Call for Proposals
PERIOD 55: APRIL 1, 2017 - OCTOBER 1, 2017
The Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) invites applications for observing time in
Period 55, April 1 - October 1, 2017
The deadline for receipt of the applications is:
Friday, November 18, 2016, at UT 12:00 noon.
The Call for Proposals is also available in the following formats:
Retrieving the NOTFORM package
Information for applicants
The applicants are reminded of the following:
In return for a contribution by the Instrument Centre for Danish
Astrophysics in support of work on the NOT Transient Explorer (NTE)
instrument, up to 8 extra nights of observing time are offered to
proposals from researchers affiliated with Danish
institutions.
As decided by the NOTSA Council, the share of observing time for each
Nordic Country is to be proportional to the contributions from the
Associates. Regular visitor mode observing is the basic mode
provided to researchers affiliated with a Nordic institution, and does
not require any user contribution. For any services requested
beyond basic access, a contribution to the operational cost will be
required. The detailed rules for the allocation of observing time and
the related user contributions can be found at
http://www.not.iac.es/observing/rules/ObservingTimeAndContributions.pdf
A system of Large Observing Proposals has been introduced, where
researchers or research groups can apply for observing time for
multi-semester programs. A separate proposal form has been prepared
for Large proposals. The form can be downloaded together with the
regular proposal form. The proposal submission is the same for both
regular and Large proposals. The detailed rules applicable to these
Large Proposals can be found at
http://www.not.iac.es/observing/largeproposals/LargeProposalsRules.pdf
Late applications are not accepted. However, proposals for short
programmes (≤ 4 hours) using fixed instrument set-ups are welcome at
any time
(see http://www.not.iac.es/observing/service/). The
Fast-Track programme is a service that is provided free of cost to
researchers affiliated with a Nordic institution. It also
incorporates a system to compensate regular observing programs for
time lost due to interruptions by observations for ToO or Monitoring
programmes.
In order to spearhead the coordinated use of Europe's 2-4m telescopes,
the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) and NOT telescopes on La Palma
have agreed to enter into a closer collaboration and will continue to
jointly offer time at both telescopes to both communities in the next
semester. See further details
at http://www.tng-not.iac.es/.
Accordingly, Nordic scientists can submit normal observing proposals
directly to the TNG, and vice versa, but prior coordination between
similar proposals from the two communities is encouraged in order to
optimise the scientific returns of the available observing
time. However, in particular with respect to Target-of-Opportunity
programs, the different rules applying to observing time at the TNG
and the NOT will be taken in to consideration.
In relation to the call for proposals at the TNG, the
following:
-
The deadline for receipt of applications
is Wednesday, November 30, 2016, at UT 12:00 noon.
-
The near-IR high-resolution Echelle spectrograph GIANO
will be available again from the start of the new semester. To cater
to the specific interest in using GIANO by the Nordic community, up
to 4 extra nights may be allocated in the coming
semester to Nordic proposals requesting this
instrument. There is now also the option to use GIANO simultaneously
with the optical high-resolution Echelle spectrograph HARPS-N.
-
The TNG is looking to change their proposal allocation procedure, and
likely as of the next call for proposals in 6 months time, proposals
for observing time will be reviewed on an annual basis.
NB: As for the allocation of observing time, user
contributions, and travel support, the national rules applicable to
the Principle Investigator of a proposal are followed.
Following the Agreement between the Instituto de Astrofísica de
Canarias (IAC) and NOTSA for the continued operation of the NOT at the
Roque de los Muchachos observatory on La Palma, 5% of the observing
time at NOT will be offered for joint IAC-Nordic research programmes.
This observing time is aimed at reinforcing the collaboration and
synergies between the IAC and the Nordic communities through joint
programmes. A separate call for proposals will be issued soon.
Applicants should carefully read the following instructions:
1: Proposals are reviewed without regard to the nationality of the
applicant(s). Non-Nordic proposals should be submitted via the
OPTICON programme if possible (see below), and the total time
allocated to 'foreign' projects will be limited to ~15% of the Nordic
time. This limit does not apply to Italian projects submitted under
the joint call described above.
Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their proposal as soon
as possible after the evaluation by the NOT Observing Programmes
Committee and preparation of the observing schedule by the Director.
Brief explanatory notes are provided to proposers, especially for
rejected proposals. Note also that only 75% of the science time can be
scheduled by NOTSA; the rest is Spanish time (20%), or IAC-Nordic time
(5%). Awards of observing time do not imply any financial support from
NOT.
2: Proposals for projects of all sizes are welcome, large and small as
well as medium-size. Pooling of related and synergistic proposals by
consortia of groups with similar interests is encouraged.
Visitor mode observing is the basic mode provided. Programmes
requiring service mode observing, or propose a Monitoring,
Target-of-Opportunity (ToO) or similar project, should so indicate
this in the proposal.
In principle, compensation is provided in service mode for any
observing time affected by Monitoring or ToO observations.
Applicants having particular, or complex scheduling requirements
should contact the director
(director@not.iac.es) in
advance in order to discuss optimum strategies.
3: The proposal submission procedure is electronic. The Latex template
and style files for Period 55 are available at the NOT web site:
http://www.not.iac.es/observing/proposals/. Detailed
instructions are provided in the template file itself and a README
file; they should be followed carefully. Applicants should process
and view the output of their files before submission in order to check
that they process properly. Proposals using modified style files will
not be accepted.
Proposals requesting more than one observing run in the period (using
different instruments on a project counts as separate runs) should
specify them individually in the proposal as indicated.
4: Regular and Large proposals should be submitted by e-mail before
the above deadline to: proposal@not.iac.es, with the word "Proposal"
both as Subject and as text. Automatic e-mail acknowledgement of
receipt, with notification of any problems encountered in processing,
is provided. Before the deadline, questions on proposal preparations
or procedures may be sent to the same address with "Question" as the
Subject.
5: Up-to-date information on instruments at NOT is found at
http://www.not.iac.es/instruments/. Please
note the following features for Period 55:
-
New (e2v CCD231-42) detectors have been installed in ALFOSC and
FIES. The CCDs are deep depletion devices, with low-fringing and high
efficiency in the red.
-
Together with our set of VPH grisms, the detector provides an overall
efficiency for ALFOSC which rivals that of similar instrument set-ups
on 4-m class telescopes.
-
The new CCDs are about 10% larger than the previous ones. For FIES,
this allows to sample further into the infrared part of the
echellogram, and we now reach from 3700 to 9100 Ångstrom for the
high-resolution fiber (F4), while for the other fibers we sample a few
hundreds of Ångstroms less into the infrared. For the previous CCD the
sampled range was 3700-7300 Ångstrom.
-
A new fibre bundle is planned to be installed in FIES before the start
of semester 2017A. With this new bundle, we expect the radial-velocity
stability with the high-resolution fiber to improve from 8-10 m/s to
~3 m/s.
-
The SOFIN high-resolution Echelle spectrograph is again available. It
offers a resolution of R=27000-170000, and it also offers
spectropolarimetry. SOFIN is not a common-user instrument: only
limited support is provided.
6: The OPTICON Trans-National Access Programme provides access for
external users to NOT and several other European telescopes with
support from the European Union. NB: Proposals for OPTICON time are
submitted and reviewed separately two months before the normal NOT
proposals, and all eligible non-Nordic applicants should follow the
OPTICON
procedure. See http://www.astro-opticon.org/fp7-2/tna/
for the next deadline and all details on this programme.
October 20, 2016
T. Augusteijn
Director, NOTSA
Retrieving the NOTFORM package
WWW:
FTP:
Upon connection, use "anonymous" or "ftp" as user-name and give your name or
e-mail address as password.
- ftp ftp.not.iac.es (anonymous login)
- ftp> cd pub/proposal
- ftp> binary
- ftp> get NOTFORM-55.tar
- ftp> quit
Unpacking the package:
To unpack the retrieved tar file in your current directory,
use the following UNIX command:
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