ING ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY FOR OBSERVING TIME IN 2004A


Contents


1. ING Instrumentation in Semester 2004A

2. OASIS Offered on a Shared-Risks Basis

3. Backup Proposals for Adaptive Optics

4. INGRID Not Offered at Cassegrain Focus

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

6. Telescope Support: New Support Model for the INT 

7. New Visitor Instruments to the WHT 



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

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

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

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

Prospective applicants for NAOMI/OASIS are encouraged to
read the OASIS home page:

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


Instrumentation Overview

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

All 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 

       ISIS BLUE         EEV12 
       ISIS RED          MARCONI2 
       AUX-port          TEK1  
       PRIME             2xEEV Mosaic 
       AUTOFIB2/WYFFOS   TEK6  (short camera) 
       NAOMI/INGRID      1kx1k HgCdTe 
       NAOMI/INGRID/OSCA 1kx1k HgCdTe 
       NAOMI/OASIS       2kx4k MIT/LL (shared-risks)


Prospective 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

Prospective 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


Notes
-----
AO:       All AO observations (NAOMI/INGRID/OSCA and 
          NAOMI/OASIS) will be carried out in service mode.

AUTOFIB2: The large fibres module has been withdrawn. 

WYFFOS:   The WYFFOS long camera will be commissioned in 2004A,
          and following successful commissioning the existing 
          camera will be withdrawn.  

INT - http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/telescopes/int/
---
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. 


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

The optical integral-field spectrograph OASIS, formerly at 
the CFHT, was successfully commissioned on-sky with NAOMI in 
July 2003, and further commissioning is scheduled in October 
2003. OASIS is offered to the community on a shared-risks 
basis in semester 2004A.

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 service 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 service observations.

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

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


3. 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 (i.e. unspecified seeing, 
sky brightness and photometric conditions).

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.


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

Due to essential engineering work, the infra-red
imaging camera, INGRID, will not be offered at the
Cassegrain focus in semester 04A. These essential
engineering tasks include work on the cooling 
system, the mechanism wheels and detector alignment. 
Some of this work is also essential for operation of 
INGRID with NAOMI in GRACE.


5. 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 
2004A. 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 
2004A 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). 


6. 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.


7. 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


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