in this tab in no way reduces your chances
of being ranked in Band 1 or 2; leaving it blank however can severely
limit your chances of getting into any band. Proposals in Band 3 are very
unlikely to be carried
out if they require the best (and most requested) weather conditions.
If your program is ranked in the highest bands, this will make no
difference. But if it is ranked in Band 3, we will ask you (if
necessary) to think about shortening it, downgrading the weather
constraints, picking brighter targets or a wider range of potential
targets, and otherwise increasing the chance that it will actually get
done. If ATAC does not feel that these changes can be made in a way that
preserves at least some useful science, your proposal may be dropped
from the list and replaced by one with a lower scientific ranking, but
more chance of being executed in Band 3. Gemini also offer several
suggestions for making the most of Band 3 time.
- Having a range of targets at different RAs and Decs can help your
chance of being executed in the Gemini queue. List as many targets as
you like, but insert a note explaining how many you actually are
requesting time to observe. Where possible, try to avoid the
most-requested RAs.
- Due to the requirement that all Laser Guide Star targets receive
clearance in advance from US Space Command, it is recommended that all
such programs be split into blocks of no more than ~1.5 hrs each in
order to be schedulable. Also, the need for Laser Guide Stars when
observing calibration targets should be weighed up against the risk of
not being able to schedule the calibration observations alongside the
science target observations.
- Getting your Phase II program completed early (for targets
observable early in the semester) can do wonders for the chances of
your program being executed. In some cases, programs allocated time
in the next semester have been executed before the current semester
has even finished!
Australian Gemini Office, ausgo -@- aao.gov.au