[ASA] Call for Gemini and Subaru Proposals in Semester 2014B

[Australian Gemini Office]

Proposals for Australian access to the Gemini and Subaru telescopes for 
Semester 2014B
(1 Aug 2014 - 31 Jan 2015) are due by *5:00pm AEST, Monday 31 March 2014*.


A separate call for Magellan proposals in Semester 2014B (with a 7 April 
2014 deadline)
will be issued shortly.


What's new for Semester 2014B?
------------------------------

  * Astronomy Australia Ltd and AusGO have secured funding from the
    Australian government's NCRIS-2013 program to assist student
    Principal Investigators enrolled at an Australian institution who
    are awarded queue or classical time on Gemini by ATAC in Semesters
    2014B and/or 2015A to travel to the telescope. Travel subsidies will
    be made available so that students can spend a week at whichever
    Gemini telescope their program is scheduled on, during which time
    they will work alongside the queue observer to learn how the queue
    process and various instruments work, and may get to execute
    sequences from their own program. Student PIs who would be
    interested in taking up this opportunity should indicate this in the
    Technical Description section of their proposal, and successful PIs
    will be contacted after the Gemini allocations are announced with
    details on how to arrange a visit and claim the subsidy.
    Independently of this scheme, the Gemini Observatory is also
    offering travel grants for students
    <http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/observing-gemini/2014b-call-proposals#BringOneGetOne>
    when accompanying their supervisor to a Gemini telescope.
  * The Gemini Planet Imager
    <http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/gpi/?q=sciops/instruments/gpi>
    is offered for community use in shared-risks mode in Semester 2014B.
    With commissioning and early science ongoing throughout Semester
    2014A, potential applicants should check the GPI current status
    <http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/gpi/status-and-availability>
    and performance update
    <http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/gpi/instrument-performance>.
  * The CCDs in GMOS-South
    <http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/gmos-0> are scheduled to
    be replaced with new Hamamatsu CCDs
    <http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/gmos-/imaging/detector-array/gmosn-array-hamamatsu>
    in May/June 2014, and commissioned in time for the start of 2014B.
    The GMOS-South Integration Time Calculator
    <http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/gmos/itc-sensitivity-and-overheads?q=node/10479>
    will shortly be updated to include both the old EEV and the new
    Hamamatsu CCD arrays. Applicants for 2014B should assume the use of
    the new Hamamatsu detectors in planning their proposals.
  * Following a recent analysis of the seeing percentiles at both sites,
    the seeing FWHM corresponding to IQ20 conditions
    <http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/telescopes-and-sites/observing-condition-constraints#ImageQuality>
    has been relaxed slightly. This should reduce the number of IQ20
    observations which have to be abandoned when the seeing softens over
    time, while still enabling PIs who need the very best image quality
    that Gemini can deliver to complete their programs.
  * Proposals for Large & long-term Programs
    <http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/observing-gemini/2014b-call-proposals#LargePrograms>
    to commence in 2014B are also being accepted from applicants who
    earlier submitted a Letter Of Intent. Different page lengths and
    additional requirements apply to Large and long-term applications,
    which should use the special LaTeX
    <http://files.gemini.edu/%7Esoftware/phase1/2014B/GemPhase1_LP.tex>
    or Word
    <http://files.gemini.edu/%7Esoftware/phase1/2014B/GemPhase1_US.doc>
    templates.
  * The visitor instruments DSSI
    <http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/dssi-speckle-camera-north>
    and TEXES <http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/texes-north> are
    offered on Gemini North in July/August.
  * There will be a guaranteed minimum of 5 nights on the Subaru
    telescope available to the Gemini community, including shared risks
    use of the Hyper Suprime-Cam
    <http://www.naoj.org/Observing/Instruments/HSC/> (HSC) very wide
    field optical to far-red imager, and 4 visitor instruments (HiCIAO
    <http://www.naoj.org/staff/kudotm/SEEDSHiCIAOPVreport_final090923e.pdf>,
    Kyoto3DII
    <http://cosmos.phys.sci.ehime-u.ac.jp/%7Ekazuya/p-3DII/index.html>,
    Raven <http://web.uvic.ca/%7Eravenmoa/>, and SCExAO
    <http://www.naoj.org/Projects/SCEXAO/>) by arrangement with the
    instrument PI.


How to apply
------------

Gemini applications must be submitted using the 2014B release of the Phase I Tool (PIT) software. Subaru applications are also submitted using the PIT. For full details on instrument availability and application procedures, please see:

http://ausgo.aao.gov.au/cfp.html

as well as the official Gemini Observatory Call for Proposals:

http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/observing-gemini/2014b-call-proposals


Need help?
----------

For general enquiries about Australian usage of Gemini or Subaru, please contact the
Australian Gemini Office (ausgo at aao.gov.au). For technical queries about a Gemini
Phase I proposal, please use the Gemini Helpdesk:

http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/helpdesk/




Stuart Ryder
Australian Gemini Scientist
ausgo at aao.gov.au

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