Call for Proposals
PERIOD 60: OCTOBER 1, 2019 - APRIL 1, 2020
The Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) invites applications for observing
time in Period 60, October 1, 2019 - April 1, 2020
The deadline for receipt of the applications is:
Monday, May 20, 2019, at UT 12:00 noon.
The Call for Proposals is also available in the following formats:
As you may know, an agreement was signed on April 1, 2019, to transfer the NOT and its operations to Aarhus University (AU), Denmark, and the University of Turku (UTU), Finland. The transfer will be fully effective as per October 1, 2019.
The new organization for operating the telescope is a research collaboration between partners primarily in the Nordic countries. AU and UTU are looking forward to be the hosts for the new organisation with the aim of operating the NOT to provide access to high quality scientific instrumentation. The telescope will continue to operate in a way similar to how it has operated in the past and also the new organisation will offer access to the telescope for astronomers in Denmark, Finland and Norway as well as astronomers from Stockholm and Reykjavik Universities - the partners in the new organisation. AU and UTU will together with all other partners work on ensuring a smooth transition and we are looking forward to a successful continued operation of the NOT in many years to come.
The Swedish Research Council will no longer fund operations of the NOT from next year onward, and access to observing time will be limited for astronomers from Sweden. This does not apply to astronomers from Stockholm University.
Information for applicants
The applicants are reminded of the following:
As maintained in the new organisation, the share of observing time for
applicants will be proportional to the contributions from the
different Partners. 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 mirrors of the TNG are scheduled to be aluminised during the whole
month of October 2019, and only 5 months are available during the
present call. The number of nights available to Nordic astronomers on
the TNG is reduced accordingly.
-
We strongly encourage the submission of joint
`Italo-Nordic' proposals using both telescopes.
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 60 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 60:
-
A new fibre bundle, using octagonal fiber, was installed in FIES. This
bundle improves the radial-velocity stability. Tests have shown the
stability with the high-resolution fiber to be ~2 m/s on time-scales
of a day, and below ~4 m/s on longer time-scales. Test with the
medium-resolution fiber have shown its stability to be similar to that
of the high-resolution fiber.
-
We acquired two holographic diffusers to do high-precision photometry.
These diffusers effectively scrambled the incoming light, providing a
more constant and optimal (`top-head’) shape, with minimal light loss,
significantly reducing any systematic effects in the photometry. The
diffusers provides a very stable stellar image with a width (~FWHM) of
between 5 and 8 arcsec. See for more details
http://www.not.iac.es/instruments/alfosc/diffuser.html
-
The SOFIN high-resolution Echelle spectrograph is again available. It
only is offered to do circular spectro-polarimetry with the
medium-resolution (R~80,000) camera. 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/h2020/tna/call/index.html
for the next deadline and all details on this programme.
April 19, 2019
T. Augusteijn
Director, NOTSA
Upon connection, use "anonymous" or "ftp" as user-name and give your name or
e-mail address as password.
To unpack the retrieved tar file in your current directory,
use the following UNIX command: