Call for proposals – semester 2019B

• We recall that every proposal within the Spanish CAT scheme must be led by a principal  investigator (PI) affiliated to an Institution in Spanish soil. 

• The start and end of the semester change with telescope as illustrated next:
  • INT, Stella:   August – January.
  • NOT, TNG, Mercator:   October – March. 
  • GTC:   September – February. 
  • Liverpool (LT):   July – February (a two-month overlap period is adopted at the start and end of each semester, when proposals from both semesters may be observed in order to reduce problems with under-filled observations queues).

• Large programs requesting observing time with LT, Mercator, Stella, and/or INT are accepted.  See below.

• Proposals in visitor mode (including those of GTC) should include a proper backup scientific program that does not require good weather conditions. The backup program is also evaluated by the CAT.

• The application http://cat.iac.es does allow to request multiple observations using different instruments and telescopes, including GTC. 

• Proposals are evaluated at the next meeting of the CAT and recommendations are made to the Director of the various Observatories/Telescopes. 

Please, read carefully the following highlights and recommendations made for each telescope and for large programs. There are IMPORTANT changes with respect to previous calls for proposals. Pay special attention to the new (latex, word, pages) form for the preparation of proposals.

To submit proposals, see “how to submit” at the end of this document.

GTC

Detailed information about the feature of GTC for this semester can be found on the GTC call for proposals. A short summary is provided next:

• In semester 2019B, no Large Programs are offered.
• HORuS, OSIRIS, EMIR, MEGARA, CANARICAM, and HiPERCAM are offered in this call. CIRCE is no longer offered. 
• HORuS high resolution spectrograph is offered as a visiting instrument starting on July 2019.
• MEGARA spectrograph of GTC that has both IFU and MOS intermediate-to-high spectral resolution capabilities, both of which are offered in the call-for-proposals.
• EMIR broad- and narrow-band imaging, long-slit and MOS spectroscopy are offered. All applicants are recommended to read the instrument manual carefully.
• OSIRIS “imaging” (broad-band, SHARDS filters, tunable filters, and NEFER),  “spectroscopy” (long-slit, MOS), and “frame transfer and fast photometry” are offered. Multi-Object Spectroscopy (MOS) observations will be part of the observing queue only if the proposals are ranked in bands A and B of the Spanish CAT final list. However, any proposal in band C that has the MOS masks already fabricated from previous semesters will be also included in the observing queue (still in band C). Applicants must indicate whether their MOS masks are to be fabricated or are available from previous semesters (there is a box named “masks” in the submission tool http://cat.iac.es). For overheads related to the various observing modes, see the GTC document. 
• HiPERCAM is a high-speed, five-band imager and a new GTC visitor instrument (Principal Investigator Vik Dhillon). It is offered quite likely between September and October, 2019. All HiPERCAM observations should be concentrated in this period.
• CANARICAM is offered on a shared risk basis between October and December 2019. 
• For the calculation of overheads, the GTC Observatory strongly recommends the use of the following Phase 2 simulator.
• Visitor programs are welcome, but will only be admitted whenever they fall in bands A and B. C-band proposals requesting visitor mode will be included in the observing queue, but are not admitted as “visitor”. The applicants must clearly indicate they are applying for visitor mode. A backup program (in visitor mode) should be defined in the case the observing conditions for the main program are not met.
• Target-of-opportunity (ToO) proposals are accepted (see here and here for further details). ToO proposals will be recommended with their corresponding priority whenever they fall in bands A and B of the ranked proposal list. ToO proposals in band C will not be approved.
• For all approved proposals (bands A, B, C, and filler), GTC Phase 2 information must be submitted to the GTC at the deadline corresponding to the semester in which the proposal is accepted.

IMPORTANT NOTES. 

• CANARICAM and HIPERCAM will likely not be available during 2020. Applicants should take advantage of this opportunity window.
• OSIRIS is expected to be dismounted at the end of 2019B, and will likely not be available in semester 2020A. The CAT will consider carefully programs that require OSIRIS for completing projects in 2019B.
• HORuS is offered for an extended period from 1st July 2019 onwards.
• The Observatory announces that the R. A. range 10 – 12 h is highly over-subscribed, whereas the R. A. interval 3 – 7 h and bright moon time are generally less demanded.

• Starting in semester 2019A, all proposals (including ToO) will be ranked in bands A, B, C, and filler. Principal Investigators of A-, B-, and C-ranked proposals and filler projects must complete GTC Phase 2 of ALL approved observations in due time. The bands assigned to each proposal are defined as follows:

  • A-band proposals have very high priority and all possible efforts will be made to execute all of the required/approved observations in the requested semester. If for any reason, A-band proposals remain unfinished by the end of the corresponding semester, the existing GTC Phase 2 will be granted an extended life-time of two additional semesters, or until its completion, whichever comes first. Unfinished A-band proposals do not have to be re-submitted in the following two semesters because of their carry-over status. Approximately one quarter (according to the CAT ranking) of the total amount of GTC available observing time falls in this band.
  • B-band proposals will be executed on a best-effort basis during the requested semester, and do not have a carry-over status. Approximately three quarters (according to the CAT ranking) of the total amount of GTC available observing time falls in this band. 
  • C-band proposals will be executed in extraordinary cases when no A- or B-band objects are available but the good weather conditions permit observations during the requested semester. C-band proposals do have very little opportunity of execution until completion of the project, yet they are included in the GTC observing queue. 
  • Filler proposals, see below.

PROTECTED OBJECTS. Due to the execution of Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) of various instrumental teams, all applicants are kindly requested to check the list of protected objects here (follow the links to the corresponding instrument). Protected objects cannot be proposed for observation by other users, unless an instrumental setup different to that of the GTO is required.

FILLER PROPOSALS: In order to have an efficient queue-scheduled observations scheme for the GTC, it is useful to have a set of “filler” programs that can be executed under adverse observing conditions (bad seeing, poor sky transmission, etc.). Filler proposals must request common-user instruments (OSIRIS, EMIR, MEGARA) with simple instrumental configurations (filler proposals should not request OSIRIS MOS or tunable filter observations) and must contain targets spanning a wide range in right ascension (RA). Filler proposals will only be executed if the observing conditions do not permit observations of proposals in A-, B-, or C-bands. Proposers may request filler status for their program, and during the proposal selection process CAT will evaluate their suitability for this category. Such proposals can request a large number of observing hours. In order to be considered as filler proposals they must fulfil the following requirements:

• Their observing requirements should be very relaxed, i.e. little or no restrictions on seeing or cloud coverage. 
• The chosen observing mode should be a frequently used mode (MOS observations are not accepted for filler programs).
• There is a scientific gain even if only a small fraction of the requested observations are executed.
• A list of targets with a broad RA coverage is provided or,  if only few targets are included, they must have good visibility during the semester.
• Filler proposals cannot contain ToOs.

Note that filler proposals have generally been highly successful in the last semesters. 

Filler proposals must be identified by ticking the “filler” box in the proposal submission tool http://cat.iac.es.