******************************************************** ** ** ** IIII NNN NN GGGGG ** ** II NNNN NN GG GG LA PALMA ** ** II NN NN NN GG ** ** II NN NN NN GG GGG INFORMATION ** ** II NN NNNN GG GG ** ** IIII NN NNN GGGGG BULLETIN ** ** ** ** ** ** DATE: 15 November 1996 ** ** NUMBER: 14 ** ** ** ******************************************************** >>>>> FUTURE SCHEME FOR SERVICE OBSERVING <<<<< Rene' Rutten A proposal has been put forward to improve the scheme of service observations at the ING. This proposal was recently endorsed by the three time allocation committees in the UK, The Netherlands, and Spain and will become active with the start of semester 97A, on February 1st, 1997. The key issues of the new scheme are (i) scientific grading of service proposals, and (ii) improving communication with the applicants. Below we give a more detailed description of how the new service scheme will be organised, how to apply for service time as of Feb 1st 1997, and what will happen to the service proposals that are currently in the queue. Submission of service proposals ------------------------------- Applying for service time will be restricted to submission through WWW forms only. These forms will be available on the ING and RGO web sites (http://ing.iac.es/service/ and http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~lpinfo respectively). This restriction will facilitate a high level of automation in the handling of proposals. Under the new scheme up to 3 hours of telescope time may be requested, as is currently the case. Once every two months there will be a submission deadline, starting with semester 97A, on 1 February 1997. Proposals will be activated as soon as possible following the deadline. Proposals for targets of opportunity may be submitted at any time and, following a request to the service manager, will be assessed independently. International applicants outside the UK/NL/SP may apply for service time under the same conditions, and they will be assessed by the same panels. Technical and scientific assessment ----------------------------------- Following submission, each proposal will be technically assessed. This is done automatically, upon receipt of the service proposal. If the technical case has serious omissions the applicant will be notified immediately and the proposal will be rejected. Next, the proposal receives a unique reference number, and subsequently the applicant receives an acknowledgement shortly after submission. For the scientific assessment the proposal will be forwarded to the appropriate members of service science panels. The persons are appointed by the time allocation committees, for each country independently. For proposals from the UK the assessors will be Brendan Byrne and Tom Marsh for WHT proposals, and Carolin Crawford will cover the INT and JKT. For dutch proposals Thijs van der Hulst and Huib Henrichs will cover extra galactic and stellar proposals, respectively, and for spanish proposals Pepe Vilchez will do the assessment. Each proposal will receive a scientific rating: Alpha -- highest priority, Beta -- backup priority, or Reject -- withdraw. Applicants will subsequently be informed on the rating given by the science panels. The most highly rated proposals will receive the highest priority for winning telescope time, but clearly constraints imposed by weather, instrument availability and the observing schedule precludes a very strict adherence to scientific priority. Getting your observations ------------------------- The support astronomer will carry out the observations on the scheduled service nights, giving highest priority to the most highly rated proposals. Proposals will not be explicitly scheduled for a specific night but remain active throughout a period of no longer than 9 months (see below). There is no guarantee that a proposal will be completed. For special cases (requesting specific dates, coordinated observations, targets-of-opportunity etc.) the service manager may instruct the service observer to carry a proposal out on a specific night. Once the observations have been obtained the data will be made available primarily through anonymous ftp. The applicant will be informed on what data has been obtained, and will receive instructions on how to copy it from the ftp account. Upon request, the data can be provided on tape through regular mail. The status and progress on each proposal will be logged, and that information will be made available to the community through the WWW pages. In this way the information will be available at any time, and the time consuming communication with the service manager can be kept at a minimum. Lifetime of a service proposal ------------------------------ Proposals will retire nine months after submission, irrespective of whether or not they have been successfully completed. This period of 9 months should give the proposal a fair chance for completion, and it will prevent proposals from remaining active for too long. Proposals asking for more than a single set of observations that would require more than 9 months to complete must be resubmitted. On the starting date of Feb 1st 1997 of the new service scheme the currently active proposals will go into the new model. However, proposals submitted before August 1st 1996 (i.e. before the start of semester 96B) will be withdrawn; the applicants will be notified and will have to resubmit in case they want their proposal to remain in the service queue. Targets of opportunity ---------------------- Requests for observations of targets-of-opportunity that cannot wait for the bi-monthly deadline should be addressed to the service manager, who will then decide on the status of such a request after assessing its scientific urgency. Balancing the UK, the NL and Spain ---------------------------------- Finally there is the issue of retaining the right balance between observing time taken up by applicants from the different communities. The service manager will keep close account of the number of hours of telescope time that have been taken up by applicants from the different communities. In case the appropriate balance does not exist, this will be corrected by giving preferential treatment to proposals from the community that is under represented. With these changes we hope to make the system of service observing more transparent to the users, to provide a more professional service to the community, and to make better use of the available telescope time. Much effort has already been invested in making this new scheme of service observing work. For instance, a new service form on the WWW is already available for use at http://ing.iac.es/service/serviceform.html, and we would like to receive feedback on your experience with this. If you have any queries or further suggestion don't hesitate to contact us. (This information will also appear in the next issue of SPECTRUM). Rene' Rutten (rgmr@ing.iac.es) Don Pollacco (dlp@ing.iac.es) >>>>> WHO-IS-WHO FOR INSTRUMENT RESPONSIBILITIES ON SITE <<<<< Contact the following persons if you have queries about specific instruments (usernames@ing.iac.es are given in brackets): WHT - Chris Benn (CRB) / Don Pollacco (DLP) INT - Nic Walton (NAW) / Phil Rudd (PJR) JKT - Phil Rudd (PJR) / John Telting (JHT) JKT imaging - David Sprayberry (DSPRAY) / Phil Rudd (PJR) WHT prime - David Sprayberry (DSPRAY) / Don Pollacco (DLP) INT prime - David Sprayberry (DSPRAY) / Don Pollacco (DLP) ISIS/FOS2 - Rene' Rutten (RGMR) / John Telting (JHT) AUTOFIB - Don Pollacco (DLP) / Rene' Rutten (RGMR) WYFFOS - Don Pollacco (DLP) / Rene' Rutten (RGMR) UES - Nic Walton (NAW) / John Telting (JHT) TAURUS - Nic Walton (NAW) LDSS - Rene' Rutten (RGMR) / John Telting (JHT) IDS/FOS1 - Don Pollacco (DLP) / Phil Rudd (PJR) RBS - Phil Rudd (PJR) WHIRCAM - Chris Benn (CRB) GHRIL - Chris Benn (CRB) >>>>> SERVICE NIGHTS COMING UP <<<<< The following service/discretionary nights are scheduled for semester 96B: WHT === Nov 21 TAURUS/UES Nov 22-23 ISIS (part of nights) Nov 26-30 ISIS (part of nights) Dec 20 WHIRCAM/UES/ISIS Dec 26 UES/ISIS Dec 31 ISIS (half night) Jan 1 ISIS/UES Jan 8 ISIS/UES Jan 16-17 UES (half nights) Jan 25-26 WHIRCAM/ISIS/UES Jan 29 UES (half night) Jan 31 ISIS (half night) INT === Dec 4 prime focus imaging Dec 15 prime focus imaging Dec 23 IDS jan 30-31 IDS JKT === Dec 3 CCD Dec 11 CCD Dec 19 CCD Jan 10 RBS Jan 21 CCD Jan 30-31 CCD To apply for service time, see the WWW at http://ing.iac.es/service >>>>> NEXT PATT APPLICATION DEADLINE <<<<< March 31, 1997 for Semester 97B between Aug. 1 1997 and Feb. 1 1997. NOTE: for Dutch applications the deadline is March 15, 1997. September 30, 1997 for Semester 98A between Feb. 1 and Jul. 31, 1998. NOTE: for Dutch applications the deadline will be September 15, 1997. >>>>> CONTACTING La Palma <<<<< La Palma can best be reached through INTERNET address: user@ing.iac.es ============================================================================== This information bulletin was prepared at the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes. Distribution is by e-mail only. For free subscriptions send your Internet address to: >>>>>>>>>>>>> bulletin@ing.iac.es <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Suggestions regarding content are appreciated. ==============================================================================