Australian Access to the Magellan Telescopes

Proposals for Australian Magellan time in Semester 2013B have now closed. We will begin accepting proposals for Semester 2014A early in Sep 2013.

Note that from 2013B onwards the minimum run length that can be requested will be reduced from 2 nights, to half a night.

Submitting a Proposal
Magellan Instrumentation
Available Time
Observer Travel to Chile or Hawaii
Background
Previous Magellan Time Allocations

Submitting a Proposal

The Australian Gemini Office uses an on-line submission system for Magellan proposals, similar to the AAT proposal submission system. Proposal preparation uses a web-based form to complete the cover sheet, followed by uploading of a separate science case and a target list as PDF files.

If you or any of your collaborators have not previously applied for Magellan or Gemini time, you will need to contact us in advance (ausgo -@- aao.gov.au) so as to have them added to our database of registered users. Even if you are registered for AAT proposals, you may need to register with us to submit a Magellan proposal. Please check the pull-down menus of known investigators and institutions now, and let us know if you need to have names added.

Instructions on how to go about preparing, previewing, and submitting your proposal, and a link to the form itself are available here.

Magellan Instrumentation

An overview and documentation for current Magellan instrumentation can be found at the LCO Magellan page. More information, including future instruments for Magellan, can be found on the Magellan Technical pages.

Instruments Available in Semester 2013B

Contrary to the initial 2013B call for proposals, the f/5 instrument Megacam will most likely be scheduled in one 2-3 week dark block in Oct/Nov 2013, but this is contingent on demand. Applicants for Megacam should aim to be as flexible as possible in their target selection. First- or second-half nights only may be requested, but scheduling will be dependent on identifying a suitable program from Australia or a Magellan partner which can use the remainder of each night. During the f/5 run none of the other Clay instruments (MIKE, MagE, PFS, LDSS3) will be available.

The MMIRS detector will be upgraded in 2013B, and it is envisaged that MMIRS should be available in 2014A and/or perhaps 2014B, but the instrument will then move to the MMT for at least a couple of years.

Megacam is a CCD mosaic optical camera covering a 25' x 25' field of view at 0.08" per pixel with SDSS u', g', r', i' and z' filters. A special g'+r' filter is also being acquired.
The Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera & Spectrograph (IMACS) is a highly-versatile wide field imager, longslit, and multislit spectrograph. It offers a large range of modes:
- 15.5' x 15.5' field of view at 0.11"/pixel imaging with the f/4 camera. A MOSAIC3 upgrade to E2V CCDs for the f/4 camera has delivered an improvement in red sensitivity of ~0.25 mag.
- 27.2' x 27.2' field of view at 0.20"/pixel imaging with the f/2 camera.
- Longslit spectroscopy, with a slit-viewing option.
- Multislit spectroscopy, with a Nod-and-Shuffle option.
- Integral Field Spectroscopy with the Durham-built IFU.
- 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 Maryland-Magellan Tunable Filter (MMTF) is a narrow-band filter which is tunable in both central wavelength and transmission bandpass, similar to the old 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. Observers intending to request time with the MMTF should contact Sylvain Veilleux (veilleux -@- astro.umd.edu) before applying.
- The Multi-Object Echelle (MOE) 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' x 15' field of the f/4 camera, accomplished by the use of a grating and cross-dispersing prism mounted on the IMACS grating wheel.
FourStar is a wide-field (11' x 11' at 0.16" per pixel) near-infrared imager using four HAWAII-2RG array detectors, equipped initially with Y, J, H, and Ks filters, plus other narrower-band filters available by collaboration with the instrument PI Eric Persson (persson -@- obs.carnegiescience.edu).
The Folded port InfraRed Echellette (FIRE) provides R~6000 cross-dispersed spectroscopy covering the entire near-IR, as well as a lower-resolution (R=2500 in J, R=1300 in H, R=900 in K), higher-throughput mode.
The Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle (MIKE) is a high-throughput double echelle spectrograph.
The Magellan Echellette Spectrograph (MagE) complements 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.
LDSS3 is a high-efficiency, wide-field multislit spectrograph. LDSS3 is available as a facility instrument with the Sloan filter set for imaging, and VPH grisms for spectroscopy. A new CCD camera with much-improved red sensitivity is due to be commissioned in April 2013, and become the default detector for LDSS3 in 2013B, although programs focusing on bluer wavelengths will have the option to use the original CCD in certain blocks. Interested PIs should contact Jacob Bean (jbean -@- cfa.harvard.edu) about the new CCD before applying.
The Planet Finder Spectrograph (PFS) is a high resolution echelle spectrograph optimized for precision radial velocity measurements. PFS is a PI instrument and will only be available via collaborative arrangement with the instrument team. Contact Steve Shectman (shec -@- obs.carnegiescience.edu) before submitting a proposal.

Available Time

Australia will notionally have seven nights total on Magellan to allocate in Semester 2013B. 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, some horse-trading may become necessary 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.

So as not to inadvertently preclude high-impact science that can be done in a short time, the previous two-night minimum length on time requests has been reduced to half a night. Scheduling proposals for a non-integer number of nights will still be subject to the Magellan Scheduler being able to identify programs from across the Magellan partnership that can make use of the remainder of the night(s). Applicants seeking less than 2 nights are encouraged to seek out and nominate other proposals (possibly with another Magellan partner) to share the observing time with. ATAC continues to welcome more ambitious Magellan proposals seeking substantial fractions of Australian time, as well as large programs seeking time jointly with other Magellan partners.

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 should be an experienced observer, as only limited technical support is provided by Las Campanas Observatory. You will need to arrive early to familiarise yourself with the telescopes and instruments.

While remote observing is not yet offered at Magellan, "remote eavesdropping" is an option for collaborators who may not be able to travel to Chile, but would still like to be an active participant in the observing. At least one experienced observer will still need to travel to the telescope, but others can join in via Skype and view instrument or data reduction displays with the "Share screens" option. Currently bandwidth limitations preclude transferring raw data files, or X-displays via ssh or VNC from Chile to Australia. If you would be interested in the remote eavesdropping option then please contact ausgo -@- aao.gov.au.

Observer Travel to Chile or Hawaii

The ANSTO-run Access to Major Research Facilities Program (AMRFP) which paid for international observing travel for a number of years has now ended. The AAO and AAL have secured funds from the Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme to ensure that Australian users of Magellan (and of Gemini, Subaru, or DECam time-exchange in classical mode) awarded observing time by ATAC are able to take up that opportunity.

As soon as you are informed of your observing time allocation, please consult the relevant Visiting Observers Guide:

It is the responsibility of the Principal Investigator on each proposal to coordinate their travel and accommodation arrangements directly with the facility they will be visiting. AusGO cannot make any such arrangements on the observer's behalf.

The following policies apply to the reimbursement of observer travel expenses:

The observer must be affiliated with an Australian university or research organisation.
The AAO will pay the costs for one qualified observer per scheduled program. If a student is PI on the scheduled proposal, and has had no prior observing experience, then the AAO will pay the costs for both the student and their supervisor (or a suitably qualified designate) as Magellan in particular require that observers will be experienced and self-sufficient. Observers who wish to bring a student along with them for the experience are welcome to do so, but in that case the AAO will not pay for any costs incurred by the student.
The AAO will reimburse the cost of lowest available economy-class airfares from the observer's home city in Australia to La Serena or Hilo; hotel/motel expenses in Sydney, Santiago, La Serena, Honolulu, or Hilo; meals and incidentals; transport to/from airports in Australia, Chile, and Hawaii; room, board, and transport costs at Las Campanas Observatory/CTIO/Cerro Pachon/Mauna Kea; and reasonable expenses associated with this travel (e.g. Chilean visa reciprocity fee, US visa waiver fee, costs of cutting slit masks, etc.).
To be eligible for reimbursement, the observer (and their supervisor if they are a student) must provide fare quotes for approval by the Australian Gemini Office (ausgo -@- aao.gov.au) prior to purchasing their tickets. The AAO reserves the right not to reimburse the full cost of items it considers unreasonable, or not associated with observing travel.
The AAO will reimburse the observer's institution on receipt of an invoice addressed to the Australian Gemini Office, together with copies of receipts for all costs being claimed. The GST component of costs incurred within Australia may be claimed (no GST is payable on costs incurred in Chile, the USA, or on international airfares); however an institution may not claim an additional 10% GST component on top of the total GST-inclusive costs. Reimbursement of Magellan users will also be contingent upon confirmation from the Las Campanas Observatory that an observing run report form has been completed, while classical users of Gemini or Subaru will need to complete a classical observing run report form, and DECam users will need to complete the CTIO end-of-run report form.

Indicative costs are:

Room and Board at Las Campanas (full): CLP 55,000 (~AU$110) per day (CLP 71,500 per day from 1 July 2013).
Room and Board at Cerro Tololo (full): CLP 35,000 (~AU$70) per day.
Room and Board at Hale Pohaku (full): US$105 (~AU$100) per day.
Transport to and from LCO: CLP 55,000 (~AU$110) return (CLP 66,000 from 1 July 2013).
Transport to and from Cerro Tololo: CLP 70,000 (~AU$140) return.
Taxi from/to La Serena airport: CLP 5,000 (~AU$10) one way.
El Pino Dormitory in La Serena (no board): CLP 10,500 (~AU$20) per day.
CTIO Motel in La Serena (no board): CLP 30,000 (~AU$60) per day.
Hotels in Hilo: US$70 - $US100 per night.
IMACS slit masks: CLP 110,000 (~AU$250) each.
GISMO slit masks: CLP 55,000 (~AU$125) each.
LDSS3 slit masks: CLP 25,000 (~AU$50) each.
For those who want to stay overnight in Santiago, Las Campanas Observatory recommends the El Vergel hotel in the Providencia district (US$97 for a single and US$115 for a double, which includes continental breakfast). Transportation from and to the airport costs ~US$60. There are Holiday Inn and Hilton hotels right at the airport that charge ~US$200 per night.
Honolulu airport hotels: ~US$100 per night.

We strongly recommend observers purchase the local part of the trip in conjunction with the international part. If some delay occurs (and they often do!), LAN/Qantas/Hawaiian should take care of rearranging flights, overnight hotel in Santiago/Honolulu, etc. You will be expected to pay costs before departure from Las Campanas/La Serena/Hilo. Payment can be made in cash or by credit card.

Reciprocity fee: Citizens of Australia, the USA, and Canada are required to pay a "reciprocity fee" on arrival at Santiago airport prior to passport control. This fee ranges from US$95 for Australians, to more than US$130 for US and Canadian citizens, can be paid by credit card, and is valid for 90 days. Please check with the Chilean Embassy in Australia for the current fee and payment arrangements.

WARNING! If you travel to Chile on LAN via Auckland, you may be required to obtain a transit visa for New Zealand, even if you are not planning to leave the departure gate area. Australian citizens and permanent residents do not require a transit visa, nor do citizens of countries for which a visa waiver applies. Please check visa requirements before departure, or else you may not be allowed to board the flight in Sydney and you risk missing your observing run altogether.

Background

In 2006, the Australian Astronomy Board of Management used funds from the Major National Research Facilities scheme (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). Astronomy Australia Ltd (AAL) and the Magellan Council agreed to extend the 15 nights per year access arrangement, in concert with the Magellan Fellowship program, through to mid-2011 using ANSOC funds. AAL and the Carnegie Institution for Science signed a further extension of this agreement through until mid-2013 (but without the Magellan Fellowship component) by using unspent Aspen instrumentation funds and drawing down part of the Overseas Optical Reserve. Sufficient funds have been secured for AAL and Carnegie to extend this agreement still further, through Semester 2014A inclusive, and AAL is currently working to extend access through until the end of Semester 2015B.

Previous Magellan Time Allocations

Magellan Telescope schedules

2013A:

Bayliss et al., "Transiting Hot Neptunes and Retrograde Planets", 1 night
Keller et al., "First Stars: probes of the early Universe", 3 nights
Mackey et al., "A MegaCam search for stellar streams in the outer Galactic halo", 2 nights
Tinney et al., "FourStar Imaging and Astrometry of the Coldest Southern Brown Dwarfs from WISE", 2 nights

2012B:

Bayliss et al., "Transiting Hot Neptunes and Retrograde Planets", 2 nights
Kennedy et al., "A High-Resolution Study of Extremely Metal-Poor, Carbon-Enhanced Stars", 2 nights
Spitler et al., "ZFOURGE The FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey: a complete picture of the 1 < z < 3.5 universe", 3 nights

2012A:

Bruns et al., "A new probe of the impact of radiative suppression on star formation", 2 nights
Kennedy et al., "A High-Resolution Study of Extremely Metal-Poor, Carbon-Enhanced Stars", 2 nights
Asplund et al., "Chemical signatures of planet formation in solar twins", 2 nights
Tinney et al., "FourStar Imaging and Astrometry of the Coldest Southern Brown Dwarfs from WISE", 2 nights

2011B:

Carter et al., "Collaborative Search for Rocky Planets", 2 nights
Parker et al., "Confirmation Spectroscopy of T dwarfs in IC2391", 1 night
Glazebrook et al., "ZFOURGE The FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey: a complete picture of the 1 < z < 3.5 universe", 4 nights

2011A:

Maunder et al., "Chemically Tagging the Orphan Stream", 3 nights
Carter et al., "Collaborative Search for Rocky Planets", 2 nights
Parker et al., "Spectroscopy of T dwarfs in CrA & Rho Oph", 1 night
Yong et al., "Dissecting the Dwarf galaxy - Milky Way Halo Relationship", 2 nights

2010B:

Carter et al., "Collaborative Search for Rocky Planets", 2 nights
Keller et al., "Chemistry of the Globular Clusters in the SMC", 3 nights
Singh et al., "Probing Quasars using the Transverse Proximity Effect", 2 nights

2010A:

Parker et al., "Spectroscopy of T dwarfs in CrA", 2 nights
Bayliss et al., "WASP-17b: An Inflated Planet?", 1 night
Da Costa et al., "Origin of Omega Cen and M22", 3 nights
Carter et al., "Collaborative Search for Rocky Planets", 2 nights

2009B:

Li et al., "The Role of Environment in Breaking the Hierarchy of Galaxy Formation", 2 nights
Murphy et al., "Completing the MagE survey for molecular hydrogen in damped Lyman-alpha systems", 1 night
Glazebrook et al., "Where do red nuggets live?", 3 nights
Keller et al., "Wide main-sequence turnoff globular clusters" Hiding a dark heart?", 1 night

2009A:

Ryder et al., "Looking for the Smoking Gun in Type IIb Supernovae", 3 nights
Dobbie et al., "Probing the opacity limited minimum fragmentation mass", 2 nights
Glazebrook et al., "Where do red nuggets live?", 3 nights

2008B:

Norris et al., "Lithium Abundances in extremely metal-poor dwarf stars", 2 nights
Bryant et al., "The environments of massive galaxies at high redshift", 3 nights
Murphy et al., "A fast MagE survey for molecular hydrogen in damped Lyman-alpha systems", 2 nights

2008A:

Glazebrook et al., "The Broken Hierarchy of Galaxy Formation", 2 nights
Sackett et al., "Imaging Lupus-TR-3: One of the smallest Hot Jupiters Known?", 2 nights
Bryant et al., "The environments of massive galaxies at high redshift", 2 nights
Dobbie et al., "Probing the opacity limited minimum fragmentation mass", 2 nights

2007B:

Glazebrook et al., "The Broken Hierarchy of Galaxy Formation", 2 nights
Bryant et al., "The Environments of Massive Galaxies at High Redshift", 2 nights
Norris et al., "A dedicated Southern Search for the First Stars", 2 nights
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
Glazebrook et al., "The broken hierarchy of galaxy formation", 1 night
Marsden et al., "Differential rotation on ultra-fast rotators", 1 night
Melendez et al., "The fundamental building blocks of life in solar twins and stars with planets", 2 nights
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).

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