[ASA] Call for Shared Time on the AAT

[Christopher Lidman]

2023A Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) Call Proposals

The Call for Proposals for the AAT has changed. Please read these instructions carefully. Email any questions to AATscheduler at mso.anu.edu.au<mailto:AATscheduler at mso.anu.edu.au>.



CALL FOR SHARED TIME

OPENS

22 September 2022 at 09:00

and CLOSES

17 October 2022 at 17:00

Australian Eastern Daylight Time (UTC + 11 hrs)



Eligibility

Only researchers affiliated with ANU, UNSW, Swinburne, Sydney University, Macquarie University, University of Queensland, University of Melbourne, University of Southern Queensland, Monash University, University of Tasmania, and University of Western Sydney can apply for Shared Time on the AAT during semester 2023A.

Proposals will be considered for Shared Time if the number of shared-time nights requested by the proposal does not exceed the sum of the "night contribution numbers" for each institution listed on that proposal. For semester 2023A, the night contribution numbers are
 Institute
 Night Contribution Number
 Australian National University
15
 Macquarie University
0
 Melbourne University
4
 Monash University
4
 Swinburne University
4
 Sydney University
0
 University of New South Wales
26
 University of Queensland
4
 University of Southern Queensland
4
 University of Tasmania
4
 University of Western Sydney
4


Night Availability

There are up to 19 dark nights, 12 grey nights, and 22 bright nights available for shared-time proposals.

Instrument Availability

Available AAT instruments include: 2dF+AAOmega, 2dF+HERMES, Hector, KOALA and Veloce.

It is anticipated that Hector will be provisionally accepted at the end of 2022 and will be offered on a shared-risk basis until it reaches full acceptance.

Veloce will undergo a major upgrade with the installation of the Veloce Azzurro and Verde arms in 2023A. It will be offered in shared-risk mode in June and July 2023, contingent on successful commissioning. It is unavailable from February through to May. See the Veloce pages<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/MDWWCD1vlpTBxGXnwfWugJg?domain=aat.anu.edu.au> for details on the new arms and performance.

AAOmega will be unavailable from mid-March to mid-April. The LN2 cans of the cameras are being replaced.

Additional instrumentation status information and updates are available on the AAT instrumentation website<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/xJsMCE8wmrtWqXBgOSwmjpg?domain=aat.anu.edu.au>.

COVID-19 pandemic update

The observatory follows the advice of NSW Government Health<https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/covid-19>. Further details are available from the AAT web pages.<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/3y6CCGv0oyCJ8Xw0ECpXlZ_?domain=aat.anu.edu.au>

New shared-time access model

All shared time applicants are encouraged to check the ATAC Policies and Procedures<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/I3hLCJyBrGf8nMx1lIL8PEc?domain=aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com>, latest Instrumentation Status<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/QXTWCK1DvKTq1pLBPSpOknl?domain=aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com> for the AAT and recent Policy Announcements<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/7tqpCL7EwMfP38LmVHgXOqn?domain=aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com>.

Note that the eligibility for shared time applications has changed. The eligibility of any proposal for shared time is evaluated and based on the number of nights contributed to the shared pool by the individual partner institutions involved in that proposal. The detailed evaluation procedure is described in section 2.6 of the ATAC Policies and Procedures<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/ssq7CMwGxOt5JmjRDHG4qp5?domain=aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com>.

Proposals for shared time are reviewed by the Australian Time Allocation Committee (ATAC), and ranked by scientific merit. Time will be allocated on this basis (subject to practical constraints) until the available time is fully allocated.

Note that successful applicants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation costs to the observatory. Some funding for student travel and accommodation is available.

For further clarification on any issue, please contact the ATAC Technical Secretary<mailto:aat at astronomyaustralia.org.au>.

Proposal preparation guidelines
Lens proposal submission system

Shared time proposals must be submitted with the AAT's online application system Lens<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/451bCNLJyQUN6yoEJIVhATV?domain=aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com>. This system is a user account based system, which allows for improved security and better tracking of past and current proposals. There is a FAQ<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/HOstCOMKzVTAOQ30ltWtE-T?domain=aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com> available for Lens online, or available via the FAQ tab in Lens itself. Lens system has recently been transitioned into Data Central. Any issues or bugs encountered by proposers should be reported to Simon O'Toole<mailto:simon.otoole at mq.edu.au>.

All new users must register with the system. Note that users cannot be added to proposals if they are not registered in Lens. Please make sure that all investigators on a proposal have registered well before the deadline!

For any queries or comments, please contact the ATAC Technical Secretary<mailto:aat at astronomyaustralia.org.au>.

Weather factor

Based upon historical weather trends, about 33% of time is lost to bad weather. Proposers are therefore required to multiply their time requirement by a factor of 1.5 to allow for time lost to weather.

Anonymous proposal review

The AAT Consortium places a high value on equity and integrity, and it implemented the anonymous proposal review process for Shared Time proposals. In this process, the identities of the proposing team are concealed from reviewers. The goal is to enable reviewers to focus on the science, not the scientist. Several studies have shown that a reviewer's attitude toward a submission may be affected, even unconsciously, by the identity of the lead author or principal investigator (see the Anonymous-Double Blind Review Annotated Bibliography<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/-8U6CP7LAXf46VQo9UWjwoS?domain=stsci.edu>). Proposers are required to anonymise their proposals following the guidelines below. Sufficient care should be used, especially if resubmitting a proposal from a previous cycle or other submission. Lead investigators should avoid directly disclosing their identity in the science or technical justification sections. Names and affiliations will not be included in the proposals generated for the ATAC reviews.

Anonymity Guidelines for Proposers

These guidelines will help conceal the identities of the proposers and ensure a fairer proposal evaluation process.

  1.  Do not include author names or affiliations anywhere in the proposal text. This includes but is not limited to, page headers, footers, diagrams, figures, or watermarks. This does not include references to past work, which should be included whenever relevant (see below).
  2.  Referencing is an essential part of demonstrating knowledge of the field and progress. When citing references within the proposal, use third person neutral wording. This especially applies to self-referencing. For example, replace phrases like as we have shown in our previous work (Doe et al. 2010) with as Doe et al. (2010) showed... Do not refer to previous projects using AAT or other observatories in an identifying fashion. For instance, rather than write we observed another cluster, similar to the one we are proposing under AAT program #XXXXX, instead write AAT program #XXXXX has observed this target in the past...
  3.  We encourage references to published work, including work citable by a DOI. It may be occasionally important to cite exclusive access datasets or non-public software that may reveal (or strongly imply) the investigators on the proposal. We suggest proposers use language like "obtained in private communication" or "from private consultation" when referring to such potentially revealing work.
  4.  Do not include acknowledgements, or the source of any grant funding.

         Examples of re-worked text can be found on the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/ezosCQnMBZf6RZ73gSv427R?domain=outerspace.stsci.edu> website.

         A strict compliance with these guidelines is required. Feedback on these changes are welcome and should be sent to the ATAC Technical Secretary<mailto:aat at astronomyaustralia.org.au>.

Proposal submission details

Prepare your main proposal offline, including an abstract, target list, science case, and technical justification. The science case and technical justification together should be in PDF format, no more than three pages total, with two pages for the science case and one page for technical justification. Those three pages should include all references and figures, use 11pt font (or larger), and have at least 10mm margins.

Numerical referencing should be used (e.g. as shown by [1], instead of as shown by Smith et al. (2017)). Colour figures are accepted. Other document formats will not be accepted.

Proposal content

Full technical details, outlining how you derived your time estimates, observing constraints, and any special requests should be included in the scientific case (preferably under a separate section heading).

Important: Proposers should demonstrate that their team has the skills and experience with the required observing modes to effectively conduct the proposed observations. Please include this information in the separate section of the Lens form Team Expertise. Note the ATAC will conduct their pre-grading without access to this section. Once the ranked list is set, the ATAC will be given access to the "Team Expertise" information associated with each proposal recommended for implementation. At this point, proposals may only be flagged for downgrade (resulting in a non-selection of the proposal), if a team is clearly unqualified to undertake the work proposed. Note that ATAC may also request a de-identified information on any Reserved and Paid Time proposal.

Proposals should be written so that the content and significance is understandable by astronomers with different backgrounds. Proposals should also be written using the Anonymity Guidelines.

After including overheads (detector readout, calibrations and telescope slewing), observers are required to multiply their time request by 1.5 to account for bad weather.

A list of the principal targets (field centres for 2dF programs) should be prepared as a separate PDF document. The target list should contain target name, RA (h m s), Dec (d m s), target brightness, and priority. There is a 2-page limit for this target list PDF file. Other document formats will not be accepted.

If feasible, please provide a list of backup targets that can be observed in the weather conditions that are worse than required for the principal targets. Any backup project must use the same instrument as the main project. More information on backup considerations can be found in Guidelines for AAT Observers.<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/eLwVCROND2urOZNRotv0LRd?domain=aat.anu.edu.au>

Due to the reduction in expert assistance at the telescope, proposers are required to describe the relevant experience and expertise of the team with the instrument(s) being applied for. Observers are encouraged to liaise with the Observatory staff sufficiently in advance of their run to gain such training as is needed for their run.

Submitting your proposal

When your proposal details are ready, submit your application to ATAC through Lens<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/Vh1xCVARKgClZQM5mfgp9Ko?domain=lens.datacentral.org.au>, the AAT's online proposal submission system. As noted above, this is a user-account-based system and all investigators on a proposal must be registered.

Remote Observing

Remote observing is possible from the AAT remote observing stations. An experienced AAT observer can also observe from home using an appropriate setup. Observers who are not experienced with their requested instrument may need to find additional help or prior training, which may require eavesdropping on other observations that use the same instrument.

Remote observing stations are listed at the remote observing webpage<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/uayoCWLVXkUj4o0PZIy8NOc?domain=aat.anu.edu.au>. The Observatory is open to establishing new remote observing stations.

Acknowledgements

The AAT Consortium requests all publications based upon data obtained through the AAT include the following acknowledgement:

Based [in part] on data obtained at Siding Spring Observatory [via program XXX]. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which the AAT stands, the Gamilaraay people, and pay our respects to elders past and present.

Contacting the ATAC Secretariat
Postal Address:

PO Box 2100
Hawthorn VIC 3122

Street Address:

AAO - Macquarie University
105 Delhi Rd, North Ryde NSW 2113
Australia

E-mail: aat at astronomyaustralia.org.au<mailto:aat at astronomyaustralia.org.au>
Web: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/pglACXLW2mUn9rmqjhWpetv?domain=astronomyaustralia.org.au


A/Professor Chris Lidman
Director, Siding Spring Observatory, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Work: +61-2-6125-0238
Christopher.Lidman at anu.edu.au<mailto:Christopher.Lidman at anu.edu.au>


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