[ASA] Reminder: ESO Period 103 proposal deadline

[Stuart Ryder]

Dear colleagues,

  This is a friendly reminder to the Australian astronomy community that
ESO proposals for Period 103 are due in just over a week, on Thursday 27
September - see below. Dr Emily Wisnioski from ANU is a current member of
the ESO Observing Programmes Committee, and has kindly put together some
words of advice on how to maximise your chances of success in the coming
round, which you can read on our latest Australian ESO Forum blog entry:
https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/O3T5CoVzGQi4Q616F1SYNh?domain=astronomyaustralia.org.au

______________________________

Dr. Stuart Ryder
Program Manager (Mon, Wed, Fri)
Astronomy Australia Ltd.

T: 02 9850 9372

F: 03 9214 4396
E:  <mailto:stuart.ryder at astronomyaustralia.org.au>
stuart.ryder at astronomyaustralia.org.au

W:  <https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/f4FVCp8AJQtD7pJpFDnXxn?domain=astronomyaustralia.org.au> www.astronomyaustralia.org.au 

P: P.O. Box 2100  Hawthorn  VIC  3122

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environment in which every individual is treated with dignity and respect.

 

 

 

ESO Period 103 Call for Proposals

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released the Call for Proposals
for Period 103 (for observations between 1 April - 30 September 2019).
Under the terms of the Strategic Partnership between ESO and Australia,
Australian-based astronomers have access to the facilities of the La Silla
and Paranal Observatories, specifically the:

*	3.6-m telescope;
*	New Technology Telescope (NTT);
*	Very Large Telescope (VLT);
*	Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI);
*	Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA); and
*	VLT Survey Telescope (VST).

The proposal deadline is Thursday 27 September 2018 at noon Central
European Summer Time (8pm Australian Eastern Standard Time).

Complete details on how to apply can be found at
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/e5xXCq7BKYtWVJxJIQx6gm?domain=eso.org>
https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/e5xXCq7BKYtWVJxJIQx6gm?domain=eso.org. All
applicants should consult the
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/NPLlCr8DLRt9W4z4cyDVrD?domain=eso.org> Call for
Proposals document for Period 103, and will require an
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/FYiiCvl0PoCXRrPrhoQrly?domain=eso.org> ESO User Portal account to submit
proposals.

A wealth of information for Australian applicants can be found on AAL’s
new  <https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/KUJQCwVLQmip2g4gU8mSVD?domain=astronomyaustralia.org.au> Australian ESO
Forum. The  <https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/jYXWCxnMRvtOzPgPs2k-Tt?domain=astronomyaustralia.org.au> ESO
Collaboratory is open to enable users to share and discuss ideas for
collaborative proposals.

Furthermore, registration is now open for the Australia-ESO Joint
Conference on “ <https://www.aao.gov.au/conference/australia-eso-
conference-2019> Linking Galaxies from the Epoch of Initial Star Formation
to Today”, to be held in Sydney from 18-22 February 2019.

 

What's new in Period 103?

Applicants are strongly encouraged to review the expected changes in
instrumentation offered and procedures for Period 103 given in  <http://www.
eso.org/sci/observing/phase1/p103/CfP103.pdf#subsection.1.1> Sec. 1.1 of
the Call for Proposals. Among the items likely to be of most interest to
the Australian community are:

*	Anonymising of PIs: Following the lead of ATAC and other time
allocation committees in an effort to mitigate the effects of unconscious
bias, the names of the PI and CoIs will be listed alphabetically on the
last page of the proposal seen by the OPC, in such a way that the identity
of the PI is unknown to the reviewers. PIs are urged to avoid wording that
can lead to their identification, including the use of numbers for
references (e.g. “as demonstrated by [4]” instead of “as demonstrated by
us in Smith et al. (2016)”).
*	Testing of distributed peer review: In parallel with the Period 103
proposal process,
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/qyWfCyoNVrcnpAQAiyVKxo?domain=eso.org> ESO
is seeking volunteers for a trial of “distributed peer review” to assist
the OPC.
*	Restrictions on Large and Monitoring Programmes: NACO, SINFONI,
MUSE in Narrow Field Mode, ESPRESSO in 4-UT mode, VIRCAM and MATISSE are
not available for Large Programmes.
*	Impending changes in instrument availability:

*	NACO is scheduled to be decommissioned at the end of Period 103.
*	SINFONI will be decommissioned during Period 103, so that its
Integral Field Unit SPIFFI can be integrated into ERIS. SINFONI will be
installed on UT3 at the end of Period 102 and during the first months of
Period 103. As a consequence, no SINFONI observations requiring the Laser
Guide Star can be executed during Period 103.
*	MUSE + GALACSI in Narrow Field Mode is offered in Period 103.
*	The 4-UT mode of ESPRESSO is offered in Visitor Mode only in Period
103, during which observations will be scheduled in groups of consecutive
nights.  Users must request a total time that is an integer multiple of
half-nights (corresponding to five hours in Period 103).
*	Based on early commissioning results, MATISSE is offered with a
limited set of capabilities in Period 103: (a) spectral resolving powers of
R = 34, 506, and 959 in the L band and 30 in the N band; (b) the
possibility of combining either four UTs (with MACAO only) or four ATs in
standard VLTI configurations, providing six visibilities and four closure
phases in one observation.
*	VISIR is not offered in Period 103: it will be modified and
installed on UT4 for the New Earths in the α Cen Region (NEAR) experiment
during the first semester of 2019. It is foreseen that VISIR will be back
for operations on UT3 during Period 104.
*	Following its upgrade into a cross-dispersed spectrograph, CRIRES
will be installed and commissioned on the UT3 Nasmyth B focus in Periods
102 and 103. Depending on the results of the commissioning, CRIRES may be
offered for observations in Period 104.
*	ESO is evaluating the possibility of offering the UT1 Nasmyth A
focus, as well as a focus at the VLTI, for visitor instruments during
Period 104. Interested users are invited to consult the
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/yso3CzvOWKiL7OyOIVyfTM?domain=eso.org
.html> Visitor Focus instructions.

*	New Large Programmes on the NTT: The fraction of the available time
on the NTT committed to ongoing Large Programmes is now ∼5%.  New Large
Programmes for the NTT are therefore encouraged.
*	Non-survey time on VISTA and VST: Priority is given to advance the
ongoing Public Surveys on these telescopes, but open time is available on
both the VST and VISTA. These observations are carried out in Service Mode
only. Open time proposals should clearly justify their scientific goals and
why they are not achievable through the scheduled Public Survey
observations. Starting in Period 103, Normal, Monitoring and Large
Programme proposals for the VST, and Normal Programme proposals for VISTA,
are accepted without restrictions. Target of opportunity proposals will
also be considered for both the VST and VISTA.
*	Observing at La Silla: There is a minimum length of three nights
for runs to be executed with La Silla telescopes. On the NTT, users can
apply for combined runs using both EFOSC2 and SOFI. The total duration of
each of these runs must be at least three nights. The combined runs must be
requested using the instrument name “SOFOSC”. Designated Visitor Mode
(DVM) at La  Silla is offered on a best-effort basis. If you would like to
use DVM on either the 3.6-m telescope or the NTT you are requested to
contact  <mailto:opo at eso.org> opo at eso.org well before the proposal
submission deadline.
*	Duration of one night: Proposers are reminded that one night in
Visitor Mode is defined to be 8 hours in even Periods and 10 hours in odd
Periods on all ESO telescopes.
*	Lunar Phase: Proposers should note that setting the Moon
requirement to ‘n’ in Box 3 of the ESOFORM Phase 1 proposal form means
‘no Moon restriction’ rather than ‘no Moon’. Proposers must instead set
the Moon requirement to ‘d’ if they require dark time.
*	Observing mode on the VLT: Departures from the observing mode
requested by the proposers may be implemented by ESO so as to achieve a
balanced distribution between Service Mode and Visitor Mode. Visitor mode
runs are encouraged for those users who have never visited Paranal, even if
the observations are straightforward.  Users should make use of Box 8b of
the ESOFORM Phase 1 proposal form to justify their preferred mode or why an
alternative mode should also be considered.

 

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