Call for proposals – semester 2023A

• 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.  GTC Spanish/UF proposals can have either a Spanish or Florida PI, and must include co-Investigators (co-Is) from both communities (see below).

• The start and end of the semester change with telescope as illustrated next:

  • INT, Stella: February – July.

  • NOT, TNG, Mercator: April – September.

  • GTC:   March – August.

  • Liverpool (LT):   January – August (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 TNG, LT, Mercator, NOT, and/or Stella are accepted. See below.

• Proposals requiring visitor mode (including GTC) should include a proper backup scientific program that does not demand good weather conditions. The backup program is also scientifically addressed by the CAT.

• The application http://cat.iac.es allows you to request multiple observations using different instruments and telescopes, including GTC, in one single proposal. 

• Proposals are evaluated at the next meeting of the CAT (November 2022). Recommendations will be made to the Director of the various Observatories/Telescopes in December 2022.

Please, read carefully the following highlights and recommendations made for each telescope and for large programs. There are IMPORTANT changes (e.g.,TNG, instruments unavailability, remote observing at GTC) 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 is available here.

HIGHLIGHTS

• OSIRIS (see below), EMIR, and MEGARA are offered in this call.
• OSIRIS is offered at the Cassegrain focus station and with the new monolithic CCD. The arrival of the OSIRIS new monolithic detector is expected in October 2022, but the date of its installation is unknown at the time of writing this call for proposals. OSIRIS “imaging” (broad-band, SHARDS filters, and tunable filters),  “spectroscopy” (long-slit, MOS), and “frame transfer and fast photometry” are offered, the latter only in visitor mode. 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 proposal submission tool).
• The MEGARA integral-field unit (IFU) is offered. The MOS mode will not be offered due to foreseen upgrades on the MOS positioners.
• EMIR is offered on a shared-risk basis. EMIR stand down for instrument maintenance works and installation of the new H2RG detector is planned for late 2022 – early 2023. Any unexpected delay will impact the schedule of 2023A. EMIR is offered with the new H2RG detector. EMIR broad- and narrow-band imaging, long-slit and MOS spectroscopy are the offered observing modes in 2023A. All applicants are recommended to read the instrument manual carefully. Very importantly, the time needed to perform EMIR night-time calibrations (e.g., observations of telluric standard stars, wavelength calibration, etc.) will be charged to the observing programs. Therefore, applicants must include all the time needed to perform theses calibrations together with the time needed for the science observations in the total requested telescope time in their proposals.
• For the calculation of overheads, the GTC Observatory strongly recommends the use of the following Phase 2 simulator. Further information on the calculation of overheads is provided in the GTC call for proposals.
• Visitor programs are very welcome, but will only be admitted whenever they fall in bands A and B. In addition, a backup program (in visitor mode) has to be defined in the case the observing conditions for the main program are not met.  C-band proposals requesting visitor mode will be included in the observing queue, but are not admitted as “visitor”. The applicants must clearly indicate if they are applying for visitor mode or “remote visitor mode” (see below).
• Target-of-opportunity (ToO) proposals are accepted (read carefully the ToO policy at GTC and as well as the GTC ToO page 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. ToO proposals do not have carry-over status.
• 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.
• No “large programs” requiring GTC data are accepted in this call for proposals. 
• SPANISH/UF TIME: Up to 1.25% of the GTC observing time is reserved for collaborative proposals between Spanish and University of Florida astronomers. To send proposals under this agreement, select the Special Agreement“Spanish/UF Time” in the CAT application tool. 

• After publication of the GTC data, all PIs will be contacted by the CAB, CSIC-INTA, archive staff and invited to send their reduced data products for public release to the astronomical community through the GTC archive.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

• The Observatory announces that the R. A. range 12 – 14 h is highly over-subscribed, whereas the R. A. interval 19 – 23 h and bright moon time are generally less demanded. Programs that can use bright moon time and/or have targets with R. A. between 19 and 23 h do compete for less oversubscribed telescope time and regions of the sky. They will have higher probability of being executed at the telescope.
• The Observatory encourages users to request Visitor Mode observations provided their programs benefit from this mode. The Observatory has successfully implemented a “flextime” mode intended to increase the efficiency of the visitor programs. 
• Starting in semester 2020B, Remote Visitor Mode is also supported at GTC. Users interested in using this mode must declare it by ticking the “Remote visitor mode” button when filling in the electronic form of their proposal.
• 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 can request common-user instruments (EMIR, MEGARA) with simple instrumental configurations (filler proposals should not request complex observations that demand non-standard instrumental modes). These programs 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 .
• There is a scientific gain even if only a small fraction of the requested observations are executed.
• A list of targets with a broad R.A. coverage is provided or,  if only few targets are included, they must have good visibility during the semester.
• Filler proposals cannot contain Target of Opportunity (ToO) targets.

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.