Semester 2010A Call For Proposals
You are here
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
|
Gemini South: Facilities
|
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.