ING ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY FOR OBSERVING TIME IN 2003B


Contents

1. Change to UK PATT Proposal Deadlines 

2. ING Instrumentation in Semester 2003B 

3. Time-share Agreement with TNG for NL and UK Observers 

4. Discontinuation of the INT Service Programme 
 
5. Telescope Support: new support model for the INT 

6. Withdrawal of the JKT from normal service



1. Change to UK PATT Proposal Deadlines
---------------------------------------

Following the recent review of PATT, PPARC has agreed to 
move the deadlines for UK proposal submission earlier by two 
weeks to 15th March for B Semesters, and 15th September for
A Semesters. 

This change will take place with immediate effect; the 
deadline for receipt of UK proposals for Semester 2003B 
will be midnight GMT on 15th March, 2003. UK proposals for 
the ING telescopes should be submitted in the usual way by 
email to ingpatt@ing.iac.es on the latest version of the 
PATT2 form. See

http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/observing/patt/PATT_Appl.html

for further details.


2. ING Instrumentation in Semester 2003B 
----------------------------------------

General Information

Detailed information on ING instrumentation offered for the 
forthcoming semester can be found in the ING web pages at

http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/observing/instruments.html

and guidelines for proposal submission can be found at

http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/observing/INGinfo_home.html

Applicants should refer to these pages for the latest information,
and are reminded that occasionally highly rated proposals may not 
be awarded time due to scheduling constraints.

Prospective NAOMI/INGRID applicants are encouraged to read the 
most recent performance summary:

 http://www.ing.iac.es/~crb/wht/aoperf.html

and prospective applicants for NAOMI/INGRID with the coronograph
OSCA are encouraged to read:

 http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/instruments/osca/


Instrumentation Overview

WHT  http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/telescopes/wht/
---

WHT applicants are encouraged to submit proposals for larger time
applications. For the UK community, the PATT2 application form
allows a 2-page scientific justification for WHT proposals which
are for *eight* or more nights, are long-term (multi-semester) 
or are coordinated with other telescopes.

The following instrument/detector configurations are available:

       Instrument        Detector 

       ISIS BLUE         EEV12 
       ISIS RED          MARCONI2 
       AUX-port          TEK1  
       PRIME             2xEEV Mosaic 
       AUTOFIB2/WYFFOS   TEK6 (2xEEV if long-camera commissioned)
       INGRID            1kx1k HgCdTe 
       NAOMI/INGRID      1kx1k HgCdTe 
       NAOMI/INGRID/OSCA 1kx1k HgCdTe (shared-risks)


Prospective applicants wishing to submit proposals to use a
visitor instrument on the WHT should contact the relevant
Instrument Contact in the first instance. WHT visitor
instruments and contacts are:

INTEGRAL    Evencio Mediavilla, emg@ll.iac.es
PN.S        Nigel Douglas, ndouglas@astro.rug.nl
SAURON      Tim de Zeeuw, tim@strw.leidenuniv.nl
S-CAM       Michael Perryman, mperryma@astro.estec.esa.nl
Ultracam    Vik Dhillon, vik.dhillon@sheffield.ac.uk


Notes
-----
NAOMI:    Observations will be carried out in service mode.
AUTOFIB2: The large fibres module has been withdrawn. 
WYFFOS:   The WYFFOS long camera may be commissioned in 2003A,
          or 2003B, and following successful commissioning the 
          existing camera will be withdrawn. Any AF2 and INTEGRAL
          runs in 2003B before commissioning of the long camera
          will be with the existing camera and Tek6 detector, 
          and any AF2 and INTEGRAL runs following commissioning 
          will be with the long camera and 2xEEX mosaic detector, 
          and will be shared-risk.


INT - http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/telescopes/int/
---
Prospective applicants to the INT are reminded that due to the
impact of cost savings at ING, the Intermediate Dispersion 
Spectrograph, IDS, is no longer offered. Only one 
instrument/detector configuration is available on the INT:

            Instrument        Detector 

            WFC               4xEEV 

INT observing time is allocated in blocks of one week on 
average, and observing programmes shorter than *4* nights are 
not accepted, unless explicitly agreed in advance by the Head 
of Astronomy or the Director of ING.

For the UK community, the PATT2 application form allows a 
2-page scientific justification for INT proposals which are 
either long-term (multi-semester) or are coordinated with 
other telescopes. 


3. Time-share Agreement with TNG for NL and UK Observers 
--------------------------------------------------------

The time-share agreement with the TNG has proved to be very
successful in the previous two semesters, and continues in 
semester 2003B. In this scheme, NL and UK observers may apply 
to use three TNG instruments. These are:

 + The high resolution spectrograph, SARG 
 + The near infrared camera-spectrometer, NICS, in non-AO
   spectroscopy mode only
 + The multi-object low-resolution optical spectrograph, DOLORES

A minimum of five nights is available in total in semester 
2003B to the NL and UK communities, and in return the Italian 
community obtains access to the WHT for the same number of 
nights.  

For further details on the TNG observing guidelines and for
instrumentation details, refer to:

 http://www.tng.iac.es/

Select "instruments" for detailed information on SARG, NICS and
DOLORES. 

Please note that NL and UK applicants for SARG, NICS or DOLORES 
should apply using their standard PATT form and should send 
these to their own national TAGs. DO NOT APPLY DIRECTLY TO TNG.  
(CAT observers should apply for TNG time in the usual way). 


4. Discontinuation of the INT Service Programme
-----------------------------------------------

Due to the impact of cost savings at ING, the scheme of service 
observing on the INT carried out by observatory personnel will be 
discontinued at the end of Semester 2003A. Limited opportunity
will remain for urgent service-mode observations with the WFC on 
INT engineering nights; details will be published on our web pages.


5. Telescope Support: new support model for the INT
---------------------------------------------------

Due to the impact of cost savings at ING, and operation
of the INT as a single-instrument telescope, Telescope
Operator (TO) support will no longer be provided on the INT.
TO support continues to be provided for each night of all
WHT runs.

Astronomical support is provided on the first night of each run
on the WHT and INT.  

Observers are reminded that filter and/or grating changes within 
a run will be accommodated provided that they have been explicitly
requested in the telescope proposal. However, due to limited human 
resources, additional changes to the instrumental configuration 
may not be accommodated.


6. Withdrawal of the JKT from normal service
--------------------------------------------

Due to the impact of cost savings at ING, the JKT will be taken
out of normal service at the end of semester 2003A, and is no
longer offered as a general-user facility.

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