Call for Proposals PERIOD 62: OCTOBER 1, 2020 - APRIL 1, 2021
The Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) invites applications for observing
time in Period 62, October 1, 2020 - April 1, 2021
The deadline for receipt of the applications is:
Monday, June 1, 2020, at UT 12:00 noon.
The Call for Proposals is also available in the following formats:
Retrieving the NOTFORM package
Important notice
As you may know, the NOT and its operations is being transferred to Aarhus University (AU), Denmark, and the University of Turku (UTU), Finland. This process is expected to be finalized soon. The new organization for operating the telescope is a research collaboration between partners in the Nordic countries. The telescope will continue to operate in a way similar to how it has operated in the past and also the new organization will offer access to the telescope for astronomers in Denmark, Finland and Norway as well as astronomers from the University of Iceland and Stockholm University - the partners in the new organization. The Swedish Research Council no longer fund operations of the NOT, and access to observing time is 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 organization, the share of observing time for
applicants will be proportional to the contributions from the
different Partners. Given the current situation, the option to do
observing runs in visitor mode will likely be limited and, for the
time being, the starting point will be that the observing runs
will be done in service mode. For observations to be done in
service mode, a contribution to the operational cost is 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.
The Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) and NOT telescopes on La Palma
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:
-
Due to a maintenance work, GIANO-B will probably not be available for
three months from mid-January 2021 onwards.
-
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 time allocated
based on the agreement to operate the telescope at the ORM observatory
(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 62 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 62:
-
Work is continuing to further improve the stability for
radial-velocity measurements with FIES. The FIES grating has been
mounted in a vacuum enclosure, making the spectrograph immune to the
large wavelength shifts (of order km/s) caused by the changing
pressure of Earth’s atmosphere. In addition, a new tunable Fabry–Pérot
Etalon calibration unit (TFP) will be installed, which should provide
an ultra-precise calibration source used to set the velocity zero
point of the instrument. The current approach using a Th-Ar lamp has
several severe disadvantages (strongly non-uniform flux of emission
lines and drifts in line positions). A TFP calibration source will
alleviate these issues, providing further stabilization of the
spectrograph.
-
The double image polarimeter DIPol-UF is now available as a visitor
instrument at the NOT. It allows for high-speed and high-precision
broad-band polarimetry simultaneously in 3 pass-bands (BVR), but can
also be used as a high-speed 3-band photometer. DIPol-UF is not a
common-user instrument, but is only supported during specific
periods. See for more information:
http://www.not.iac.es/instruments/dipol-uf
-
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 30, 2020
T. Augusteijn
Director, NOT
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-62.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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