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Semester 2010A Call For Proposals

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Gemini Observatory invites its community to propose scientific investigations for the 2010A semester, 1 February 2010 - 31 July 2010. The Call is open to all partners.

The submission deadline is WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 30 2009 for all partners. Applications should be submitted via your national Gemini proposal process. Submission times and other details vary by partner; please consult your National Gemini Office pages for more information. Joint proposals must adhere to the deadline (and other requirements) applicable to the partner country of the institution to which the Principal Investigator is affiliated.

The purpose of this page is to highlight the most relevant information for the 2010A call. Significant additional information is contained on supporting pages; users are encouraged to follow the links for more detailed information. If hardcopy is preferred, the primary pages are available as a single pdf document.


Highlights for 2010A


General
Relevant milestones for 2010A can be found in the 2010A schedule. The deadline for Phase I submission is September 30 2009 (Poor weather and Director's Discretionary Time proposals are accepted at any time via the Phase I Tool), and for successful proposals the Phase II submission deadline is January 15th 2010. Both queue and classical Phase IIs must be submitted by this deadline.
Target accessibility limits will be imposed, so as not to bias the queue at the start or end of the semester. The target accessibility limits for 2010A are, for Gemini North 4 < RA < 1 and -37 < dec < +79, and for Gemini South 5 < RA < 2 and -89 < dec < +28. There are additional constraints if a program requires unrestricted access (e.g. MOS observations requiring pre-imaging, long observations or observations with strict constraints), and also for LGS, T-ReCS and Michelle programs.
A later call will be made for Science Verification (SV) proposals for Flamingos-2 at Gemini South. SV time for Flamingos-2 has been reserved in 2010A but this is contingent on the 2009B/2010A commissioning. The SV call for GNIRS at Gemini North is delayed to 2010B, with commissioning planned for 2010A. The GMOS-North detectors are scheduled to be replaced in late 2010A. All 2010A GMOS-N observations must be planned using the current detector specifications. Please check the updates on these activities given in the instrument web pages.
Six Subaru instruments are available to the Gemini community in 2010A, for a total of 5 to 10 classical nights depending on demand, through the Gemini-Subaru Exchange program described below.
The Phase I Tool (PIT) is updated for 2010A; See the PIT page for downloads and important information.
Gemini North
It is expected that 80% of the semester will be available for science, or 145 nights including 1.5 nights for a delayed Compensatory Time program. These nights are distributed across the partnership. A list of instruments and capabilities is given below.
The Laser Guide System (LGS) is available with NIRI and NIFS. LGS observations must specify "Laser guide star" in the Adaptive Optics resources section in the PIT, and must request Cloud Cover = 50% and Image Quality = 70%. Faint tip tilt stars will also require darker skies: 17.5 < R < 18 needs SB=80%, 18 < R < 18.5 needs SB=50%. Because of the limited availability and the need for good weather, only LGS programs ranked in bands 1 and 2 will be recommended by the ITAC. Up to 200 hours will be available in 2010A for LGS queue observations (LGS mode is expected to be available 7-14 nights per month).
Gemini South
It is expected that 80% of the semester will be available for science, or 145 nights including 18 nights for the NICI Campaign and 8 nights for Flamingos-2 Science Verification. These nights are distributed across the partnership. A list of instruments and capabilities is given below. Due to the need to balance the queue, and the traditionally high demand for GMOS-S dark time programs, bright time programs on Gemini South are particularly encouraged.
NICI, the AO-fed Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager, will be available to the community in 2010A in both queue and classical mode for both coronagraphic and non-coronagraphic imaging, excluding the L and M bands. See below for other restrictions. Community observations of the NICI Campaign targets with NICI are not permitted.
Exchange
Up to 5 bright/gray nights of classical time are available with the HIRES optical spectrograph on Keck. The requested nights must be within the following windows with a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 2 nights in any one window: February 20 - March 6, March 21 - April 4 and June 19 - July 5. Proposals should be submitted via the normal Gemini process. All proposers for Keck time must also complete the Keck cover page. Email this page to your NTAC chair. [more information]
5 to 10 classical nights are available on Subaru with COMICS (mid-infrared camera and spectrograph), FOCAS (optical faint object camera and spectrograph), HDS (optical high dispersion spectrograph), IRCS (infrared camera and spectrograph, with Natural Guide Star Adaptive Optics capability), MOIRCS (near-infrared imager and multi-object spectrograph) and Suprime-Cam (wide field optical imager). The Subaru nights will be distributed across bright, grey and dark periods with typically 2 or 3 nights in each of these moon phases, depending on the total number of nights allocated. A minimum of 1 and a maximum of 4 nights can be requested in the following windows only:
bright - May 23-June 3 or June 20-30,
grey - February 19 - 23,
dark - March 12-19 or April 10-16.
Due to the constraints of instrument scheduling on Subaru, requested dates may not be matched exactly.
Proposals should be submitted via the normal Gemini process. [more information]

Additional Information

Details of the capabilities available at each Gemini telescope are given below. Please see the page of supporting information for additional general information.


Gemini North: Facilities

  • All instruments are offered in queue and classical mode, except for Laser Guide Star AO which is queue mode only.
  • Facility instruments:
    • GMOS North - 0.36-1.10 micron imager and spectrograph: imaging and long-slit, multi-object and integral field spectroscopy. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately R=26 for imaging and R=21-23 for spectroscopy.
    • NIRI - 1-5 micron imager and low-resolution spectrograph: imaging and spectroscopy fed with the direct or AO-corrected beam. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately K=23 for imaging and K=18 for spectroscopy.
    • NIFS - 0.95-2.40 micron integral field unit spectrograph: IFU spectroscopy fed with the direct or AO-corrected beam. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately K=18.7. NIFS will be available between March and June. Currently the on-instrument wavefront sensor is not fully functional which can lead to uncorrected flexure, compromising the coronographic mode in particular. We expect this to be fixed by 2010A but check the NIFS OIWFS page for updates.
    • Altair - facility AO system: for use with NIRI (except M band imaging and L & M band spectroscopy) and NIFS.
      • Natural Guide Star AO: Traditional adaptive optics guiding on a nearby star.
      • See Laser Guide Star AO for important performance information and restrictions.
    • Michelle - 7-26 micron spectrograph and imager: imaging and R=100-3000 and echelle spectroscopy; imaging polarimetry is also available. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately N=11 for imaging and N=6-9 for spectroscopy. Michelle will be available in February and July only and targets should be limited to 5 < RA hrs < 1.
  • See the target accessibility page for important information regarding instrument availability and a plot of accessible RA and Declination. For Semester 2010A targets must be limited to 4 < RA < 1, and -37 < dec < +79, the LGS system has a stricter elevation constraint of >40 degrees.

  • Gemini South: Facilities

    • All instruments are offered in queue and classical mode.
    • Facility instruments:
      • GMOS South - 0.36-1.10 micron imager and spectrograph: imaging and long-slit, multi-object and integral field spectroscopy. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately R=26 for imaging and R=21-23 for spectroscopy. GMOS South has slightly better sensitivity in the UV and blue than GMOS North.
      • NICI - 1-5 micron dual-channel coronagraphic imager: In 2010A NICI is offered for community use for both coronagraphic and non-coronagraphic imaging, excluding the L and M bands. AO guiding on extended targets (up to 0.8") is available on a shared risk-basis. For coronagraphic imaging the occulted target should also be the AO guide target. The Campaign Targets are not available for community NICI observations. Constraints must be at least as good as Cloud Cover = 50% and Image Quality = 70%.
      • T-ReCS - 8-26 micron imager and spectrograph: imaging and moderate resolution (R=100 and R=1000) spectroscopy. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately N=11 for imaging and N=8 for spectroscopy. T-ReCS will only be available during the drier months of April to July, with instrument swaps during this period driven by demand. Targets should be limited to 8 < RA hrs < 2. .
    • Visitor instruments:
      • Phoenix - 1-5 micron high spectral resolution (R~50000 - 75000) spectrometer. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately K=12.5. Phoenix availability may be limited in the second half of the semester due to commissioning of MCAO/GSAOI.
    • See the target accessibility page for important information regarding instrument availability and a plot of accessible RA and Declination. For Semester 2010A targets must be limited to 5 < RA < 2, and -89 < dec < +28.

    Questions and Answers

    All questions concerning proposals, or any other subject, should be made using the Gemini HelpDesk. This web-based system will send the request to your National Gemini Office staff in the first instance who will then escalate it to Gemini staff if necessary.

    Comments and suggestions on the format and content of this page and supporting pages are welcome, and should be sent to Sandy Leggett.




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