ING ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY FOR OBSERVING TIME IN SEMESTER 2008A The semester 2008A announcement of opportunity for observing time at the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes on La Palma can be found at: http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/observing/2008A_AO.html Please feel free to distribute this announcement in your institute. I would like to bring to your special attention the following aspects related to the ING telescopes. 1. The future of the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope is uncertain beyond 2009. Therefore, if you require intensive use of that telescope it is important you submit your proposal sooner rather than later. Note that the future of the INT has not been definitively decided on yet. If you foresee significant use of that telescope for your science beyond 2009 then please contact the appropriate person at your national agency (STFC for the UK, NWO for the Netherlands, and the IAC for Spain) and let your opinion be known. Alternatively, contact undersigned at rgmr@ing.iac.es . In the mean time, the observatory will continue to support this telescope and its instrumentation. 2. I am pleased to announce that the venerable ISIS spectrograph on the WHT will support a new observing mode for high-speed, high-efficiency spectroscopy using a Low-Light-Level CCD. It opens a new window at the WHT on the highly variable universe. 3. This summer, if all goes well, work on the laser guide beacon for Adaptive Optics will be completed. The project is progressing very well, but is not in a state yet that allows us to offer it as a common-user facility. It is our intention to create opportunities for science exploitation through special calls for service observing time. Further details of the proposal submission process and current instrumentation at ING can be found at: http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/observing/INGinfo_home.html and http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/ Rene Rutten Director, ING 23 August 2007 ============================================================= To subscribe to [INGNEWS] send to majordomo@ing.iac.es the command "subscribe ingnews" from the email address you want to subscribe. Leave the subject field and the rest of the message body empty. To unsubscribe from [INGNEWS] send to majordomo@ing.iac.es the command "unsubscribe ingnews" from the email address you want to unsubscribe. Leave the subject field and the rest of the message body empty. You can subscribe a colleague to [INGNEWS] by sending an email to majordomo@ing.iac.es with the message "subscribe ingnews address" in the body of the message, where address should contain your collegue's email address. This only works from a previously subscribed address. For further information on ING, point your browser to: http://www.ing.iac.es/