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Call for Proposals for Period 93

1. 13 Part II Proposal Types Policies and Procedures 4 Proposal Types For Period 93 the list of proposal types is e Normal Programmes Monitoring Programmes Large Programmes Target of Opportunity Guaranteed Time Observations Calibration Programmes e Director s Discretionary Time All proposals except Director s Discretionary Time DDT proposals must be submitted by the current deadline DDT proposals may be submitted at any time Only the Normal and Large Programme template forms should be used for the preparation of proposals An observing programme as described in a single proposal may consist of several runs e g for observations with different instruments or to be executed in different observing modes or at different epochs for Visitor Mode observations Proposals for Visitor Mode observations Section 5 1 must request time in nights proposals for Service Mode observations Section 5 2 must request time in hours Note that any given proposal may request a mix of Visitor Service Mode observations provided that they are split into separate runs The definition of a single run differs for Service Mode and Visitor Mode observations further guidelines are available in Section 2 2 1 e Please note All proposers Service and Visitor Mode must include time for all overheads telescope instrument in their proposals see the Overheads webpage 4 1 Normal Programmes Most of the observing time on ESO telescope
2. ESO Call for Proposals P93 Proposal Deadline 01 October 2013 12 00 noon CEST Call for Proposals ESO Period 93 Proposal Deadline 1 October 2013 12 00 noon Central European Summer Time Issued 2 September 2013 Preparation of the ESO Call for Proposals is the responsibility of the ESO Observing Programmes Office OPO For questions regarding preparation and submission of proposals to ESO telescopes please contact the ESO Observing Programmes Office opo eso org The ESO Call for Proposals document is a fully linked pdf file with bookmarks that can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader 4 0 or higher Internal document links appear in red and external links appear in blue Links are clickable and will navigate the reader through the document internal links or will open a web browser external links ESO Call for Proposals Editor Gaitee A J Hussain Approved _____ Tim de Zeeuw Director General Contents I 1 Phase 1 Instructions ESO Proposals Invited 1 1 Important recent changes since Periods 91 and 92 1 2 Important reminders 1 3 Foreseen changes in the upcoming periods Getting Started 2 1 Exposure Time Calculators 2 2 The ESOFORM Proposal package 2 2 1 ESOFORM Important notes 2 3 Proposal Submission 6 Visitor Instruments II Proposal Types Policies and Procedures 4 Proposal Types 4 1 Normal Progra
3. For La Silla instruments LPs can span up to Period 97 e A good organisational structure of the proposing team availability of resources and relevant expertise must be demonstrated e ToO programmes cannot be submitted as Large Programmes Section 4 4 A special TEX template must be used for Large Programmes Section 2 2 The proposers may use a total of three pages not including figures for the four sections of the scientific description A Scientific Rationale B Immediate Objective C Telescope Justification D Observing Mode Justification Visitor or Service An additional 2 pages of attachments are permitted Proposers of Large Programmes should keep in mind that the entire OPC hence also non experts in a specific field as well as the specialised OPC panels will be evaluating their proposal and that they should clearly explain the relevance of the proposed programme to general astrophysics If a Large Programme proposal contains runs requesting La Silla telescopes and instruments the duration of each such run must be at least 3 nights Proposers should be aware that the PIs of successful proposals for Large Programmes are required to provide all data products processed images and spectra catalogues to the ESO archive by the time their scientific results are published in a refereed journal Guidelines for the submission of these data products including a description of the required metadata and formats can be found at
4. and may be asked to switch from Service Mode to Visitor Mode or vice versa In general runs requiring non standard configurations will only be accepted in Visitor Mode 6 4 Observing programme execution Observations in both Visitor and Service Mode must be executed as described in the Phase 1 proposal including the instrument modes and specified targets Departures from Phase 1 specifi cations and targets will not generally be allowed unless a sound scientific justification exists and provided that the change does not involve a significant increase in the pressure factor on oversub scribed regions of the sky The request for changes of targets and instrument set up s along with the corresponding scientific justification must be submitted via the web based form available at http www eso org sci observing phase2 ProgChange For any other departure from Phase 1 specifications a justification must be provided in writing to paranal eso org at least one month before the beginning of the observations for runs scheduled in Visitor Mode For Service Mode runs these requests and associated justifications must be sub mitted to usd help eso org or to p2pp waiver eso org clear instructions are available at http www eso org sci observing phase2 SMGuidelines WaiverChanges html at least one week before the Phase 2 deadline also see Section 6 5 ESO reserves the right to reject the changes if they are insufficiently justified confli
5. http www eso org sci facilities lpo cfp html APEX For a detailed description of the APEX instrument capabilities and links to observing time calculators see the APEX instrumentation page During Period 93 the ESO time slots are expected to be scheduled in late March mid June and late July The exact distribution of the observing time between the APEX partners can be found on the APEX web pages Time critical observations should only be requested during the ESO runs Large Programmes with APEX using Poor PWV conditions In order to make the best use of the time where the PWV is high PWV gt 2 mm ESO invites Large Programmes for those conditions Poor PWV large programmes must be clearly identified as such in Boxes 5 and 8 of the large programme proposal form Ideally a Poor PWV LP Programme therefore consists of a large sample of targets covering a wide RA range The proposal must demonstrate that the scientific goals can be reached with only a significant subset of the observations completed Poor PWV LPs may cover up to 4 consecutive semesters SABOCA In Period 93 SABOCA may only be available in June and July 2014 ESO may decide to execute accepted SABOCA programmes with ARTEMIS instead if the first commissioning of the ARTEMIS instrument shows a better performance at 350 um SHFETI x APEX 1 Large proposals for PWV gt 2mm conditions are encouraged x APEX T2 APEX T2 is offered conditional to a
6. 2 Pending successful commissioning the redshift z and Early Universe Spectrometer ZEUS 2 may be offered as a PI instrument during future periods ZEUS 2 is a broad band spectrograph covering 7 telluric windows covering 200 to 850um For details see Ferkinhoff et_al 2010 2 Getting Started Observing proposals must contain a scientific case a summary of the proposed observing programme a list of desired instrument modes and configurations a target list and a precise definition of required observing conditions seeing atmospheric transparency lunar illumination etc In addition a calculation of the number of hours nights of observing time needed to accomplish the scientific goals must be carried out and summarized in the proposal It is therefore important that proposers consult technical documentation or instrument experts regarding the instrument capabilities and sensitivities The overheads webpage provides more details on how calculate overheads with different instrument setups using the Phase 2 Preparation Tool P2PP The definitions of the observing conditions for Phase 1 and Phase 2 can be found on the Observing Conditions webpage The following sections give some additional information and references that should be useful to proposers 2 1 Exposure Time Calculators Exposure Time Calculators ETCs for ESO instruments are accessible directly on the ESO Web For La Silla and Paranal instrumentation http
7. Failure to comply with this restriction may lead to the rejection by ESO of the corresponding proposals All valid proposals received by ESO prior to the submission deadline will be reviewed by the OPC who will rank them according to the scientific merit of the proposal and the importance of its contribution to the advancement of scientific knowledge Furthermore proposals should provide evidence that the proposing individual or team have the expertise and sufficient resources to carry out the analysis Proposals should be self contained The evaluation will be based solely on their contents to the exclusion of external references For non member state proposals Section 4 9 the following additional criteria will be taken into account e The required telescope instrumentation is not available at any other observatory accessible to the applicants e If an ESO member state proposal and a non member state proposal are rated equally prefer ence will be given to the ESO member state proposal The following policy extracted from the agreement between ESO and its host state Chile governs the allocation of time to Host State Proposals Section 4 8 Chilean scientists who present 24 meritorious projects shall have the right to obtain up to 10 of the observing time of ESO tele scopes For VLT projects at least one half of this 10 shall be dedicated to projects of Chilean astronomers in cooperation with astronomers of ESO member cou
8. Mode In Visitor Mode VM the astronomer is physically present at the observatory during the obser vations Each approved VM run will be allocated specific calendar nights One of the programme investigators will travel to the Observatory and execute the observations Visitor Mode is not offered on VST VISTA or APEX For all ESO instruments data acquisition will be done by executing Observation Blocks OBs i e observing sequences specified by the astronomer that are based on templates provided by ESO VM investigators will be encouraged to construct their OBs before arriving on the site using P2PP At the telescope OBs can be created or further modified in real time with the exception of VIMOS MOS and FORS2 MXU mode VM investigators will be required to arrive on Paranal before the start of their observing run as follows 24 hours for UVES and 48 hours for all other instruments On La Silla Visiting Astronomers shall arrive 1 to 2 days before the start of the observations and may leave the site up to 1 to 2 days after the end of their observing run according to the transportation schedule see the La Silla Science Operations page Note that programmes must be executed as specified and approved at Phase 1 The proposer should prepare a backup alternative programme to be executed in place of the primary programme if the observing conditions are not ideal The original science case and goals should be followed Such backup programmes must be appr
9. a VLT programme requiring pre imaging If this is not specified in the proposal the time needed for the execution of the pre imaging will be deducted from the total allocation of the project Pre imaging runs are always scheduled in priority class A but must be specified as pre imaging runs as this will not occur automatically Please be sure to indicate the pre imaging character of the run by using the corresponding INSconfig macro in the BTEX ESOFORM template 6 7 Data rights archiving data distribution All data obtained with ESO facilities are ESO property ESO grants a 12 month proprietary period for science and acquisition data to the PI of the programme as part of which these data were obtained This period applies to each data file individually The proprietary period starts as soon as the data is made available to the PI or respective delegates via the ESO Science Archive Facility Should you wish to specify a shorter period than the nominal 12 months in Period 93 please do so using the ProprietaryTime macro in the BIEX ESOFORM template Raw data of Public Surveys calibration and technical data are not subject to a proprietary period and become publicly available as soon as they are ingested in the ESO Archive For Visiting Astronomers raw data will in general be made available before astronomers leave the observatory site For both Visitor Mode and Service Mode observations raw science data and 26 associated calibration data
10. needed to observe one target in one period should be included in one single run these can be split into the single epoch observations using a time linked series in version 3 of the Phase 2 Preparation Tool P2PP see Section 5 2 1 for more information Rapid Response Mode RRM FORS2 UVES XSHOOTER and SINFONI continue to be offered in this mode in Period 93 RRM observations that correspond to events with exceptional characteristics may be activated during either Service Mode or Visitor Mode runs over which they have observational priority unless the Service or Visitor mode runs involve strictly time critical observations For details on the RRM policies see Section 4 4 1 VISTA Due to ongoing Public Surveys only a limited amount of open time is available on VISTA these observations are carried out in Service Mode only and for restricted Right Ascension ranges Open time proposals should clearly justify the scientific goals and why they are not achievable through the scheduled public survey observations Only those proposals that have complementary constraints and coordinate ranges with respect to public survey observations may be scheduled as the highest priority is given to advance public surveys on VISTA Calibration Plans ESO has implemented calibration plans for all Paranal instruments The primary purposes of these plans are to assure data quality monitor instrument performance and calibrate science observations Based on these
11. plans calibration data are obtained for certain standard instrument modes on a regular basis Paranal calibration data are reviewed on a daily basis by Paranal Science Operations and the Garching Data Processing and Quality Control group A brief summary of the calibration plan for each instrument is available online from the VLT VLTI Pipelines amp Calibration Plans webpage Please read the appropriate user manual and online documentation carefully as not all instrument modes and or configurations are covered to the same level of detail by the current calibration plans Service Mode runs The calibrations specified in the respective Calibration Plans are obtained systematically by the Observatory and do not need to be requested by the proposers Proposals for Service Mode runs should only request the time needed for their science observations and if applicable night time calibrations beyond those listed in the published Calibration Plans including all operational overheads x Visitor Mode runs Night time calibrations are the responsibility of the visiting observer with the following exception up to approximately 30 minutes per night will be used by the observatory staff to obtain standard ESO calibrations The ESO obtained data will be used to monitor instrument performance and to assure a baseline calibration accuracy within the ESO Science Archive Facility ESO does not guarantee that these standard calibration data will be sufficient
12. runs with a duration of less than 3 nights will be rejected at submission time by the automatic proposal reception system with three exceptions 1 There is no minimum duration for runs to be carried out with Visitor Instruments see Section 3 However in order to minimise the overheads associated with their installation and removal such instruments are normally scheduled in blocks including several contiguous runs the length of these combined blocks is typically greater than 3 nights 2 On the NTT users can apply for combined runs using both EFOSC2 and SOFI The total duration of each of these runs must be at least three nights The combined runs must be requested using the instrument name SOFOSC Details are also available in the ESOFORM User Manual 3 There is no minimum duration for runs of Calibration Programmes Note that the minimum duration requirement for La Silla is applicable to each individual run of a proposal involving a La Silla instrument see Section 4 for more information about the definition of programme and run More generally proposals for long runs are strongly encouraged on the La Silla telescopes Splitting of runs in half nights e g a 3 night run spread over 6 half nights should be avoided as much as possible as it may be impossible to schedule Pre imaging Pre imaging frames for EFOSC2 will have to be obtained at the beginning of the spectroscopic run The resulting lower efficiency sh
13. see Section 4 4 1 5 1 2 Delegated Visitor Mode ESO reserves the right to allocate telescope time in Delegated Visitor Mode DVM instead of regular Visitor Mode VM for any runs with a justified need for VM observations and whose duration is smaller than one night The final decision will be based on the technical feasibility reports and the Principal Investigators will be informed of their DVM time allocation via the web letters Delegated VM observations are scheduled on specific dates slots as if they were regular Visitor Mode runs but they are executed by an ESO staff member in close contact e g via phone Skype or video link with the Principal Investigator or someone the PI designates to serve as the liaison with the Observatory More details including all requirements concerning the preparation of DVM runs are provided on the Paranal Sciences Operations webpage 5 2 Service Mode About 60 of the total time available for observations on Paranal will be carried out in Service Mode SM SM is also the only mode supported for APEX VST and VISTA It is not offered on any La Silla telescope Investigators with runs allocated in SM time will be required to specify their programme by submit ting a Phase 2 package in advance to ESO This package consists of OBs finding charts a Readme form and if applicable ephemerides Observers intending to submit proposals to be executed in SM may find it useful to familiarize themselves with
14. successful repair mission planned in January 2014 THz observations require excellent weather conditions PWV lt 0 2 mm FLASH and CHAMP These PI instruments are offered to the ESO community on a collaborative basis with MPIfR Large programmes or time critical observations with PI instruments will not be accepted Users who would like to use FLASH or CHAMP must contact the instrument PI Dr Rolf Guesten rguesten AT mpifr bonn mpg de at least two weeks prior to submitting their proposal Members of the PI team should be included as Cols on the proposal The operation of these PI instruments requires the presence of the instrument team so all ESO FLASH and CHAMP observations will be scheduled on fixed dates the exact dates have not been determined yet FLASH FLASH observations will be done by the PI team during a maximum of 3 days Preference will be given to proposals using the dual beam wide bandwidth capabilities of FLASH due to limited ESO observing time Z Spec This PI instrument is not offered in Period 93 1 2 Important reminders e General information ESO User Portal Proposals are submitted via a web upload procedure using the on line tool Web Application for Submitting Proposals WASP This requires users to first log in to the ESO User Portal at http www eso org UserPortal See Section 2 2 for more details Duration of one night Proposers are reminded that one night in visitor mode is d
15. the ESO time slots Monitoring programme proposals should be prepared using the appropriate macro in the TX template for normal proposals template tex See the ESOFORM User Manual for more details 15 4 3 Large Programmes Table 3 Available Instruments Large Programmes Telescope Instrument keywords UT1 FORS2 KMOS UT2 FLAMES UVES APEX LABOCA SABOCA SHFI NTT SOFT EFOSC2 SpecialNTT 3 6 HARPS Special3 6 Large Programmes are only accepted on some instruments in Period 93 see Table 3 Section 1 1 explains the reasons why the other instruments are not available for Large Programmes Please see the ESOFORM User Manual for more information on how to specify instruments in the proposal template Up to a maximum of 30 of the observing time distributed by the OPC on the VLT VLTI can be allocated to Large Programmes An ESO Large Programme is defined by the criteria listed below e A programme requiring a minimum of 100 hours of ESO telescope time For ESO telescopes one night in visitor mode is defined to be 8 hours in even periods and 10 hours in odd periods e A programme that has the potential to lead to a major advance or breakthrough in the field of study has a strong scientific justification and a plan for a quick and comprehensive effort of data reduction and analysis by a dedicated team e Large Programmes can span from 1 to 4 periods i e up to a maximum of two consecutive years for Paranal instruments
16. the Phase 2 Service Mode guidelines Once the OBs are completed they will be submitted to ESO for verification and acceptance Accepted OBs will be executed by ESO staff based on their OPC recommended priority and a proper match between the requested and the actual observing conditions An article about SM scheduling appeared in The ESO Messenger 2001 v 105 p 18 The article helps proposers understand how they may optimize their use of this observing mode and it should be considered compulsory reading for SM proposers SM PIs and their data delegates have direct access via their personal ESO User Portal account to their own raw proprietary data as soon as the data is ingested in the ESO Archive Note that in Service Mode the proprietary period for a given science file starts as soon as the data are made electronically available to PIs or to those to whom they have delegated their data access rights Please note that SM proposers must include overheads for all science exposures Guidelines are provided in the Overheads page ESO will absorb all the time required to complete the calibration sequences to the level of accuracy foreseen in the calibration plan as well as overheads associated with such calibra tions More information on the Paranal Calibration plans can be found from the VLT VLTI Pipelines amp Calibration Plans webpage and the respective instrument User Manual If those calibrations are not adequate the SM proposer must i
17. to calibrate the Visitor Mode science observations to the accuracy desired by the observer Proposers should plan accordingly for Visitor Mode runs Data Reduction software In collaboration with the various instrument consortia ESO has undertaken to implement data reduction pipelines for the most commonly used VLT VLTI instrument modes A brief summary of VLT VLTI pipeline availability and functionality for each instrument is available from the VLT VLTI Pipelines page Quality Control and Instrument Trending The ESO pipelines are used to mon itor the performance of the various instruments and their temporal trends Extensive information about Paranal data handling and processing e g zero points colour terms wavelength solutions is maintained on the ESO Quality Control web pages e La Silla Support during observing runs and transportation schedule A streamlined operation is in effect in La Silla Technical and logistical support will be delivered as usual by ESO staff but no specific support astronomer is assigned Please note that the transportation schedule to and from La Silla may have an impact on the arrival and departure days of the observers at the site Please check the online instructions for visiting astronomers Large Programmes on NTT and the 3 6 m telescopes may span up to Period 97 There is a minimum length of 3 nights for runs to be executed with La Silla tele scopes Proposals including La Silla
18. 3 and 94 into account as detailed in this section See Section 1 1 for more details regarding instrument availability during these periods Proposers wishing to make use of this opportunity will have to submit a single proposal in response to either the XMM Newton or the ESO call for proposals proposals for the same programme sub mitted to both observatories will be rejected To submit a proposal to ESO the Normal Programme template must be used Such a proposal will be reviewed exclusively by the OPC A proposal sub mitted to the XMM Newton Observatory will be reviewed exclusively by the XMM Newton OTAC Proposals that request different amounts of observing time on each facility should be submitted to the Observatory for which the greatest amount of time is required The primary criterion for the award of observing time is that both VLT and XMM Newton data are required to meet the scientific objectives of the proposal The project does not need to require simultaneous XMM Newton and ESO telescope observations Targets of Opportunity and Triggered Observations are excluded from this cooperative programme It is the proposers responsibility to provide a full and comprehensive scientific and technical justi fication for the requested observing time on both facilities Both the ESO and XMM Newton ob 20 servatories will perform feasibility checks of the approved proposals They each reserve the right to reject any observation determined
19. M During Period 93 FORS2 on UT1 UVES on UT2 XSHOOTER on UT3 and SINFONI on UT4 are available in RRM 17 RRM proposers should note that e A RRM trigger is a special ToO trigger that can only be activated up to 4 hours after an event If a longer time span has passed since the event observations should be requested through normal ToO triggers e As with ToO programmes proposers will need to indicate in the TEX template the number of targets per run and the requested number of triggers per target e RRM runs have to be specified as separate runs in the ESOFORM template Upon receiving an encoded alert indicating the coordinates of the target and the associated Observing Block OB to be executed any ongoing integration will automatically be terminated and the RRM OB will be executed Depending on the instrument and the target position the tele scope instrument will be at the location of the target within about 6 minutes following the arrival of the alert at Paranal Depending on the target brightness and instrument mode target acquisition may take some more time RRM observations in Period 93 are subject to the following restrictions e The requested instrument must already be in operation No change of instrument and tele scope focus is accepted by the automatic RRM system e RRM activations will be accepted during Service Mode and Visitor Mode runs They have overriding priority over other observations unless the latter are str
20. Pectrometer for Infrared Faint Field Imaging 28 VST XSHOOTER ZEUS 2 Z Spec Target of Opportunity ser Support Department nit Telescope 1 Antu nit Telescope 2 Kueyen nit Telescope 3 Melipal nit Telescope 4 Yepun Itra Violet V Visual Echelle Spectrograph Visible MultiObject Spectrograph VISTA InfraRed CAMera VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid Infra Red Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy Very Large Telescope Very Large Telescope Interferometer Visitor Mode programme VLT Survey Telescope UV Visual NIR medium resolution echelle spectrograph Redshift z and Early Universe Spectrometer Broadband millimeter wave Spectrometer AENA ENANA caw end of document
21. S ww ds do ek ee Ra a a 6 7 Data rights archiving data distribution 00 0 6 8 Publication of ESO telescope results o o eee ee ees 69 Press Releases naci a e RN a Pe eh a Ra ee E III Appendix A Acronyms n O a D me 10 10 11 12 13 13 13 14 15 16 16 17 18 18 19 19 19 20 20 21 21 21 22 23 23 24 24 24 24 25 25 25 26 26 27 27 Part I Phase 1 Instructions 1 ESO Proposals Invited The European Southern Observatory ESO invites proposals for observations at ESO tele scopes during Period 93 1 April 2014 30 September 2014 The following instruments are offered in this period La Silla EFOSC2 ESO Faint Object Spectrograph 2 HARPS High Accuracy Radial velocity Planetary Searcher Soff Son of ISAAC Paranal AMBER Near infrared interferometric instrument CRIRES Cryogenic high resolution IR Echelle Spectrograph FLAMES Fibre Large Array Multi Element Spectrograph FORS2 FOcal Reducer low dispersion Spectrograph 2 KMOS K band Multi Object Spectrograph MIDI MID infrared Interferometric instrument NAOS CONICA High Resolution NIR Camera and Spectrograph OmegaCAM Wide Field Imager for the VST at Paranal SINFONI Spectrograph for INtegral Field Obs in the NIr UVES UV Visual Echelle Spectrograph VIMOS Visual Multi Object Spectrograph VIRCAM VISTA InfraRed CAMera XSHOOTER UV Visual NIR medium resolution chell
22. ages of the fields of their object in various bands for photometric purposes in combination with slit or IFU spectroscopic observa tions SPHERE installation is expected to take place during Period 92 on the Nasmyth A platform of UT3 Comissioning of the instrument will take place during Period 93 As a consequence ISAAC is being decommissioned in Period 92 and is no longer offered VISIR is not offered in Period 93 MUSE will undergo commissioning during Period 93 HAWK I will be temporarily removed from the UT4 Nasmyth A focus during Period 93 and until it is necessary for AOF related activities NACO will be temporarily offered on the UT4 Nasmyth A focus during Period 93 until the focus is necessary for AOF related activities Only a reduced list of modes are offered during this period For additional details see the recent changes webpage or the NACO User Manual VLT Laser Guide Star Since February 2013 PARLA a prototype of the laser used by the coming Adaptive Optics Facility has replaced PARSEC within the Laser Guide Star Facility LGSF Thanks to the increase in delivered power and large improvement in reliability the number of nights during which the LGSF can be used every month is significantly increased No focus is available for a visitor instrument on the VLT in Period 93 OMEGACAM only Chilean and GTO programme proposals are accepted on the VST in Period 93 in order to ensure the time
23. are distributed to the Pls and their data delegates from their ESO User Portal accounts 6 8 Publication of ESO telescope results Publications based on observations collected at ESO telescopes should state this in a footnote to the article s title The corresponding observing proposal should be clearly identified by its ESO reference number For example Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory Chile ESO Programme 093 C 1234 6 9 Press Releases Should you consider that your results are worthy of a press release to the general public please contact the ESO Outreach Department information eso org as soon as possible preferably no later than when the paper is submitted for publication ESO reserves the right to use any data obtained with ESO telescopes as part of programmes allocated ESO time for press releases 27 Part III Appendix A Acronyms AMBER Astronomical Multi BEam combineR APEX Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment ARTEMIS Architectures de bolom tres pour des T lescopes grand champ de vue dans le domaine sub Millimetrique au Sol AT Auxiliary Telescope for the VLT Interferometer CHAMP Carbon Heterodyne Array of the MPIfR Col Co Investigator CONICA High Resolution Near Infrared CAmera CRIRES Cryogenic high resolution IR Echelle Spectrometer DDT Director s Discretionary Time proposal EFOSC2 ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera 2 ERIS Enhanced Resolution Imager and Sp
24. bout policies or the practical aspects of proposal preparation should be ad dressed to the ESO Observing Programmes Office opo eso org Enquiries related to the tech nical requirements of the planned observations should be sent to the User Support Department usd help eso org for Paranal and Chajnantor and to lasilla eso org for La Silla Enquiries can also be made through the Ask for help link in the User Portal which is listed under Other Services Part I of this Call for Proposals provides information on how to complete and submit a Phase 1 proposal to ESO and Part II describes the policies and procedures regarding proposing for carrying out and publishing ESO observations 1 1 Important recent changes since Periods 91 and 92 e General changes Call for Proposals The ESO Call for Proposals document has been modified and significantly shortened All technical details related to the available facilities telescopes and instruments are now available solely through the ESO webpages This Call for Proposals document outlines the main news concerning the call provides guidelines on how to prepare and submit an ESO observing proposal and outlines the policies that apply to accepted ESO programmes Information on the available instruments can be found via the La Silla Paranal Observatory Call for Proposals webpage News items related to the technical capabilities of the ESO instruments have been moved to the Recent Changes we
25. bpage Further useful in formation can be accessed from the Phase 1 Important Links for Period 93 webpage e g statistics on telescope pressure and definitions of observing constraints Public Spectroscopic Surveys with VIMOS Letters of intent are solicited by a deadline of 15 October 2013 for Public Spectroscopic Surveys with VIMOS Monitoring Programmes The OPC Working Group and the ESO Users Committee have recommended the introduction of Monitoring Programme proposals These propos als enable users to request a limited amount of time to monitor targets over more than one period Proposers should use the normal proposal template with the appropriate macro in order to apply for a Monitoring Programme See Section 4 2 for the detailed definition of a Monitoring Programme and the instruments offered for this programme type No Monitoring Programmes will be allowed on La Silla VISTA or VST telescopes On APEX and Paranal telescopes Monitoring Programmes are subject to the same instru ment restrictions as Large Programmes see below Large Programmes See Section 4 3 for the detailed definition of a Large Programme and the instruments offered for this programme type On APEX Large Programmes will not be accepted for the PI instruments CHAMP and FLASH As in previous pe riods Large Programmes will not be accepted for either VIRCAM or OmegaCAM The following VLT VLTI instruments are also unavailable for Large Prog
26. cified for observations in different periods 1 3 Foreseen changes in the upcoming periods e CRIRES will be transformed into a cross dispersed echelle spectrograph as a consequence the instrument will be taken out of operations for approximately one year likely starting in Period 95 e X SHOOTER will likely be taken out of operations for several months to install re designed ADC systems during Period 94 or 95 e SINFONI will be taken out of operations possibly in late Period 95 as its Integral Field Unit SPIFFI will be integrated in ERIS which is expected to be installed during Period 99 e Activities related to the installation of the Adaptive Optics Facility on UT4 Yepun The installation of GRAAL the adaptive optics module for HAWK I is expected to take place on Nasmyth A during Period 94 The installation of the 4ALGSF is expected to take place late in Period 94 GALACSI the adaptive optics module for MUSE is expected to be installed on Nasmyth B during Period 95 The installation of the Deformable Secondary Mirror and re commissioning of the tele scope is expected to take place during Period 95 as a consequence UT4 will not be available for approximately 2 months The commissioning of the AOF and AOF related systems is expected to require monthly slots of up to 7 days during possibly 2 years It is expected that MIDI and the VLTI Visitor Instrument will not be available during Period 94 e ZEUS
27. cting with any other approved programmes or imply significant changes in the overall distribution of scheduled targets in the sky Observations of targets for which no authorization has been obtained are not allowed at the telescope 6 4 1 Service Mode run execution The runs to be conducted in Service Mode will be subdivided into the following classes for operational reasons 25 e Class A All possible efforts will be made to execute all OBs corresponding to the runs in the requested observing period Approximately the first half according to the OPC ranking of the total amount of Service Mode time scheduled on each telescope falls in this class e Class B These runs will be executed in the requested observing period on a best effort basis Approximately the second half according to the OPC ranking of the total amount of Service Mode time scheduled on each telescope falls in this class e Class C Filler runs OBs will only be executed if the observing conditions do not permit observations for runs within classes A and B For Class A runs that are not completed by the end of Period 93 ESO will decide whether they can be declared substantially complete or have to be carried over to the next period provided that this is technically feasible In general a class A run will not be carried over for more than one additional natural visibility period Class B and C runs will not be carried over ToO runs are by definition Class A regar
28. ding priority in execution but they will not be carried over to the following periods regardless of their completion status Proposers are particularly encouraged to consider their observing strategy and how they can simplify any time constraints are much as possible to increase chances of being scheduled Guidelines on the handling of time critical OBs are available at the Time critical OB execution policy page 6 5 Phase 2 Service Mode policy constraints and targets are binding To optimize the use of ESO telescopes in Service Mode a proper mix of runs requiring various observing conditions and with targets spread over the entire range of RAs for a given period is necessary For this reason proposers are requested in their Phase 1 proposal to specify not only the targets with accurate coordinates but also the needed observing conditions lunar phase seeing sky transparency Due to their essential role in determining the long term scheduling of Service Mode time the constraints specified at Phase 1 are binding Successful proposers will not be allowed to change the instrument set ups target lists and or times per target that were requested at Phase 1 in their Phase 2 submissions unless explicitly authorized by ESO see Section 6 4 The relaxation of observing constraints is allowed at Phase 2 only See Section 6 4 for more details on how to request waivers for Service Mode runs 6 6 Pre imaging runs A separate run must be specified for
29. duplicating Guaranteed Time proposals for Period 93 GTO for Period 93 or ongoing Public Survey obser vations Access to Service and Visitor Mode data The ESO Science Archive Facility is the sole access point to data obtained with ESO telescopes Principal Investigators of Service and Visitor Mode programmes and their data delegates have access to their proprietary raw data as soon as the data have been ingested in the ESO Archive which typically happens a few hours after the observation The data access is provided through the ESO User Portal The CalSelector archive service combines the science files with any ancillary files that are needed to process the data e g acquisition images calibrations etc Please note that the 1 year proprietary period starts as soon as the data are made elec tronically available to the PI through the ESO Science Archive Facility Public Surveys Nine public imaging surveys are being carried out on the VISTA and VST telescopes Public spectroscopic surveys are being carried out on the NTT telescope EFOSC2 amp SOFT and on the UT2 telescope FLAMES GIRAFFE amp UVES Further details are available on the ESO Public Surveys Projects webpage There is a new Call for Public Spectroscopic Surveys with VIMOS see Section 1 1 for more details Overheads Proposals must include all overheads when computing the total observing time request for both Service Mode and Visitor Mode runs see th
30. e 1 proposal submission time but can be observed more than one week after they have been identified should be observed as part of normal non ToO runs The related OBs should be defined or updated by the PI once the target is known The OBs should be stored in the ESO database with the complete information needed to allow them to be executed as part of the regular Service Mode queues Note that users submitting a ToO programme will need to indicate the number of targets per run and the requested number of triggers per target using the appropriate macros in the PTEX template A trigger is defined as the request for execution of one Observation Block with a given instrument at a given epoch Similar observations to be executed with the same instrument at different epochs count as different triggers as do observations with different instruments at the same epoch Any observing request by other groups at the time an event occurs e g a DDT proposal with exactly the same scientific goal and aiming at observing the same object will be rejected by ESO ToO programmes are not carried over to the following periods ToO proposers should bear in mind that ToO proposals are ranked across OPC categories by the whole OPC hence including non experts in their specific field They should therefore clearly explain the relevance of the proposed programme to general astrophysics 4 4 1 Rapid Response Mode RRM ESO continues to offer VLT Rapid Response Mode RR
31. e NTOORun macros in the ESOFORM proposal template as instructed Approved DDT proposals are carried out in Service Mode on Paranal and Chajnantor or in Visitor Mode override on La Silla Very few non time critical DDT proposals are foreseen to be approved 19 so proposers should provide a clear justification in Box 8b of the application form why the pro gramme should be considered for DDT allocation and why it was not submitted through the regular OPC channel In the absence of such a justification the proposal will not be considered for DDT allocation and the proposers will be encouraged to resubmit their proposals for the next appropriate OPC submission deadline As a general rule proposals originally submitted to the OPC that were not allocated time must not be submitted as DDT proposals DDT proposals may be submitted at any time They must be prepared using the special ESOFORM DDT template Proposers must upload the DDT ESOFORM template and submit their DDT proposals by registering and logging into the ESO User Portal You can find more details at http www eso org sci observing phasel esoform html DDT proposals are reviewed at ESO and approved by the Director General Urgent requests must be clearly identified in Box 5 Special Remarks of the application form 4 8 Host State Proposals Qualifying proposals whose PI is affiliated with an institute of the Host State Chile are counted as Host State Proposals The designati
32. e Overheads webpage Non standard observing configurations The use of non standard instrumental modes configurations or filters requires the prior approval by the ESO User Support Department A detailed justification should be sent to usd help eso org at least two weeks before the proposal submission deadline If proposers wish to use non standard filters on cryogenic instruments further restrictions apply See Section 6 2 for more details Backup programme Although Phase 1 proposals requesting Visitor Mode do not need to include backup targets and or a backup programme the observer should prepare one in case of unfavourable weather conditions The original science goals must be adhered to in this backup scenario Approval of a backup programme must be sought at least one month in advance of the observing run through the change request form as described in Section 5 1 The ESO Science Data Products Forum This is a platform that enables users of ESO instruments to share ideas methods software and data to assist with the preparation of science data products from ESO telescopes Users are encouraged to contribute on any topic related to the reduction calibration and analysis of science data from ESO instruments e Paranal Observing mode on the VLT Departures from the observing mode requested by the proposers may be implemented by ESO so as to achieve a balanced distribution between Service Mode and Visitor Mode P
33. e is the official receipt If you are not sure if your proposal has successfully entered the system do not re submit it but rather contact ESO at esoform eso org Neither proposals nor corrections to proposals that are submitted after the deadline will be consid ered 3 Visitor Instruments Visitor instruments can be mounted at the VLTI the NTT the 3 6 m telescope and at APEX in order to permit innovative observations by teams with their stand alone instruments or to test new instrumental concepts for the development of new facility instruments No focus for visitor instruments is available on the VLT in Period 93 The requirements for visitor instruments are substantially reduced compared to the requirements for fully integrated facility instruments A set of guidelines on how to propose a visitor instrument and technical information is available through the links below For visitor instruments on the VLTI http www eso org sci facilities paranal instruments vlti visitor Technical information on the interface for VLTI Visitor Instruments can be found at http www eso org sci facilities paranal instruments vlti visitor requirements html Technical information on the interface to the NTT and 3 6 m telescope is at http www eso org sci facilities lasilla instruments visitor VisitorInstruments pdf For visitor instruments on APEX http www eso org sci facilities apex instruments apex visitor index html
34. e spectrograph Chajnantor LABOCA Large Apex BOlometer CAmera SABOCA Submillimetre APEX Bolometer CAmera SHFI Swedish Heterodyne Facility Instrument CHAMP Carbon Heterodyne Array of the MPIfR FLASH First Light APEX Submillimeter Heterodyne receiver There are more details on the offered instruments and the ESO facilities on the Period 93 Instrumentation and Facilities page The main characteristics of all instruments offered at La Silla Paranal and Chajnantor in this call are described in the Instrument summary table The ESO proposal submission deadline is 1 October 2013 12 00 noon Central European Summer Time Please note it is the PI s responsibility to resolve any verification or upload problems related to the instrument configuration LaTeX file or associated figures well before the deadline ESO cannot provide support beyond 11 00 CEST on the day of the deadline The online receiver will switch off at 12 00 CEST No submissions or amendments to submitted proposals can be accepted after this time In each submitted proposal one single person the Principal Investigator PI must be identified as being principally responsible for that proposal By submitting a proposal the PI agrees that he she and his her collaborators will act according to ESO s policies and regulations including the conditions specified in the present Call for Proposals if observing time is granted Any questions a
35. e time provide the missing information for completion of the OBs The service observer will update and execute the specified OBs Further details are available on the Phase 2 ToO Procedures page 6 Policy Summary Several policies regarding all aspects of the use of ESO telescopes have been refined over the years by the ESO Observing Programmes Committee OPC and by the Science and Technology Committee STC Here we summarize those policies relevant for ESO proposers for Period 93 For details on individual policies we refer to the VLT VLTI Science Operations Policy document 6 1 Who may submit time allocation policies ESO proposals may be submitted by any group or individual One single person the Principal Investigator or PI must be assigned to be responsible for the programme The PI will also act as the official contact between ESO and the proposers for all later correspondence Phase 2 information data distribution etc By submitting a proposal the PI takes full responsibility for its contents in particular with regard to the names of Cols and the agreement to follow the ESO policies and regulations including the conditions specified in the present Call for Proposals Following the introduction of the ESO User Portal Pls identify themselves uniquely in Phase 1 proposals by their User Portal username Note that each individual is allowed to have only one account in the User Portal database multiple accounts must not be created
36. ebpage Please note in particular the change of the minimum moon distance for grey conditions since Period 92 Guaranteed Time Observations GTO will be carried out in Period 93 with AMBER HARPS KMOS MIDI OmegaCAM SINFONI and the VLTI Visitor Instrument For details about the planned observations please see http www eso org sci observing teles alloc gto 93 html e Paranal Information regarding changes affecting Paranal instruments and facilities can be found at http www eso org sci facilities lpo cfp html VLT XMM proposals Proposals are invited for scientific programmes requiring both VLT I and XMM Newton observations Section 4 10 These proposals may be sub mitted for the next XMM Newton cycle which extends over ESO Periods 93 and 94 However proposers should take the limited availability of some of the VLT I instru ments in Periods 93 and 94 into account see the Large Programme item above and Section 1 3 for details on instrument availability Distribution of VLT instruments Note that in Period 93 the distribution of in struments on the UTs will be UT1 CRIRES FORS2 KMOS UT2 FLAMES UVES UT3 XSHOOTER VIMOS UT4 NACO SINFONI KMOS will start operations in Period 92 As of Period 92 XSHOOTER has been offered on the Cassegrain focus of UT3 In Period 93 XSHOOTER will offer a new imaging mode with the Acquisition and Guiding camera This mode allows the users to take im
37. ectrograph ESO European Southern Observatory ETC Exposure Time Calculator FLASH First Light Apex Sub millimeter Heterodyne FLAMES Fibre Large Array Multi Element Spectrograph FLASH First Light Apex Sub millimeter Heterodyne FORS2 Focal Reducer low dispersion Spectrograph 2 GTO Guaranteed Time Observations HARPS High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher HAWK I High Acuity Wide field K band Imager IR InfraRed ISAAC Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera KMOS K band Multi Object Spectrograph LABOCA LArge BOlometer CAmera LGS Laser Guide Star LST Local Sidereal Time MIDI MID infrared Interferometric instrument MOS Multi Object Spectroscopy MPIfR Max Planck Institut fiir Radioastronomie MUSE Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer NACO NAOS CONICA NAOS Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System NGS Natural Guide Star OB Observation Block OmegaCAM Wide Field Imager for the VST at Paranal OPC Observing Programmes Committee OPO Observing Programmes Office P2PP Phase 2 Proposal Preparation software tool PI Principal Investigator PIONIER Precision Integrated Optics Near infrared Imaging ExpeRiment PWV Precipitable Water Vapour RA Right Ascension RRM Rapid Response Mode SABOCA Submillimetre APEX BOlometer CAmera SHFI Swedish Heterodyne Facility Instrument SINFONI Spectrograph for INtegral Field Observations in the Near Infrared SM Service Mode programme SPHERE Spectro Polarimetric High contrast Exoplanet REsearch SPIFFI S
38. efined to be 8 hours in even periods and 10 hours in odd periods on all ESO telescopes The information provided in the proposal is binding All observing runs must be executed as described in the proposal Deviations from the proposal either by observing different targets or by using different instrument modes or different constraints may be allowed only under exceptional circumstances and after approval by ESO see Section 6 5 OPC evaluation of proposals Proposers should keep in mind the need for each OPC panel to cover a broad range of scientific areas proposals may not fall within the main area of specialisation of any of the panel members Proposers should make sure that the context of their project and its relevance for general astrophysics as well as the recent related results are emphasised in a way that can be understood by their peers regardless of their expertise The ESO Science Archive Facility This facility is the repository of all raw data collected at the La Silla Paranal Observatory It also contains selected pro cessed data products Please refer to the homepage of the Science Archive Facility at http archive eso org for a complete list of the data holdings and associated links Duplications Proposers are strongly advised to use the Science Archive Facility to check if observations equivalent to the proposed ones have been performed already Proposers must check that their planned observations are not
39. fficient SM operations require continuous flexibility to best match the OB constraints with actual observing conditions OBs for a given run are normally scheduled non contiguously It is thus not possible to reduce acquisition overheads by requiring the sequential execution of OBs with the same target field e Multi mode multi configuration OBs are normally not permitted in SM Although multiple configurations within one OB may sometimes reduce overheads scheduling and cal ibrating such OBs is extremely inefficient and can increase the calibration load to an unsus tainable level Examples of such multi configuration OBs are those combining imaging and spectroscopy in a single OB spectroscopy with multiple grisms or central wavelength settings or imaging with a large number of filters although most imagers allow multiple broadband filters in one OB Multi configuration OBs are accepted only if duly justified and authorized by means of a Phase 2 Waiver Request e OB Total Execution Time Proposers should make sure that all overheads including telescope presetting and acquisition overheads have been properly included e OB execution times must be below 1 hour This rule also applies to concatenated OBs in most cases Long OBs and concatenated OBs are more difficult to schedule and execute within the specified constraints because of the unpredictable evolution of the observing conditions OBs taking more than one hour to execute are not n
40. http www eso org sci observing phase3 html Proposers are invited to write an email to usd helpOeso org for further information During the period of execution of a Large Programme and upon its completion the PI will be invited by ESO to report to the OPC on the programme s preliminary results He she may also be asked to give a more comprehensive presentation of the outcome of the programme at an ESO Large Programme workshop similar to those of May 19 21 2003 and of October 13 15 2008 16 4 4 Target of Opportunity Normally up to 5 of the available ESO general observing time may be used for Target of Opportunity ToO proposals For events with exceptional characteristics ESO will also consider overriding Visitor Mode observations ESO recognises two categories of Targets of Opportunity 1 Unpredictable ToOs are those concerning unpredictable astronomical events that require immediate observations The occurrence of such events cannot be anticipated on a suffi cient timeframe to allow them to be the subject of a proposal prepared by the regular proposal submission deadline They qualify for allocation of Director Discretionary Time Corresponding applications for observing time should be submitted as DDT proposals Section 4 7 and not as ToO proposals 2 Predictable ToOs are those concerning predictable events in a generic sense only These are typically but not limited to known transient phenomena and follow up or c
41. ibration coverage that might exist Up to 3 of all the available observing time may be made available for calibration proposals Calibration Programmes will be evaluated by the OPC with a view to balancing the added calibration value for future science with the more immediate return of the regular science proposals of the current period Calibration Programmes are reviewed by ESO with regards to their technical and operational feasibility Successful proposers will be required to deliver documentation and data products and software to ESO to support future observing programmes The raw calibration data as well as the advanced calibration products that are obtained as part of Calibration Programmes are non proprietary and made available to the entire community through the ESO archive and the respective instrument Web pages Scientific publications that make use of the data or results of Calibration Programmes will have to reference the corresponding proposals Calibration Programme proposals must be submitted using the ESOFORM template for Normal Programmes In Box 7A entitled Scientific rationale the proposers should clearly state the limits of the existing calibration plan and the expected improvement that can result from the proposed observations Moreover the proposal should emphasise the relevance and the overall scientific gain of the calibration techniques and products resulting from these observations Calibration Programmes do not
42. ictly time critical Additionally the following instrument specific restrictions apply e UVES can only be used with standard wavelength settings e FORS2 can only be used in the broad band imaging long slit spectroscopic imaging polari metric and spectro polarimetric modes e SINFONI is available in NGS and noAO mode but not in LGS mode The delivery of the encoded alerts to the Paranal Observatory is entirely the responsibility of the PI Successful PIs will be asked to provide a set of OBs by the Phase 2 deadline to be certified for execution as is done for other Service Mode runs Details on the activation mechanisms and the preparation of RRM observations can be found at the Phase 2 RRM Observation page 4 5 Guaranteed Time Observations Guaranteed Time Observations GTO arise from contractual obligations of ESO vis vis the external consortia who build ESO instruments see the GTO Policy page Guaranteed Time Observers must submit proposals for their GTO time using the Normal Programme templates and by the standard proposal deadline All GTO proposals will be evaluated and ranked together with Normal Programme proposals to provide feedback to the GTO teams on the scientific standing of their GTO programmes In exceptional cases badly ranked GTO proposals may not be scheduled The policies describing the obligations of Guaranteed Time Observers are defined in Appendix 2 of the ESO Council document ESO Cou 996 In gene
43. ize limit of 1MB for each figure to be uploaded e Always compile your proposal locally with pdfl4Tg X Some of the checks are made at the BTEX level and checking your proposal in this way will save you time If there are errors please read the output carefully in order to identify the problem e Further checks are made by the web software the receiver which uploads your proposal and checks that it complies with ESO s requirements The receiver allows you to verify your proposal without actually submitting it You should take advantage of this feature to check that your proposal is technically correct well before the Phase 1 deadline This can be done by verifying a skeleton version of the proposal early this version should contain all the technical details but not necessarily the full scientific description This will ease the final submission process considerably e Plan ahead Over past periods congestion of the proposal submission system has repeatedly occurred in the last few hours before the proposal deadline leading to delays in response time that occasionally exceeded 1 hour Try to submit proposals at least one day before the deadline and avoid last minute stress 12 At the end of the submission procedure an acknowledgment page is displayed with the Proposal ID Please print it as a receipt The PI of the proposal and the submitter will also receive later a confirmation ticket via email but the acknowledgment pag
44. lities can be found at http www eso org sci facilities lpo cfp html 3 6 m A large fraction 45 of the available science time is committed to ongoing Large Programmes in Period 93 see the Telescope Pressure webpage Large programmes on the 3 6 m telescope can span up to Period 97 Proposers are encouraged to submit high quality Normal Programmes on the 3 6 m tele scope The success rates of Normal Programmes suggest that these programmes can be very competitive despite the substantial ongoing Large Programme commitment Please see the article by Aerts Hussain amp Patat in the next release of The ESO Messenger Volume 153 for more information and a comparison of the success rates of 3 6 m Large Programmes and Normal Programmes between Periods 82 92 NTT A fraction 20 of the available science time on the NTT telescope is committed to ongoing programmes see the Telescope Pressure webpage with a significant number of dark and grey nights already committed Bright time programmes are particularly solicited for the NTT Large programmes on the NTT can span up to Period 97 2 2 m Time on the 2 2 m telescope is no longer offered through the ESO call for pro posals e Chajnantor Observing with APEX Information on the available APEX instruments and ca pabilities can be found on the Observing with APEX page Additional informa tion regarding changes affecting APEX instruments and facilities can be found at
45. ly progress of the ongoing Public Surveys VLTI x VLTI ATs No new baseline is offered in Period 93 Note that station J3 may not be accessible during part of the period in which case it will be re placed by station 11 For a list of all the offered baselines in Period 93 see the VLTI Configurations Overview page MIDI Given the arrival of the second generation VLTI instruments ESO cannot guarantee the availability of MIDI after Period 93 VLTI Visitor Instrument Given the arrival of the second generation VLTI in struments ESO cannot guarantee the availability of a VLTI visitor focus beyond Period 93 PIONIER is a Visitor Instrument which has combined four AT or UT beams since October 2010 In Period 93 VLTI users have the possibility to submit proposals for PIONIER provided they have the agreement of the instrument PI Dr Jean Baptiste Le Bouquin Jean Baptiste Lebouquin AT obs ujf grenoble fr at least two weeks prior to submitting their proposal Large or Monitoring Programmes with PIONIER will not be accepted Additional information relevant to the submission of PIONIER proposals can be found on the Recent Changes web page After obtaining the instrument PI s approval proposers should enter SpecialVLTI in the ObservingRun macro and the relevant information in the Visitor Instrument page in the ESOFORM template e La Silla Additional information regarding changes affecting La Silla instruments and faci
46. mmes i naad 4 aA e e e ed eae weed eee aes 4 2 Monitoring Programmes oo corpa eee RL ae a ee ee ee ee 43 Larse Programmes 205 240 oo A ee eA ESR OE ee SS 4 AA Target of Opportumity e sara s as aa ados Ba A we An a a 4 4 1 Rapid Response Mode RRM o o e 200 4 5 Guaranteed Time Observations s sa s sa caoat anar a A ee 4 6 Proposals for Calibration Programmes o 4 1 Directors Discretionary THNG o ios pa a Go isea a bo a RA Ais Host State Proposals so core a E a a Oe a a ee a e e a 4 9 Non Member State Proposals eee ee ee 4 10 VLT XMM proposals 2 be ee sr a a a Observing Modes Dl Wisttor Mod 2 0 wo 6 be pa a a 5 1 1 ToO programme execution during VM observations 51 2 Delegated Visitor Mode sss sa s warne iaa a Se ee ws o MOE se 2 oe BR eee a ea ES dake ee ak Ade wads ae eee ae 021 Service Mode policies copias ee a a oe k RAE De ee oe Policy Summary 6 1 Who may submit time allocation policies o o 6 2 Requesting use of non standard observing configurat IODS 4 ae aed sk OE a ee 6 3 Policy regarding offered available observing configurations 6 4 Observing programme execution 0 eee eee ee ee ee 6 4 1 Service Mode run execution caos 6 6 6 0 5 a e eee Rw ee ee a 6 5 Phase 2 Service Mode policy constraints and targets are binding OG PESAS DUNS oea Bk alee Sg a a E
47. nclude time for any additional calibrations including overheads Proposers are especially encouraged to request Service Mode on Paranal if their programme in volves Target of Opportunity events or synoptic observing or if they require the best observing conditions which occur at unpredictable intervals Further information on SM observing may be found in the Service Mode Guidelines 22 5 2 1 Service Mode policies To ensure the efficiency of Service Mode SM observing ESO has implemented a number of rules procedures and limitations on SM runs They need to be carefully taken into account at the time of preparing an application for SM observations and are summarized here Please note that these items have important consequences on the way that execution overheads must be taken into account Please consult the Phase 2 webpages for the latest information on SM policies and SM OB rules Proposers should note that Phase 1 constraints are binding see Section 6 5 e Some observing strategies cannot be supported in Service Mode in particular real time decisions about complex OB sequencing or decisions based on the outcome of previously executed OBs like adjustment of integration times or execution of some OBs instead of others e Observation Blocks OBs execution OBs are executed non contiguously with the exception of OBs within the concatenation scheduling containers see Programmes with linked time requirements below Since e
48. ntries Following the recommendations of the OPC and a technical feasibility check the ESO Director General grants observing time based on the OPC ranking and the availability of telescope time However in the case of sudden astronomical events a ToO or DDT programme may be activated and may lead to an interruption of the currently active run 6 2 Requesting use of non standard observing configurations Proposers should pay particular attention to the fact that as indicated in the instrument manuals use of certain non standard instrumental modes or configurations requires prior approval by ESO This approval must be obtained before submitting the Phase 1 proposal Corresponding requests including a brief justification must be submitted by email to usd help eso org at least two weeks before the proposal submission deadline Failure to follow this rule may lead to the rejection of the proposal by ESO for technical reasons Users who wish to request a new own filter to be installed particularly in the cryogenic instruments e g HAWK I VIRCAM VISIR must approach ESO via usd help eso org at least 3 months before submitting a proposal requesting that filter Failure to follow these guidelines may lead to the rejection of the proposal by ESO for technical reasons 6 3 Policy regarding offered available observing configurations Users will be promptly informed if it becomes impossible to support some currently offered instru ment mode
49. on as Host State Proposal is independent of the fraction of non member state Col s 4 9 Non Member State Proposals A Non Member State Proposal is a proposal where 2 3 or more of the proposers are not affiliated to ESO member state institutes independently of the nationality of the proposers and of the affiliation of the PI Non member state proposals are submitted in the usual way but a separate set of criteria are used for the review of such proposals Section 6 1 This non member state policy does not apply to the host state Chile whose participation is regulated by the Interpretative Supplementary and Amending Agreement to the 1963 Convention Sects 4 8 and 6 1 4 10 VLT XMM proposals With the aim of taking full advantage of the complementarity of ground based and space borne observing facilities ESA and ESO have agreed to establish an environment for those scientific programmes that require observations with both the XMM Newton X ray Observatory and the ESO VLT I telescopes to achieve outstanding and competitive results By agreement with the XMM Newton Observatory ESO may award up to 290 ksec 80 hours of XMM Newton observing time Similarly the XMM Newton project may award up to 80 hours of ESO VLT observing time This applies to the duration of an XMM Newton cycle which normally extends over two ESO observing periods However proposers should take the limited availability of some of the VLT I instruments in Periods 9
50. oordinated observations of targets of special interest Proposals aimed at studying such events are in the ESO proposal terminology ToO proposals ToO proposals must be submitted using the Normal Programme ESOFORM template Proposals should be for generic targets and or times However if accepted by the OPC the programme will not be executed until the PI or his her delegate contacts ESO to request its activation after the predicted event has occurred The observing strategy must be the one approved by the OPC and the triggers may not exceed the allocated time and number of triggers granted The observations will be conducted in Service Mode and in exceptional cases ongoing programmes may be interrupted Read more on ToO policy As ToO programmes may require a mixture of ToO runs and normal runs proposers are requested to specify the type of runs TOO or normal in the tenth final field of the ObservingRun macro of the ESOFORM IXT X template A more detailed description and examples can be found in the ESOFORM package User Manual ToO runs are defined as runs for which the target cannot be known more than one week before the observation needs to be executed Such runs will be scheduled for execution upon receipt of an activation trigger by ESO the target and observing time information will be inserted by the observatory support staff into generic Observation Blocks OBs submitted by the PI at Phase 2 Targets that are unknown at Phas
51. ormally accepted Proposers are especially encouraged to plan for OBs substantially shorter than one hour if the execution conditions are particularly demanding as the fulfillment of all the constraints during the entire execution time becomes more unlikely as the OB becomes longer Please see the Service Mode OBs item in Section 1 2 for more information e Fulfillment of Phase 2 constraints ESO will consider an OB as successfully executed if all the conditions in the constraint set are fulfilled OBs executed under conditions marginally outside constraints by no more than 10 of the specified value will not be scheduled for re execution Adaptive Optics assisted observations within 50 of the requested Strehl ratio will not be repeated assuming that other constraints are suitably met VLTI OBs executed marginally outside the specified LST intervals by no more than 30 min will not be scheduled for re execution e Programmes with linked time requirements SM is also intended to support programmes with special timing requirements However proposers planning such programmes should keep in mind that at most 60 of both bright and dark time is allocated to SM on Paranal and that observing conditions cannot be predicted when a time series is started This means that timing sequences that are extremely long and or complex timing links that are very restrictive and time series for observations requiring excellent observing conditions are unlikel
52. ould be taken into account in the computation of the required execution time for the run e Chajnantor APEX This telescope is offered in Service Mode only In exceptional cases e g moving targets remote observing from Bonn in collaboration with MPIfR can be considered Proposals requesting time from different APEX partners are required to mention the amount of time requested from MPIfR Sweden or Chile in Box 5 Observations will be done for up to 24 hours per day but users should be aware that afternoon conditions are often significantly worse than night or morning Observations using high frequency instruments SHFI APEX T2 SHFI APEX 3 SABOCA should avoid the afternoon APEX users should ensure that their proposal meets the following requirements specify if time is requested from other APEX partners in the macro SpecialRemarks Box 5 specify the requested PWV using the macro Target Box 11 for their project to allow a better distinction between observations requesting a range of atmospheric transparencies either indicate an appropriate off source position or request time to find such a po sition if they wish to observe extended line emitting regions x merge all observations for any APEX instrument into a single run note that this also applies for the different receivers of SHFI For Large Programmes this restriction should be understood as a single run per instrument and per period Separate runs should be spe
53. oved by ESO prior to the observing run The corresponding requests must be submitted via the web based form available at http www eso org sci observing phase2 ProgChange If the conditions prevent the Visiting Astronomer s primary programme to be executed the telescope will be used for the execution of Service Mode observations assuming no backup programme is in place and that Service Mode observations are allowed on that telescope Raw data are available for download shortly after acquisition Please note that VM proposers must include overheads for all science exposures Guidelines are provided in the Overheads page In general the observatory does not compensate for weather or technical losses of observing time However under exceptional circumstances the Director of the Observatory may decide to compen sate losses of observing time Under exceptional circumstances the Director of the Observatory may decide to interrupt Visitor Mode observation to allow Service Mode observations 21 5 1 1 ToO programme execution during VM observations VM observations may be interrupted by time critical DDT or ToO programmes As far as possible the execution of observations for such programmes will be confined to scheduled Service Mode periods Under exceptional circumstances the Director of the Observatory may decide to interrupt VM runs to allow ToO observations ToO runs in the Rapid Response Mode RRM may also interrupt VM observations
54. pertain to any of the standard OPC categories A B C or D since in general they are not directly related to a unique scientific area the special subcategory code LO should be used to distinguish them The PIs of Calibration Programmes are required to deliver to ESO the resulting Advanced Data Products within one year of the completion of the corresponding observations The procedure to be followed is described at http www eso org sci observing phase3 html 4 7 Director s Discretionary Time Up to 5 of the available ESO general observing time may be used for Director s Discretionary Time DDT proposals in the current period Only DDT proposals belonging to one of the following categories will be considered e proposals of ToO nature requiring the immediate observation of a sudden and unexpected astronomical event e proposals requesting observations on a highly competitive scientific topic e proposals asking for follow up observations of a programme recently conducted from ground based and or space facilities where a quick implementation should provide break through results e proposals of a somewhat risky nature requesting a small amount of observing time to test the feasibility of a programme DDT programmes that have target of opportunity runs should mark their corresponding Run Types as TOO in the ObservingRun macro See the ESOFORM User Manual for more details DDT programmes involving TOO runs should also fill in th
55. r star for their planned observations using the CalVin tool available also from http www eso org observing etc Service Mode proposers are reminded see Section 6 5 that the requested observing conditions are binding in Phase 2 hence proposers should check the exact definition of seeing in the ETC used to estimate the observing time necessary to complete the programme They should also ensure that the observing conditions specified in the proposal are consistent with these requirements The same is true for the requested sky transparency and lunar phase Non photometric sky transparency can be simulated by adding 0 1 0 2 mag to the object magnitude for CLEAR THIN CIRRUS conditions respectively 2 2 The ESOFORM Proposal package All Phase 1 proposals must be prepared using the ESOFORM Proposal Package configured for Period 93 as the package is updated every period The ESOFORM package may be obtained by logging into the ESO User Portal following the instructions at http www eso org sci observing phasel esoform html The ESOFORM User Manual in the proposal package describes in detail how to fill the BTE X template and the information required to prepare a valid proposal 2 2 1 ESOFORM Important notes e Definition of Service Mode and Visitor Mode runs An observing programme as described in a single proposal may consist of one or more runs Multiple runs should only be requested for observations with different instrumen
56. ral GTO runs must be conducted in Visitor Mode Section 5 1 The only exceptions are those explicitly stated in the contractual agreement between ESO and the corresponding external consortium However ESO may exceptionally transfer some GTO runs from Visitor Mode to Service Mode for operational reasons such as the availability of VLTI baselines or the availability of the LGSF Some GTO programmes require ToO runs see Section 4 4 If this is the case then this should be specified in the ESOFORM package using the ObservingRun macro of the IX4TpX template 1The possibility for GTO teams to request ToO observations as part of their guaranteed time is restricted to those cases in which this option is explicitly mentioned in the GTO contract 18 4 6 Proposals for Calibration Programmes ESO operates a large number of complex instruments with many possible configurations and observ ing modes Although the Observatory executes a rigorous calibration plan for each instrument ESO does not have the resources to fully calibrate all potential capabilities of all instruments On the other hand the astronomical community has expressed interest to perform calibrations for certain uncalibrated or poorly calibrated modes or to develop specialized software for certain calibration and data reduction tasks ESO introduced the Calibration Programmes in order to allow users to complement the existing calibration of ESO instruments and to fill gaps in the cal
57. rammes CRIRES XSHOOTER VIMOS NACO SINFONI AMBER MIDI and the VLTI Visitor Instrument The reasons for these restrictions are given below Note that these instruments are also not available for Monitoring Programmes for the same reasons CRIRES will be transformed into a cross dispersed echelle spectrograph as a con sequence the instrument will be taken out of operations for approximately one year likely starting in P95 x XSHOOTER will likely be taken out of operations for several months to install re designed ADC systems during Period 94 or 95 VIMOS has a significant number of existing and foreseen commitments including a commitment to start a new ESO Public Survey NACO is only offered until the Nasmyth A focus of UT4 is required for AOF related activities SINFONI will be affected by the installation of the AOF in 2014 in addition it will be taken out of operations likely late in Period 95 or in Period 96 so that its Integral Field Unit SPIFFI can be integrated into ERIS During Period 94 preparatory work required for the installation of the second gener ation VLTI instruments will take place in the VLTI Laboratory As a consequence MIDI will be decommissioned and the VLTI Visitor Instrument will not be available x AMBER may be affected by possible future changes Observing conditions The definitions of the observing conditions for Phase 1 and Phase 2 can be found on the Observing Conditions w
58. ropose the use of these instruments the instrument PI must be contacted at least two weeks prior to submitting the proposal see Section 1 1 4 2 Monitoring Programmes Monitoring Programmes MPs are only accepted on some instruments see Table 2 Section 1 1 explains the reasons why the other instruments are not offered for Monitoring Programmes Please see the ESOFORM User Manual for more information on how to specify instruments in the proposal template An ESO Monitoring Programme is defined by the criteria listed below e A programme requiring less than 100 hours of ESO telescope time For ESO telescopes one night in visitor mode is defined to be 8 hours in even periods and 10 hours in odd periods e Both Service Mode and Visitor Mode observations are allowed e MP proposals must request a minimum of 2 periods and can span up to 4 periods e MPs will be judged in the same way as normal programmes but must be amongst the highest ranked programmes in order to be scheduled e For APEX instruments observations for approved MPs can only be carried out in ESO time Hence targets can only be monitored with a bi monthly cadence at best e ToO programmes cannot be submitted as Monitoring Programmes Section 4 4 Table 2 Available Instruments for Monitoring Programmes Telescope Instrument keywords UT1 FORS2 KMOS UT2 FLAMES UVES APEX LABOCA SABOCA SHFI 1 APEX observations for approved MPs can only be carried out in
59. roposers should request Service Mode for observations that benefit from the short term scheduling flexibility allowed by this mode Proposers may identify runs that lend themselves for observations in either Service or Visitor Mode by specifying one of the modes using the alternative run feature in Box 3 of the ESOFORM Phase 1 proposal form Please note that if a certain instrument mode is offered exclusively in either Service Mode or Visitor Mode then this overrides these scheduling considerations Service Mode OBs Service Mode Observation Blocks OBs including all overheads can last up to a maximum of 1 hour This rule also applies to concatenated OBs in most cases Users are encouraged to read the Service Mode rules for more details Longer OBs have to be specifically requested and justified at Phase 2 via a waiver request which is evaluated by the Observatory Pre imaging for VLT instruments and modes A separate pre imaging run must be specified in the proposal to be executed in Service Mode Failure to do so will result in the deduction of the time necessary for the pre imaging from the allocation to the main part of the project see Section 6 6 Monitoring in Service Mode Monitoring a target in Service Mode in a particular period is carried out on a best effort basis only i e a monitoring sequence in any particular period may be interrupted by long periods of unsuitable weather conditions or Visitor Mode scheduling All the time
60. s will be allocated to Normal Programmes in Period 93 Proposers must use the standard IAT X template Section 2 2 The scientific case of the programme may take up to two pages including attachments figures or tables The scientific description contains two sections A Scientific Rationale B Immediate Objective Attachments such as figures are optional and are restricted to the second page of the scientific description though the respective fraction of the occupied by the scientific description and by the figures is left to the discretion of the proposer If the proposal contains runs requesting La Silla telescopes and instruments the duration of each such run must be at least 3 nights except for runs using Visitor Instruments or for combinations of contiguous EFOSC2 and SOFT runs totalling at least 3 nights 14 Table 1 Available Instruments for Normal Programmes Telescope Instrument keywords UT1 CRIRES FORS2 KMOS UT2 FLAMES UVES UT3 VIMOS XSHOOTER UT4 NACO SINFONI VLTI AMBER MIDI SpecialVLTI VISTA VIRCAM VST OMEGACAM APEX CHAMPP FLASH LABOCA SABOCA SHFI SpecialAPEX NTT SOFT EFOSC2 SpecialNTT 3 6 HARPS Special3 6 1 Tn order to propose for the VLTI Visitor Instrument PIONIER proposers should first contact the instrument PI see Section 1 1 2 OMEGACAM is only available for Chilean Normal programmes and GTO in the Period 93 3 CHAMP and FLASH are APEX PI instruments in order to p
61. ser Manual for more details e Proposal resubmissions If the proposal is a re submission of an old proposal then the OPC comments must be addressed in this new submission e VLT XMM Proposals Proposers must indicate in the ESOFORM if they are applying for VLT XMM time under the ESA ESO agreement see Section 4 10 VLT XMM proposals may include observing runs to be executed in Period 93 and or in P94 2 3 Proposal Submission Proposals must be submitted in their final version by the submission deadline 1 October 2013 12 00 noon Central European Summer Time This is done via a web upload procedure that can only be accessed by logging into the ESO User Portal at http www eso org UserPortal Please note that the ESO deadline will be strictly enforced users should plan accordingly It is the PI s responsibility to resolve any verification or upload problems related to the instrument configuration LaTeX file or associated figures The online receiver will switch off at 12 00 CEST on the day of the deadline ESO cannot provide support with problem proposal submissions after 11 00 CEST Requests for submissions or amendments after the deadline will not be considered In order to efficiently verify and submit your proposal please note that e Postscript figures are not accepted The proposals are compiled using the pdfIATpX package which accepts only PDF up to version 1 4 and JPEG file formats Please note that there is a s
62. to be unfeasible for any reason The rejection by one Observatory could jeopardize the entire proposed science programme Apart from the above the general policies and procedures currently in force for the final selection of the proposals the allocation of observing time the execution of the observations and the data rights remain unchanged for both ESO and the XMM Newton Observatory 5 Observing Modes In Period 93 most VLT and VLTI instruments will be offered in two modes Visitor Mode VM and Service Mode SM These modes have been extensively described in the Data Flow Operations section of the December 1997 and June 1998 issues of The ESO Messenger see also an article on Service Mode scheduling in the September 2001 issue As part of the Phase 1 proposal investigators will have to specify and justify which mode they desire While every effort will be made to follow the proposed observing mode ESO does reserve the right to allocate time in a mode that is different from the one requested Note especially the restrictions of available modes detailed in Sects 5 1 and 5 2 and the policy in Section 6 3 The telescope as well as the instruments will be operated by observatory staff only The astronomer interfaces with the telescope instruments via Observation Blocks OBs produced using the Phase 2 Proposal Preparation P2PP tool Observers use P2PP 2 13 1 for La Silla observations and P2PP 3 for Paranal observations 5 1 Visitor
63. ts for different observing modes e g service mode visitor mode or pre imaging runs Proposers should split Visitor Mode obser vations at different epochs e g due to different target RAs into separate runs Conversely Service Mode runs should not be split according to time critical windows or used to group targets according to their Right Ascensions e Scheduling constraints must be specified correctly as the telescope schedules are prepared using software that relies on accurate constraints Alves 2005 The ESO Messenger 119 20 Observing scheduling constraints that are not indicated or that are inaccurately specified in BOX 12 of ESOFORM are unlikely to be taken into account by the scheduler Retrofitting scheduling constraints after the release of the schedule is not possible 11 e Monitoring programme proposals Proposers can now apply for Monitoring Programmes to monitor targets over several periods Monitoring Programme proposals should be prepared using the normal template form template tex The Monitoring Programme type should be specified in this form as follows ProgrammeType MONITORING More guidelines on the definition and preparation of Monitoring Programme proposals are given in Section 4 2 and the ESOFORM User Manual e Precipitable water vapour PWV constraints PWV constraints must be specified for CRIRES and all APEX instruments in the Additional Notes column of the Target macro Please see the ESOFORM U
64. www eso org observing etc 10 For APEX instrumentation please go to http www apex telescope org instruments Links to useful proposal preparation software tools e g the Object Observability Calculator Airmass Calculator Digitized Sky Survey can be found at http www eso org sci observing tools html Information on standard stars and sky characteristics as well as additional tools are available at http www eso org sci facilities paranal sciops tools html The parameters used by the ETCs are based on data collected during instrument commissioning and operations The ETC parameters are frequently updated and changes will be reflected by the running version number To help the observatory staff assess the technical feasibility of observations proposers are requested to specify the version number of the ETC they used in the section 9 Justification of requested observing time and observing conditions of their proposals Please check the ESO web pages for the ETC version to be used in Period 93 Please note that while the sky background values used in the ETCs generally reflect actual conditions on Paranal they do not account for local effects such as the zodiacal light Proposers of VLTI observations should check the feasibility of their proposed observations with the visibility calculator viscalc available from the ETC page At Phase 2 users are also encouraged to select a suitable calibrato
65. y to be successfully completed Therefore all such proposals are reviewed for technical feasibility and may be rejected if judged to be too complex Proposers for programmes requiring timing links are strongly encouraged to consider how they may simplify their timing sequences as much as possible as this will minimize the risk that the observations are deemed unfeasible They should also read the Time critical OB execution policy page 23 If a given OB cannot be executed within its intended observability window it will be re moved from the observing queue and will not be attempted again If it was part of a time linked series then the time series observation will continue with the next OB if appropriate ESO will not restart a sequence of linked observations if the pre specified timing constraints cannot be fulfilled More details on how version 3 of the Phase 2 Proposal Preparation P2PP tool can be used to time link group or concatenate various OBs are described in http www eso org sci observing phase2 P2PP3 html e ToO programme execution Successful proposers of ToO runs will have to prepare OBs for their observations well ahead of the beginning of an observing period see Section 5 2 Mostly ToO OBs will have to be dummy OBs with default values for target coordinates integration times etc At the time of occurrence of the predicted event the PI of the programme or one of his her delegates must activate it and at the sam

Call for Proposals for Period 93

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