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Semester 2010B Call For Proposals

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Gemini Observatory invites its community to propose scientific investigations for the 2010B semester, 1 August 2010 - 31 January 2011. The Call is open to all partners.

The submission deadline is WEDNESDAY MARCH 31 2010. 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. Multi-partner joint proposals should be submitted by the deadline of the partner country to which the Principal Investigator is affiliated.

The purpose of this page is to highlight the most relevant information for the 2010B 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 2010B


General
Relevant milestones for 2010B can be found in the 2010B schedule. The deadline for Phase I submission is March 31 2010 (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 July 12th 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 2010B are, for Gemini North 17 < RA < 13.5 and -37 < dec < +79, and for Gemini South 16 < RA < 12 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 programs at Gemini North.
In 2010B instrument access to ports is complex at both telescopes, due to planned engineering, instrument upgrades and commissioning. Details are given in the telescopes sections below. Although this Call does not restrict RA availability for any of the instruments, it is expected that access will need to be restricted once the engineering schedule is known and the demand is determined at the International Time Allocation Committee meeting.
The community should note that the Observatory requires proposals which use the full range of observing conditions. This includes proposals that can use cloudy CC90 conditions, which implies a loss of signal of between 30% (CC70) and a factor of 6.
The Phase I Tool (PIT) is updated for 2010B; See the PIT page for downloads and important information. Starting in 2010B word limits will be imposed for the abstract, science and technical justification sections for PIT submissions to all partners. The limits are 200, 1000 and 1000 words respectively.
Gemini North
It is expected that 85% of the semester will be available for science. This amounts to 156 nights and includes 12 nights for GNIRS science verification (SV) and 1.5 nights for demonstration science with the upgraded GMOS-N. These nights are distributed across the partnership. A list of instruments and capabilities is given below.
A later call will be made for SV proposals for GNIRS.
GMOS-North is expected to be available with new red-sensitive CCDs from 1 December 2010. Proposals are welcomed which can take advantage of the improved red response, and the new Z and Y filters, for targets with 2 < RA < 13.5. Proposals for which the improved red response is necessary should not be submitted for targets with 17 < RA < 2. The Integration Time Calculator will be available for both the new and old detectors. Time requests for targets with 17 < RA < 2 should be based on the old detectors, and those for targets with 2 < RA < 13.5 should be based on the new detectors. The instrument will be unavailable for a four week period during the detector upgrade.
Michelle will most likely only be available for two short periods during the semester, depending on demand.
Gemini South
It is expected that 76% of the time will be available for science use on Gemini South in 2010B. This amounts to 140 nights, and includes 18 nights of NICI campaign science. 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.
The telescope will be shut down for 24 nights for mirror coating, probably during September to October 2010.
Phoenix and T-ReCS may be unavailable late in the semester (not before November 2010) due to MCAO commissioning.
NICI, the AO-fed Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager, will be available to the community in 2010B in the L band, on a shared risk basis. The M band is not useful due to saturation when using the broadband filter. Note that the good observing conditions required for NICI are much more likely in the second half of the semester. See below for other restrictions.
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: August 17 - 30, October 16 - 27 and December 14 - 25. 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 - October 17 - 26 or December 16 - 24,
grey - December 11 - 15,
dark - November 2 - 8 or December 31 - January 6.
The final schedule is dependent on allocation and instrument availability.
Note that Subaru may be closed between August and September. 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.
    • 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 the Laser Guide Star AO web pages for important performance information and restrictions. Note that LGS observations must specify "Laser guide star" in the AO 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%.
    • 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.
  • See the target accessibility page for important information regarding instrument availability and a plot of accessible RA and Declination. For Semester 2010B targets must be limited to 17 < RA < 13.5, 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 - 0.36-0.95 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 2010B NICI is offered for community use for both coronagraphic and non-coronagraphic imaging. The L band is available on a shared risk basis. 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 .
    • Visitor instruments:
      • Phoenix - 1-5 micron high spectral resolution (R~50000 - 75000) spectrometer. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately K=12.5.
    • See the target accessibility page for important information regarding instrument availability and a plot of accessible RA and Declination. For Semester 2010B targets must be limited to 16 < RA < 12, 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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