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Internal JMU TAG Call for 2009B Proposals

1600 GMT 17 March 2009 Time available and deadline

The deadline for submission is 30 April 2009. The time available to eligible applicants allocated by the next JMU-TAG meeting will be about 220 hours for 09B, including over-allocation and 60 hours (TBC) for long-running programs.

Proposal process

Applications are submitted in two phases:

Phase 1 - science definition

Phase 1 proposals are sent to the TAG outlining the science case for observation. Please specify a "minimum usable fraction" (see below). See here for full instructions on how to prepare and submit your Phase 1 proposal.

Phase 2 - observation specification phase

Successful proposals are entered into the observing queue with one of three rankings:

A High priority programme. The TAG would like to see 100% completion of the observations.
B Medium priority programme. The TAG would like to see at least the MUF (Minimum Usable Fraction) of observations obtained, provided this does not impact of the completion of priority A programmes.
C Low priority programmes. These programmes are used to over-subscribe the observing queue so that the telescope is not idle. If observations are started for a programme then the scheduling software should aim to obtain at least the MUF of the observations, but not at the expense of completion of priority A or B programmes. There is generally additional time available for band C programmes, spread equally across all observing conditions. Some programmes may have time split between the above rankings.
Instrument availability

The instruments available are RATCam, SupIRCAM, RINGO, FRODOspec and RISE.

  • RATCam is an optical CCD camera with a 4.6 x 4.6 arcmin field of view (0.135 arcsec/pixel unbinned).
  • SupIRCAM is an infrared camera operating at J or H band with a 1.7 x 1.7 arcmin field of view (0.4 arcsec/pixel).
  • RINGO is an optical polarimeter (4600-7200 AA at FWHM) that can measure polarization on timescales of ~10s.
  • FRODOSpec:
    • is the new IFU spectrograph using an input array consisting of an 11 x 11 lenslet array (0.93"x0.93" each, i.e., 10"x10" field of view). The wavelength coverage is 3800-10000Å at R~2400 in one exposure (using two beams), or using reduced wavelength coverage in each beam at R~5400.
    • is currently being commissioned. Potential users should contact the LT Support Astronomer and monitor any instrument updates via the FRODOspec page prior to a proposal submission.
  • RISE is a fast-readout camera. It has a fixed "V+R" filter and reimaging optics giving a 7 x 7 arcmin field of view. An e2V frame transfer detector is used to obtain a cycle time of less than 1 second.
  • RINGO and FrodoSpec are considered to be expert user instruments. Potential users should contact the LT Support Astronomer directly to discuss the capability of the instrument and feasibility of the observing programme before submitting an observing proposal. You are welcome to contact the support astronomer for other instruments as well.

Full information on the instruments is available here.

Telescope performance
  • The current rms pointing of the LT is 6 arcsec.
  • The current tracking performance provides seeing-limited images (FWHM < 0.8 arcsec) for exposures up to 1 minute without the autoguider (open loop) and up to 30 minutes with the auto-guider (closed loop). Individual exposures with the autoguider are limited to 30 minutes.

Ivan Baldry
LT JMU TAG chair