Australian Access to the Magellan Telescopes

In 2006, the Australian Astronomy Board of Management used funds from the Major National Research Facilities scheme (MNRF - the predecessor of NCRIS) to purchase 30 nights of time (7 or 8 nights each semester) at the twin Magellan 6.5m telescopes in Chile in calendar years 2007 and 2008. The Magellan instruments provide complementary capabilities to Gemini instruments; a comprehensive overview of the various instruments, available modes, detectors, wavelength ranges, etc. is available. These nights are available to all Australian astronomers through the Australian Time Assignment Committee (ATAC).

Proposal Deadline

Australian proposals for Magellan time in Semester 2008B (1 August 2008 - 31 January 2009) must be submitted electronically by:

11.59pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, Monday 31st March 2008

What's New in Semester 2008B?

The Magellan Echellette Spectrograph (MagE) is now available and is designed to complement MIKE, by pushing further into the blue (3100 - 10000 Å) and having a lower resolution (R~4000 through the 1 arcsec slit), is capable of going significantly fainter.
The IMACS instrument offers a new range of add-on facilities:
- GISMO will be available on a "shared-risk" basis with PI Mike Gladders (gladders -@- ociw.edu) in Semester 2008B. GISMO is an image-slicing reformatter that installs into the slitmask area of IMACS at the focal surface of the Baade telescope. Its purpose is to slice up into 16 sectors a ~4'x4' area at the center of the IMACS f/4 field and reimage them back in the focal plane at the same scale and f-ratio, but covering the entire f/4 field. Its principal purpose is to allow multislit spectroscopy of densely packed fields ( >5 targets/sq arcmin) whose spectra would normally interfere in the central area, but will not once the slices have been separated.
- The Marland-Magellan Tunable Filter (MMTF) is available for general use, but observing runs will be concatenated with those of the MMTF team led by PI Sylvain Veilleux (veilleux -@- astro.umd.edu). The MMTF is a narrow-band filter which is tunable in both central wavelength and transmission bandpass, similar to the Taurus Tunable Filter. The MMTF is based on a Fabry-Perot etalon that operates in low orders (close plate settings) to provide a large "monochromatic spot" (region of constant wavelength) across the field of view. Its tunability, sensitivity, narrow bandpass, and wide field make this a unique capability applicable to a wide range of programs.
- The Multi-Object Echelle (MOE) is available for general use. MOE is an "accessory" that transforms IMACS into a spectrograph with properties similar to ESI on Keck, however with a significant multiplexing capability. MOE on IMACS permits crossed-dispersed echelle spectra to be obtained over the 15'x15' field of the f/4 camera, accomplished by the use of a grating and cross-dispersing prism mounted on the IMACS grating wheel.
The Magellan Instant Camera (MagIC) will be back in service on the Baade Telescope, with a new E2V frame-transfer CCD in operation (in addition to the pre-existing SITe CCD) with an associated high-speed readout mode.

Submitting a Proposal

Australian proposals for Magellan time should be prepared using the ATAC Magellan LaTeX proposal form (a variant of the AAT proposal form), and uploaded before the deadline to the AAO. Copies of the form, and upload instructions, can be found at the AAO's Magellan submission web page.

Available Time

Australia will notionally have four nights on one telescope, and three nights on the other telescope, to allocate in Semester 2008B. The exact nights, and the split between telescopes and dark/grey/bright time will be decided after ATAC has met, in negotiation with the Magellan Scheduler. Once the time assignment commmittees of all the Magellan partners have met, horse-trading begins as we all try to get the nights that best suit the science of our highest ranked proposals. So please note in your proposal both your ideal conditions/set-up, and fall-back options, so that we can do this trading in an informed way.

Note that this is "classical" observing time - someone will need to go to the telescope to carry out the observations. At least one of the people going to the telescope will need to be an experienced observer, as only moderate support will be provided. You will need to arrive early to familiarise yourself with the telescopes and instruments. As this time is classical, we impose a two-night minimum length on time requests. Shorter proposals will only be considered if you team up with another proposal to share the observing and meet the minimum length requirement.

Costs

Note that in general Australian observers should apply to the ANSTO-run Access to Major Research Facilities Program (AMRFP) to get funding for their trips (flights and in-Chile expenses). Note that AMRFP funds may be exhausted before the end of eaxh funding round, so apply early! You will be expected to pay costs on the spot at Las Campanas at the time of your visit. Payment should be in US or Chilean currency (no credit cards, unfortunately).

Indicative costs are:

Room and Board at Las Campanas (full): US$40 per day.
Dormitory in La Serena (no board): US$10 per day.
IMACS slit masks: US$200 each.
LDSS3 slit masks: US$35 each.
CTIO has closed their guest house so people who want to stay overnight in Santiago stay in a pleasant hotel (US$55 for a single and US$65 for a double). Transportation from and to the airport costs ~US$60. There is a hotel at the airport that charges ~US$100 and has transportation included.

We recommend observers to purchase the local part of the trip in conjunction with the international part. If some delay occurs, LAN should take care of rearranging flights, lodging, etc. LCO provides each visitor with a detailed receipt. The Australian Gemini office may be able to help with the cost of slit masks (but not travel costs) if no other sources of funding for these are available.

Previous Magellan Time Allocations

2008A: Glazebrook et al., "The Broken Hierarchy of Galaxy Formation", 2 nights
2008A: Sackett et al., "Imaging Lupus-TR-3: One of the smallest Hot Jupiters Known?", 2 nights
2008A: Bryant et al., "The environments of massive galaxies at high redshift", 2 nights
2008A: Dobbie et al., "Probing the opacity limited minimum fragmentation mass", 2 nights
2007B: Glazebrook et al., "The Broken Hierarchy of Galaxy Formation", 2 nights
2007B: Bryant et al., "The Environments of Massive Galaxies at High Redshift", 2 nights
2007B: Norris et al., "A dedicated Southern Search for the First Stars", 2 nights
2007B: Yong et al., "Magnesium Isotope Ratios in Halo Stars and Galactic Chemical Evolution", 1 night
2007A: Bayliss et al., "Radial-velocity follow-up of a transiting planet candidate", 1 night
2007A: Glazebrook et al., "The broken hierarchy of galaxy formation", 1 night
2007A: Marsden et al., "Differential rotation on ultra-fast rotators", 1 night
2007A: Melendez et al., "The fundamental building blocks of life in solar twins and stars with planets", 2 nights
2007A: Norris et al., "A dedicated search for the first stars", 3 nights.

Need Help?

For general enquiries concerning Australian access to Magellan, please contact the Australian Gemini Office (ausgo -@- aao.gov.au). For specific questions regarding the Magellan instrumentation, please contact one of the Australian-funded Magellan Fellows directly: David Floyd (dfloyd -@- lco.cl), or Ricardo Covarrubias (ricardo -@- lcoeps1.lco.cl).

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