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Australian Access to the Magellan Telescopes

Proposal Deadline

The Australian Time Assignment Committee has decided to set the Magellan proposal deadline 1 week later than the Gemini proposal deadline, to enable applicants to focus on submitting the best proposals possible for each facility. Australian proposals for Magellan time in Semester 2010A (mid-Jan to mid-July 2010) must be submitted electronically by:

11.59pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, Wednesday 7th October 2009

Magellan Instrumentation


Read all about current and upcoming instrumentation for Magellan in David Osip's presentation at the 2009 Astronomical Society of Australia meeting.

An overview and documentation for current Magellan instrumentation can be found at the LCO Magellan page. More information, including new instruments for Magellan, can be found on the Magellan Technical pages. A good way to stay abreast of Magellan issues and developments is to subscribe to the Magellan community e-mail exploder.

Instruments Available in Semester 2010A

Three new instruments are scheduled to be commissioned at Magellan before the end of 2009, and offered to the community in 2010A: Note that Megacam and MMIRS use the new f/5 secondary mirror on the Clay telescope. There will be one long f/5 run on Clay in 2010A, probably in the galactic cap season. During the f/5 run none of the other Clay instruments (MIKE, MagE, MagIC) will be available. MegaCam and MMIRS will also be at Las Campanas for the 2010B semester, but at this time it is expected that both instruments will move to the MMT for the entire 2011 calendar year.

The existing instruments on Magellan are:

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. Applicants are warned that in the interest of fairness, any attempt to squeeze more text into the science case by using a font size smaller than 11 pt may lead to the proposal not even being considered by ATAC.

Available Time

Australia will notionally have eight nights total on Magellan to allocate in Semester 2010A. 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 (possibly with another Magellan partner) to share the observing and meet the minimum length requirement. ATAC welcomes more ambitious Magellan proposals seeking substantial fractions of Australian time, as well as large programs seeking time jointly with other Magellan partners.


Background

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). As a result of negotiations between Astronomy Australia Ltd (AAL) and the Magellan Council, AAL agreed to extend the current 15 nights per year access arrangement, in concert with the Magellan Fellowship program, through to mid-2011 using ANSOC funds.

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 each 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:

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

Magellan Telescope schedules

2010A:

2009B: 2009A: 2008B: 2008A: 2007B: 2007A:

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 the Australian-funded Magellan Fellows directly, at magfellows -@- lco.cl.


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