Call for Proposals
PERIOD 69: APRIL 1, 2024 - OCTOBER 1, 2024
The Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) invites applications for observing
time in Period 69, April 1, 2024 - October 1, 2024
The deadline for receipt of the applications is:
Monday, November 27, 2023, at UT 12:00
noon.
The Call for Proposals is also available in the
following formats:
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 69.
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 69 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 69:
-
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.
November 3, 2023
T. Augusteijn
Director, NOT
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