Call for Proposals Closed

This Material Provided for Reference Only

• Keck I and Keck II, with possible trades for SUBARU time.
• Palomar 200-inch.
• Palomar 60-inch (service observing only).
• Palomar Oschin Telescope (service observing only).

Caltech Faculty, Senior Research Associates, Senior Research Fellows, Post-Doctoral Scholars, Senior Research Staff (approved by the COO Director) and Graduate Students may apply for COO-administered observing time at Keck and Palomar, subject to the following:

• Applicants must be in residence at Caltech at the time proposals are submitted.
• Caltech Faculty and Senior Research Associates may submit no more than three Keck proposals and/or any number of Palomar proposals.
• Caltech Senior Research Fellows, Post-Doctoral Scholars and Senior Research Staff may submit any number of Palomar proposals but are limited to one Keck proposal per semester.
• Caltech Graduate Students may apply for Palomar time only.

• Each proposal should cover a single, coherent, well-defined scientific topic.
• Proposals consist of three parts: Cover sheet, Discussion, Observing list.
• A report of your observing history and bibliography (see below) is an essential adjunct to your proposal.
• If you submit two or more Keck proposals, the one representing your highest-priority should be designated as Principal; all others are Secondary. Similarly, if you submit two or more proposals for the Palomar telescopes, your highest priority project should be designated as Principal; all others are Secondary.

3.1 Cover Sheets

• Keck: Log into your Keck account at the Keck Observer Login Page. Fill in the required information. For guidance regarding the selection of acceptable runs, see the appendix below.
• Palomar: Log into the appropriate Palomar cover sheet (see links at left) and fill in the required information.

3.2 Discussion & Figures

Provide a short (see page limits, below) description of the project, explaining the scientific goals and methodology, and justifying the observing time and equipment requested in the present semester. Include citations to publications referenced in the discussion. New project proposals should present an estimate of the total observing time required to complete the project; continuing project proposals should summarize the status of previously obtained data and an updated estimate of the observing time needed to complete the project. The discussion should explain any constraints that may affect observation scheduling. Figures and tables may either be directly embedded in or appended to the proposal narrative at the proposer's discretion; the combined document should observe page limits given below.

Page limits

[Definition: 1 page = One side of a sheet 8½ x 11 inches, with suitable margins. Type size = 11- or 12-point.]

3.3 Observing List

Provide a list of targets to be observed, including names, coordinates (in sexagesimal format), and apparent magnitudes. Observing lists do not count in the proposal page limit.

3.4 Submitting the Proposal

When finished, combine your cover sheet, discussion and observing list into a single pdf document (see note below) and attach it to an e-mail to brucato-[at]-astro.caltech.edu not later than .

The Director and the Time Allocation Committee place a high premium on the effective use of telescope time and the timely publication of results derived from the observations. Accordingly, all proposers are required to submit an Observing History and Bibliography report as a separate document, distinct from any proposals. Your report should consist of:

1. Semester.
2. Telescope and proposal number.
3. Instrument(s) used.
4. Number of nights allocated and the number of nights useable.
5. For ToO projects, give a comprehensive list of the interrupts invoked, including for each the date, telescope, instrument and duration.

Bibliography: Provide a bibliography of your refereed papers based on Keck (or from observing time awarded through Keck trades) and/or Palomar data, published or submitted for publication during the last eight semesters [2013A to 2016B, inclusive], even if you were not the principal investigator of the observing proposal(s).

Attach the report (as a pdf document) to an e-mail to brucato-[at]-astro.caltech.edu (not later than ).

• Date-Specific Observing is restricted to projects requiring observations at particular times (e.g., occultations, transits, critical phase coverage in a binary, etc.). Proposers requesting date-specific observations must check the Date-Specific box on the proposal cover sheet. For each proposed date-specific observation please include the following information:
  • Target name
  • Type of event to be observed (e.g. transit)
  • Date and Time of event/observation (telescope local time, not UT!)

5.1 Special Notes - Keck

1. Only a single proposal is needed for a project involving both Keck I and Keck II.
2. By June 2016 Keck SSC/CARA Board action there are new 2017A policies in place for Time-Domain Astronomy (TDA) Cadence and Partnership Target of Opportunity (ToO) observation modes. These new policies lead directly to notes 5.1.3 and 5.1.4 below.
3. Partial nights (¾, ½, ¼) may be requested at Keck. Observers should be advised that it may not always be possible to schedule partial night allocations.
4. Following 5.1.2 above there are now five observing modes at Keck relevant for CIT proposers:
   1. "Classical" observing.
   2. CIT Internal ToO - Target of Opportunity interrupts of Caltech observer (see CIT TOO page).
   3. Partnership ToO - Target of Opportunity interrupts when the interrupted observer is from Caltech, University of California, University of Hawaii or NASA. See Partnership ToO Policy
   4. Cadenced observing. See Cadence Policy
   5. Snapshot observing (as a special, single-instance case of Cadence observing).
5. For projects involving both Keck and Palomar, submit the Keck and Palomar cover sheets separately. The discussion and observing list need be attached only to the Keck cover sheet.
6. For Keck instrument availability and special considerations see Keck Instrument Availability.
7. OSIRIS will be unavailable for science through 01 May 2017 for the imager detector upgrade.
8. SUBARU exchange: The SUBARU-KECK exchange will continue as last semester with flexibility as to the number of nights available for exchange. The final number will be determined based on the demand from each community. Generally, all Subaru instruments will be available. HSC will be available for 5 runs in 2017A but not during dark time from late May to early June; S-Cam will be available during the dark time from late May to early June.

5.2 Special Notes - Palomar

1. Observers may request full or half nights for Hale/P200. Observers should be advised that it may not always be possible to schedule partial night allocations.
2. For projects involving more than one Palomar telescope, submit the appropriate cover sheet for each separately. The discussion, figures and observing list need be attached to only the cover sheet for the larger telescope.
3. For Hale Telescope instruments, see Palomar Observer Information. Private and Semi-private instruments may be requested only with the prior approval of the instrument builder. Please include in the discussion a confirmation that appropriate arrangements have been made.
4. DBSP, LFC, WASP, WIRC and TripleSpec may be operated by remote observing. For additional information, see Cahill Remote Observing Facilities.
5. The Oxford SWIFT integral field spectrograph has been decommissioned for use and will be unavailable in semester 2017A.
6. For information on the Palm 3000 system (P3K), see the P3K Observers information summary.
7. At the 200-inch telescope, you may request instruments to be installed simultaneously at the prime focus and Cassegrain focus but you must fully justify the request in your proposal. Secondary instruments should be requested only if they are integral to the program and if there is a very high probability that they will be used during the observing run.
8. Proposals for 200-inch time in support of Large Projects may be submitted. See Large Project Proposals for details.
9. Palomar 60-inch Telescope - A share of the Science Time at the 60-inch may be allocated to Caltech observers for general research. The default facility instrument for P60 is SEDM; please see P60 Observer Information for information on planning P60 observations.
10. Oschin (P48) Telescope - Up to 20% of the time at the Oschin/P48 Telescope (with the MOSAIC camera) may be allocated to Caltech observers for general research. Please see P48 Observer Information for information on planning P48 observations. Note: P48 operates in service observing only.

Combine the cover sheet and discussion section (including the figures and observing list) of each proposal into a single pdf document. For information on merging pdf documents, see PDF File Merging

6.1 Keck Instruments

Keck Telescope instrument information is available through the WMKO Keck Instrument Home Page. Supplementary information on instrument status is available at Keck Instrument Availability

6.2 200-inch Telescope Instruments

Instrumentation for P200 is summarized on the P200 Instrument Page. If you propose to bring your own equipment to P200 please specify the appropriate focus code [Prime Focus (OE-PF), Cassegrain (OE-Cass w/o P3K), Cassegrain + P3K Base (OE-Cass w/ P3K)] on your cover sheet.

7.1 Specifying Preferred Observing Runs

The system of P's and A's to designate preferred and acceptable runs (respectively), intended to take the guess-work out of scheduling, rests on two conditions: First, observers need to be as generous as possible in designating acceptable runs, since overly-constrictive selections make scheduling difficult and, in extreme cases, may even preclude the assignment of observing time to the project. A good approach would be to tag any observing run as Acceptable if the data can be obtained during that period. Second, the scheduler will not assign observing time in a run that has not been tagged by the observer with a P or an A. Should circumstances obtain that such assignment might be needed, the scheduler will discuss the situation with the observer before any exception to the rule is applied.

Putting all the P's and A's on a single line means you want the time scheduled in a single block, if possible. If you want the time distributed into two or more blocks, use a separate line for each block.

COO Proposal Call 2017A / v 1.0.1
Last updated: 06 September 2016 RJB/AFB/ACM