The first "Service-Queue" run will be in June, but a further run will be expected in Semester 97B, so (UK) PATT applicants are again encouraged to apply for time according to the guide-lines listed below.
The scheme is intended for proposals that do not require a whole week to complete, but more time than is usual for a standard service proposal.
In this scheme observers will be asked to apply for 1-4 dark/grey nights on the INT at Prime Focus (broad band CCD imaging) only. Depending on the number of nights awarded, one or two runs of between 7 and 10 nights (total) will be scheduled at an optimum time of year.
The Wide Field (Mosaic) Camera was succesfully commissioned in January with 1-2 elements of the Mosaic being made available. An upgrade run will take place in May, after which it is anticipated that the old Prime Focus system will no longer be available.
PATT (ING) proposals (.dat files) should be submitted electronically to:
ingpatt@ast.cam.ac.uk
in the usual way.You should indicate (somewhere on the PATT form) if you do NOT want the proposal to be considered for the SQ scheme, ie you will be applying for the usual one week unit of time.
Applications will be ranked on scientific merit as normal and PATT will allocate a number of nights and a priority ranking to each successful proposal. Whilst each proposal has some chance of being done, the highest priority proposal in the service queue will take up the first available clear nights and so on.
The observations will be done in service mode by one or two support astronomers, so applicants will not be required to go out to La Palma to make the observations.
For further details or queries, plesae contact Bill Martin in Cambridge (wlm@ast.cam.ac.uk).