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Call for Proposals
PERIOD 68: OCTOBER 1, 2023 - APRIL 1, 2024

The Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) invites applications for observing time in Period 68, October 1, 2023 - April 1, 2024

The deadline for receipt of the applications is: Monday, May 29, 2023, 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:

  • As maintained in the new organization, 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 the Partner institutions, 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 programs (≤ 4 hours) using fixed instrument set-ups are welcome at any time (see http://www.not.iac.es/observing/service/). The Fast-Track program is a service that is provided free of cost to researchers affiliated with a Partner institution. It also incorporates a system to compensate regular observing programs for time lost due to interruptions by observations for Target-of-Opportunity or Monitoring programs.

  • One of the special features of the NOT is the possibility to have “Target of Opportunity” (ToO) and “Monitoring” observing programs, and several such programs will likely be granted time in Period 68. Applicants for regular observing programs (in visitor mode or service mode) who consider that having ToO programs possibly overriding their observations, or having Monitoring observations scheduled in nights allocated to their program is a (potential) problem for their program, should state so in the proposal, indicating the reasons. It is noted that any observing program affected by ToO or Monitoring observations will be offered full compensation in service mode using our fast-track system.

  • 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 an Trans-National Program if possible (see below), and the total time allocated to 'foreign' projects will be limited to ~15% of the Nordic time.

    Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their proposal as soon as possible after the evaluation by the NOT Observing Programs 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. Programs requiring service mode observing, or propose a Monitoring, Target-of-Opportunity (ToO) or similar projects, 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 68 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 68:

    • The double image polarimeter DIPol-UF continuous to be 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 also 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 ORP (OPTICON-RadioNet Pilot) Trans-National Access Program 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 https://orp-h2020.eu/optical-telescope-transnational-access for the next deadline and all details on this program.

    7: The ChETEC-INFRA Trans-National Access Program provides access to telescopes for astronomical observations, nuclear laboratories to measure nuclear properties and rates, and supercomputers to compute complex stellar models aimed at Nuclear astrophysics research. There is call for ChETEC-INFRA TNA proposals each 3 months, but in principle only the calls in May and November are open for proposals for the observing time at the NOT in the semesters October to March, and April to September, respectively. (Any proposal to the NOT submitted at the other deadlines will only be considered for allocation in the subsequent proposal round). See https://www.chetec-infra.eu/tna/ for details on this program.

    April 28, 2023
    T. Augusteijn
    Director, NOT


    Retrieving the NOTFORM package

    WWW:

    Unpacking the package:

    To unpack the retrieved tar file in your current directory, use the following UNIX command:

    • tar xvf NOTFORM-68.tar