Checklist for GMOS Phase I proposals

• Instrument configuration:
  • Is the filter (for imaging) and the filter, slit and grating (for spectroscopy) specified in the proposal instrument resource list?
  • Is the grating you need available?
  • Does your choice of slit and grating give appropriate spectral resolution and wavelength coverage?
• Telescope peripheral wavefront sensors:
  • It is not recommended to use the peripheral wavefront sensors with GMOS in most cases. Have you made sure that an OIWFS guide star is selected?
• On-instrument wavefront sensor
  • Have checked for vignetting caused by the OIWFS?
  • Will your OIWFS guide star likely be accessible at all dither positions?
• Calibrations:
  • Are the baseline calibrations sufficient? If not, what additional calibration data are required for your program?
  • Is photometry better than 5% needed? If so, have appropriate photometric observations been included?
  • Is absolute spectrophotometric calibration needed? If so, have appropriate spectroscopic standard star observations been included?
  • Is accurate removal of telluric lines needed? If so, have telluric standard stars been inlcuded?
  • Has sufficient observing time been requested for additional calibrations?
• Observing time:
  • Did you confirm the exposure time and S/N using the GMOS Integration Time Calculator (North or South)?
  • Did you adjust the observing conditions specified for the GMOS Integration Time Calculator (North or South) to match your requested conditions?
  • Are overheads included in the time requested in your proposal?
  • If you propose to use Nod-and-Shuffle on GMOS North, you need to add the additional overheads for Nod-and-Shuffle to the time requested.
  • Have overheads been included for additional calibrations?
  • If many very short exposures are needed, you may need to include larger overheads to account for the lower observing efficiency.
  • If accurate centering of the slit on the target is essential, have appropriate overheads been included to allow periodic checks of the slit centering?
• Observing conditions requested (for queue-scheduled observations):
  • Is the expected image quality (scaled to the airmass of your target) sufficient for your program? What is the minimum image quality necessary for the science?
  • What level of cloud cover is acceptable? Is photometric weather required?
  • Is dark time required?
  • Note the product of the probabilities of each of the conditions listed above. You might wish to reconsider the minimum requirements of your program, and/or consider submitting your project as a queue-scheduled observation.
• Recheck the observing conditions requested!

Last update: June 15, 2005; Bryan Miller
Previous version: June 25, 2003; Inger Jørgensen