Call for Proposals on the Gemini and Subaru Telescopes

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Australian Access to the Gemini and Subaru Telescopes

The deadline for Gemini proposals in Semester 2013B has now passed. We will begin accepting proposals for Semester 2014A in early Sep 2013.

The nominal proposal deadline for the A semester (Feb-July) each year is 5:00pm AEST on 30 September the year before; and for the B semester (Aug-Jan) is 5:00pm AEST on 31 March of that year. When the proposal deadline falls on a weekend or a public holiday, it may be moved a day or two earlier or later. A Call for Proposals is normally issued via the Astronomical Society of Australia e-mail exploder about a month prior to the deadline.


See the ATAC Policies and Procedures document for information about how Australian Gemini time is allocated. To stay abreast of developments at Gemini, you can subscribe to the Gemini e-newscast.

What's new in 2013B?


There are strict target accessibility limits in force. Targets for Gemini North should have 17h < RA < 24h or 0h < RA < 13.5h and -37 < Dec < +90; for Gemini South targets should have 16h < RA < 24h or 0h < RA < 12h and -90 < Dec < +28. Exceptions may be allowed for very short observations, or with relaxed observing constraints. For 2013B there are additional constraints on all LGS programs at Gemini North and Gemini South, and for programs requiring unrestricted access (e.g. MOS programs that require pre-imaging, long observations, and multi-epoch observations).

The community should note that the Observatory welcomes proposals which use the full range of observing conditions. This includes proposals that can use cloudy (CC>70%) conditions, which implies a loss of signal of at least 30%, and up to a factor of 6.

Gemini North

The instruments available on Gemini North are:

GNIRS, NIRI, and NIFS can be used in conjunction with the ALTAIR adaptive optics system, using natural or laser guide stars, or in the LGS+PWFS1 "super seeing" mode.

Gemini South

The instruments available on Gemini South are:

Subaru

A minimum of 5, and possibly up to 10 classical nights on Subaru are available to the Gemini community. The minimum request is 1 night - partial nights cannot be supported. Note that Joint Proposals may seek less than one night per partner, provided the total request is for an integer number of nights. PIs in the Gemini community who intend to use the Subaru Telescope are encouraged to apply through this time-exchange program, and not through the open use Subaru Call.

The telescope will be unavailable until around September 20 2013, due to mirror recoating.

The instruments and their availability on Subaru are:

Note that exchange time on Subaru is "classical" observing time - someone will need to go to the telescope to carry out the observations. The AAO and AAL have secured funding from the Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme to cover the costs of observers allocated exchange time on Subaru (or classical observing time on Gemini) by ATAC along the same lines as it does for ATAC allocations on Magellan.

Keck

For semester 2013B there will no Gemini-Keck telescope time exchange offered. Gemini and Keck are in negotiations to offer an expanded suite of Keck instruments in any new agreement.


Available Time

A total of 98 hours of time on Gemini North, and 88 hours on Gemini South are nominally available for ATAC to allocate. Note that only 80% of the total queue time will be filled at ITAC, with the remainder (which used to be allocated to Band 3 programs using the poorest conditions) now used for the Poor Weather queue. The amount of science time on Gemini South is constrained by the significant amount of time required to begin commissioning of GPI. 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, ATAC programs in Band 3 have achieved a better-than-average completion rate. 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.

Poor weather and Director's Discretionary Time proposals may be submited at any time via the 2013A version of the Phase I Tool. Such proposals are submitted directly to the Gemini Observatory for their consideration, and any time awarded is not charged to Australia's share of Gemini time.

Classical Observing with Gemini

In certain situations, observing in "classical" mode where the PI is assigned specific nights on one of the Gemini telescopes and travels to the telescope to carry out these observations, may be called for. As classical time is top-sliced from a partner's allocation with a consequent reduction in the size of queue Bands 1-3, and there is the usual risk that the necessary observing conditions may not be met on the allocated night(s), the case for a classical versus a queue allocation needs to be a strong one. Nevertheless ATAC has assigned classical nights on Gemini in past semesters and welcomes all such proposals. In the event that Australian-based observers are allocated classical nights on either Gemini North or Gemini South, the AAO will reimburse the observer(s) for associated costs on a similar basis to the policies for scheduled Magellan observers.

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 completely new version is available for the 2013B round, and must be used. It can be downloaded from PIT Installation. You will also require the default LaTeX style file and template, or Word template to create the scientific and technical justifications, as well as the ancillary information. These can also be downloaded from within the PIT itself. Do not attempt to change the font size, margins, etc. in the style file or template.

In order to standardise proposal formats as much as possible across the Gemini partnership, and not unfairly penalise Joint Proposals, ATAC applicants must now use the "Gemini default" style file and LaTeX/Word templates. The scientific and technical cases now have a maximum length of one page of text each, while the figures, captions, references, and tables may use up to two additional pages. As the scientific case itself is now limited to one page maximum, ATAC recommends that details of sample selection, data analysis, etc. which were commonly included in this section be shifted to the Technical Justification section instead. Save or convert this document into PDF format, then attach it to the proposal submission by clicking on the paper clip icon next to the "PDF attachment goes here" line in the Overview tab of the PIT.

Gemini has provided a comprehensive set of help pages and even video tutorials to help get you started. Please study these first, and if you need further assistance or clarification then please submit a Helpdesk request.

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 PDF attachment to the Australian Gemini Office at the Australian Astronomical Observatory, which is the service organization for ATAC. The PIT will flag any issues or missing elements of a proposal in the "Problems" section. Only when these are rectified will the PIT enable you to submit the proposal from the Submit tab. Pressing "Submit this Proposal" will attempt to upload your proposal and PDF attachment to the AAO. If successful this will be reported in the Submit tab (not in a separate pop-up window), along with a proposal reference number and contact e-mail in case you have any further queries. You will not receive any acknowledgement e-mail. If you do not see a reference number but the PIT Submit tab shows the proposal status as "Successfully Submitted", please send an e-mail to ausgo -@- aao.gov.au - do not try to re-submit the proposal. The PIT will not allow you to submit the same proposal twice; you will have to "Open an Editable Copy" if you wish to re-use a proposal from a previous semester.

If time is being requested on both Gemini North and Gemini South for the one scientific program, then you only need to submit one proposal.

Poor weather proposals can be submitted at any time using the 2013A version of the Phase I Tool. 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 deadlines (or getting the proposal past ATAC). Proposals submitted for regular queue time but not ranked highly enough by ATAC to be allocated time in Bands 1-3 may be also be assigned to the Poor Weather Queue by ATAC if they can still make use of such conditions.

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!)




Australian Gemini Office, ausgo -@- aao.gov.au