1. Phase 1: Applying for WEAVE Open Time
2. Proposals that "Pre-empt/Replicate" the WEAVE Survey
3. Proposals for Non-Standard Scheduling Requirements
4. Phase 2: Observing Preparation
5. Observing Priority Bands
6. Observations Follow up
7. Data Availability
8. Data Ownership
9. Publication Policy of PI Data that "Preempts/Replicates" the WEAVE Survey
10. Acknowledgement in Publications
During the years of the WEAVE Surveys, some WEAVE time will be
made available to the community, as described in the document
"WHT time during the WEAVE survey years".
The WEAVE Open-Time (OT) Programme on the WHT in the WEAVE era is the fraction of observing time which is reserved for observations other than those of the WEAVE Survey. Below, we provide potential
applicants to the WEAVE OT Programme with a summary of the relevant procedures and rules relating to
applying for time, and the use of the resulting data. For queries, please email
weave_open_time_support
ing.iac.es
1. Phase 1: Applying for WEAVE Open Time
Information about the expected performance of the instrument can be found
on the
WEAVE overview.
The responsibility for the allocation of WEAVE OT rests with the time-allocation committees (TACs). In the years of the WEAVE Surveys, astronomers can apply for WHT OT through four main
channels: the three national TACs (ING UK PATT, NL PC and ES CAT) and the CCI TAC, who runs the international time programme of the Canarian Observatories (ITP).
The availability of nights for WEAVE OT will be announced in the standard 6-month TAC calls (see Applying for Telescope Time). WEAVE OT proposals have their own application form.
PIs employed or studying in, or affiliated with, a Dutch, Spanish or UK institution at the time of submission should submit their proposal/s to the Dutch (NL PC), Spanish (ES CAT) or UK (ING PATT) TAC respectively. A similar rule applies to PIs who are working at foreign institutions based in any of these three countries - they should submit their proposal/s to the TAC of the country in which they are based.
The NL PC cannot accept proposals submitted by PIs employed or studying in a country other than the Netherlands. The ING PATT and ES CAT can accept proposals submitted by PIs employed or studying in a country other than UK and Spain as long as the majority of the collaborators on the proposal are employed or studying in the UK or Spain respectively.
The NL PC, ES CAT and ING PATT can accept proposals from PIs employed or studying at the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes at the time of submission.
ING will provide the entire ING communities with access to
the entire northern sky throughout the year. There will not be separate nights devoted to surveys
and to open time. Rather, the observing queue will be populated with all eligible observing blocks (OB), from surveys
and from open time, hence any night may accommodate OBs from both.
2. Proposals that "Pre-empt/Replicate" the WEAVE Survey
Avoiding
duplications with
WEAVE Survey science is understood to be desirable but complicated in
practice, given the sheer size of the surveys. Therefore, neither the ING nor the WEAVE Survey
Executive will aim at preventing principal investigator (PI) projects from pre-empting or replicating science from the WEAVE
Surveys.
After proposal submission, the WEAVE Survey Executive will flag what constitutes pre-emption or replication of
WEAVE Survey data, with the ING Director deciding over any disputes. See sections on Data Ownership and Publication Policy below for further details.
3. Proposals for Non-Standard Scheduling Requirements
Non-standard scheduling requirements (e.g. ToO observations,
other time-critical observations) will not be catered for during at least
the first year of WEAVE observing. However, given the potentially high
scientific impact of such observations, it's likely that at some point in
the future these will be possible.
Time-critical observations, monitoring programmes,
long-term programmes and community fibres (access to fibres not used in another observer or
survey configuration) are likely to be offered (at least some of these, depending on demand) once the WEAVE Surveys are running smoothly.
4. Phase 2: Observing Preparation
OT programmes with WEAVE will always be done in
queue service mode, and oObservations are detailed in XML observing blocks (OBs) which are prepared by applicants at WEAVE-OT Phase 2.
For phase 2, the awarded applicants will make extensive use of the
hosted at the
Cambridge Astronomy Survey Unit (CASU), with support from the ING Astronomy Group as well as from CASU.
Communication between WASP and the principal investigator (PI) of the awarded proposal is established at the beginning of phase 2. A first email contains the necessary credentials to log on to WASP.
Every semester CASU provides two windows for phase-2 submissions which correspond to every trimester. For instance, PIs of proposals submitted for observing in semester 24A, will receive a call for submitting OBs for trimester 24A2, and later on, trimester 24B1. WASP provides these two distinct OB submission windows per semester to allow programmes with a particular visibility or time constraint to submit OBs twice or the latest possible.
Nevertheless, PIs of open-time proposals will usually prefer to submit all their OBs for a given semester during the first submission window so the OBs can be on the observing queue at the beginning of the observing period (start of first trimester). There is no need to resubmit OBs already active in the queue, so please check the activation period (trimesters on queue) of your programme in the time allocations before submitting OBs.
When preparing phase-2 observations, the PI will be guided through the following steps:
- Creation by WASP of accounts to allow each approved project to access the WASP platform.
- Creation by the user of a target catalog in FITS format; upload for validation on WASP.
- Creation by the user of XML Observing Blocks (OBs) from the validated FITS catalogue.
- Upload for validation on WASP of all planned OBs.
- Selection by the user of uploaded OBs for observation.
Deadlines for the above are listed on
WASP trimester timelines (log on WASP first using your credentials). Once the above steps are complete, CASU sends the OBs to ING for ingestion into the observing queues at the beginning of the observing period.
Please email
weave_open_time_supporting.iac.es
for queries about the phase-2 process, or for assistance in preparing the FITS catalogue, the XML OBs and carrying out validations on WASP.
Specific information for applicants preparing phase-2 observations can be found at:
Eventually the raw and processed data are made available to the PIs through the WEAVE Archive (WAS).
Comments and suggestions regarding the OR should be emailed to the above address. When reporting a problem with the OR please include a clear description of the action that resulted in the problem. Reports of any issues with L1 (CPS) or L2 (APS) data should mention the relevant filename and the values of the following parameters:
Note: when inspecting LIFU observations, please note that the central fibre of the LIFU mode is fibreid="305" or ifu_spaxel="C14".
