ING ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY FOR OBSERVING TIME IN 2004B


Contents

1. ING Instrumentation in Semester 2004B

2. OASIS Offered on a Shared-Risks Basis

3. INGRID Not Offered at Cassegrain Focus

4. LIRIS Offered on a Shared-Risks Basis

5. WYFFOS Long-Camera Offered on a Shared-Risks Basis

6. Backup Proposals for Adaptive Optics

7. Opticon Trans-national Programme

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

9. Telescope Support: New Support Model for the INT 

10.New Visitor Instruments to the WHT 

11.Submission Deadlines



1. ING Instrumentation in Semester 2004B
----------------------------------------

William Herschel Telescope

For an overview of the proposal submission process and current 
instrumentation at ING, see

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

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, or are long-term (multi-
semester) or are coordinated with other telescopes.

The following instrument/detector configurations are available:

Instrument         Detector       Comments
ISIS BLUE          EEV12
ISIS RED           MARCONI2
AUX-port imager    TEK1
Prime Focus Camera 2xEEV Mosaic
AUTOFIB2/WYFFOS    2xEEV Mosaic   Long camera, shared risks
NAOMI/INGRID       1kx1k HgCdTe
NAOMI/INGRID/OSCA  1kx1k HgCdTe
NAOMI/OASIS        2kx4k MIT/LL   Shared risks
LIRIS              1kx1k HgCdTe   Shared risks

Adaptive Optics
All AO observations are carried out in queue mode by ING
staff. Applicants for AO observations are encouraged to consult 
the NAOMI instrument home page for more information about 
individual instruments and about AO performance:

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

Visitor Instruments
Applicants wishing to submit proposals to use an established 
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

Applicants wishing to submit proposals to use a new (to ING) 
visitor instrument should read the following instructions:

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


Isaac Newton Telescope

Only one instrument/detector configuration is available on the INT:

Instrument        Detector
WFC               4xEEV

ING, in collaboration with Prof. John Beckman of the IAC, has 
recently purchased two H-beta filters for the WFC on the INT, H-beta 
broad (4861/170) and H-beta narrow (4861/30). These filters are 
offered in semester 2004B.

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.


2. OASIS Offered on a Shared-Risks Basis
----------------------------------------

The optical integral-field spectrograph OASIS, formerly at 
the CFHT, had successful commissioning runs on-sky with NAOMI in 
2003, and further commissioning is scheduled in semester 2004A. 
OASIS is offered to the community on a shared-risks basis in 
semester 2004B.

OASIS is now mounted permanently with the adaptive-optics 
system NAOMI, in the WHT's new AO-dedicated Nasmyth enclosure 
GRACE. Prospective applicants are reminded that the best- seeing 
period at ING occurs in the summer months, but applications are  
welcome for all parts of the semester. Observations with NAOMI/OASIS 
will be carried out by ING staff in queue 
mode, and are on a shared-risks basis.

PIs need not budget for overheads such as spectral calibrations;  
standard calibration observations will be made routinely 
by ING staff as an integral part of the queue observations.

For further information on OASIS please refer to the 
home page:

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


3. INGRID Not Offered at Cassegrain Focus
-----------------------------------------

INGRID is not offered at the Cassegrain focus in 2004B, but is 
offered at the GRACE Nasmyth focus with the adaptive optics suite. 
Applicants are reminded that INGRID can also be used in GRACE with 
the AO loop switched off; in this case a guide star is not 
needed, and throughput is reduced by ~0.5 magnitudes compared to 
that at Cassegrain. The FoV of INGRID in GRACE is 42 arcsec.

At the Cassegrain focus, infrared imaging observations may be 
carried out with LIRIS (Section 4). The FoV of LIRIS at the 
Cassegrain focus is 4.2 arcmin.


4. LIRIS Offered on a Shared-Risks Basis
-----------------------------------------

The long-slit intermediate resolution infrared spectrograph, LIRIS, 
built at the IAC, has imaging, long-slit and multi-object spectroscopy 
modes in the near-infrared (0.9-2.4 microns), and uses a Hawaii 
1024x1024 HgCdTe detector operating at 65K. It is mounted at the 
Cassegrain focus; the plate scale is 0.25 acrsec/pixel and the 
field-of-view is 4.2 arcmin. 

LIRIS had a successful commissioning run in 2003A, and further 
commissioning is scheduled in 2004A. It is therefore offered in both 
imaging and spectroscopy modes in 2004B on a shared risks basis.

For further information on LIRIS please refer to the project web 
site at the IAC

http://www.iac.es/proyect/LIRIS/


5. WYFFOS Long-Camera Offered on a Shared-Risks Basis
------------------------------------------------------

The WYFFOS long camera will be commissioned in July 2004. Subject to 
successful commissioning it will be offered with the 2xEEV mosaic 
detector with AF2 and the visitor instrument INTEGRAL in 2004B, on a 
shared risks basis. 

If the long camera is not successfully commissioned, the existing 
short camera will be offered with the Tek6 detector.


6. Backup Proposals for Adaptive Optics 
---------------------------------------

In order to provide backup for periods of unsuitable atmospheric 
conditions for NAOMI and OASIS observations, we encourage proposals 
for ISIS which can be carried out in any sky conditions (that is, 
unspecified seeing and sky brightness).

Such proposals will be reviewed by the national TACs in the usual way, 
and we envisage at least one such proposal per TAC will act as backup 
to the NAOMI/INGRID and NAOMI/OASIS service periods.


7. Opticon Trans-national Programme
-----------------------------------

Access to the ING telescopes under the auspices of the EC-funded 
Research Infrastructure Programme OPTICON is available to eligible 
astronomers from EU Member States and Associated States, and EC 
funding is available to cover their travel, accommodation and 
subsistence costs. Applications from new users and young researchers, 
and astronomers from countries without similar research facilities, 
are strongly encouraged.

Proposals can be submitted to any of the ING time allocation 
committees by following their submission procedures and deadlines 
(Section 11), and will be judged strictly on scientific merit. 
Applicants are urged to read the local Opticon web pages for detailed 
information on eligibility and other aspects of the programme 

http://www.otri.iac.es/opticon/


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

The time-share agreement with the TNG has proved to be very successful 
in previous semesters, and continues in semester 
2004B. 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 on the TNG in 
semester 2004B 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/

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, and not directly to  TNG.  
(CAT observers should apply for TNG time in the usual way). 
Successful applicants who meet the Opticon criteria of eligibility 
will be entitled to apply to the Opticon Trans-national Access 
Programme for their travel, accommodation and subsistence costs.


9. Telescope Support: New Support Model for the INT
---------------------------------------------------

Applicants are reminded that due to the impact of cost savings at 
ING, and operation of the INT as a single-instrument telescope, 
Telescope Operator (TO) support is no longer provided on the INT.

TO support continues to be provided for each night of all WHT 
runs, and astronomical support is provided on the first night of 
each run on both 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.


10. New Visitor Instruments on the WHT
-------------------------------------

PIs considering a proposal to the WHT around a new visitor instrument 
(i.e. new to ING) should email the Director well in advance of the 
proposal deadlines stating their intent, and should also submit a 
Technical Appraisal form. Further information on the protocol to be 
followed for submitting proposals centred around new visitor 
instruments, and a link to the Technical Appraisal form, is available at:

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


11. Proposal Submission Details
-------------------------------

Details of how to submit a proposal, including deadlines, are given 
on the web pages of the Dutch, Spanish and UK time allocation panels:

Dutch:   http://www.astron.nl/wsrt/PC/
Spanish: http://www.iac.es/cat/info.html
UK:      http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/observing/patt/PATT_Appl.html


Ian Skillen, ING
12 February 2004