Fundación Galileo Galilei - INAF Telescopio Nazionale Galileo 28°45'14.4N 17°53'20.6W 2387.2m A.S.L.

AOT 37 TNG REM Call for Proposal. Deadline 17.11.2017


CALL FOR PROPOSAL TNG & REM also featuring LONG/LARGE PROGRAMS, GTO and NOT-TIME

AOT 37 (2018A) is now open for proposals
Applications for observing time for the period

April 1st, 2018 - September 30th, 2018

are solicited and should be submitted by
Friday, 17th November, 2017, 12:00 UT



This semester the available time offered at TNG via INAF-TAC is 58 nights.
See at the bottom for a detailed schedule breakdown.
See below for the additional 20 (twenty!) nights available at NOT telescope (the corresponding proposals will be evaluated by the Nordic OPC).

We will be accepting (few) DDT-like proposals during the whole semester, which will be judged in few days by TNG staff. Service mode will be the only modality for these observations.

TNG is a 3.58m optical/infrared telescope located at Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory in the island of La Palma (Canary Island). Its primary mirror is corrected by Active Optics and it is equipped with instruments for imaging and spectroscopy, spanning the optical and near infrared wavelengths range.
This semester, the offered instruments are: Harps-N, NICS, Dolores and Giano-B (Giano in Nasmyth B).
For details, visit http://www.tng.iac.es
The observing mode GIARPS, which uses simultaneously HARPS-N and GIANO-B, will be offered on a shared risk, best effort basis. (see also below)
GIARPS mode will be charged to the proposal with the highest of the two instruments requests, HARPS-N and GIANO-B, which have to be both selected in the form.

REM is a 60 cm robotic telescope located at La Silla ESO site (Chile) which can observe simultaneously with a visible and an infrared camera. The observations will be carried out in unmanned, queuing mode. INAF-TAC will allocate 1000 hours of observations.
Visit http://www.rem.inaf.it
REM is equipped with ROS2 visible camera and REMIR infrared camera. The two are observing simultaneously thanks to a dichroic.
ROS2 will produce simultaneous images in the four Sloan-like passbands g, r, i, z. Charged time is therefore not the sum of ROS2 and REMIR but the highest of the two.

FORMS

Application forms and detailed instructions can be downloaded from
the TNG web pages ( http://www.tng.iac.es/submit.html).

This semester, the offered instruments are: Harps-N, NICS, Dolores and GIano B (Giano in Nasmyth B).

LONG TERM PROGRAMS: PIs of ongoing long term programs shall not send a new proposal.
Instead, they should send to the TAC (via an e-mail to director@tng.iac.es) a conveniently detailed progress report.

All proposals will be judged strictly on their scientific merit.

NOTICE FOR AOT 37

*** LONG/LARGE PROGRAM AT TNG ***
In the era of mature 8m-class telescopes, and with 40m-class telescopes approaching the event horizon, it is mandatory to define compelling scientific programs that justify the investments that the Italian astronomical community is making to maintain TNG operative and competitive. TNG is offering competitive instrumentation, especially in the case of HARPS-N and GIANO, which can be jointly used in the GIARPS instrumental combination.

Therefore, INAF opens observing time to major scientific programs, extending over several semesters and/or exploiting a significant fraction of the INAF nights.


Also the Nordic community can apply, see specific rules further down.

Characteristics of the "Long/Large" programs
These "Large/Long" programs must be able to address major open problems in modern astrophysics, and to characterize and define the TNG scientific mission in the next years. The basic features of these "Large/Long" programs are:

  • All topics in modern astronomy are eligible for evaluation;
  • Programs can only use any of the permanently instrument installed and commissioned on TNG: DOLORES, NICS, HARPS-N, GIANO, also in the so-called GIARPS mode;
  • We note that the long term maintenance of DOLORES and NICS is not guaranteed. Should a major failure in any of their components happen in the next periods, fixing is not guaranteed, in case the expenses exceed the normal operational budget. By submitting a proposal using either DOLORES or NICS the applicants accept the involved risks. Proposals using DOLORES or NICS that last longer than 4 semester should explicitly mention the results achieved in shorter timescales;
  • Programs may extend up to 5 years, and use any fraction of the offered nights per semester (currently of the order of 55 per semester);
  • As a bare indication, "Large/Long" programs should require at least 10 nights/semester and a minimum of 40 nights of total time for execution.
  • The total number of nights/semester allocated for all the "Large/Long" Programs, cannot exceed 85% of the total offered nights in each semester.
  • The Principal Investigator (PI) and least 50% of the participants must be affiliated to a Italian Institutions.
  • Proposal should include a dedicated plan for observations, data processing and scientific exploitation, previous achievements with TNG or other major telescopes, and a clear commitment from the members of the proposing team to provide the required human resources for the program execution.
  • The data reduction/exploitation plan will be part of the proposal and will be matter of evaluation. Public release of the science grade data (through the IA2 archive) is highly supported and encouraged.
  • Once approved the successful programs will be granted telescope time for the whole project, pending regular reviews of their progress and results.
  • Only teams that have submitted a NOI (Notice of Interest) in response to the call issued on June 13, 2017 will be allowed to submit a "Large/Long" proposal in AOT37.

** NORDIC COMMUNITY **
The Large/Long program is open to the Nordic community, limited to 8 over 10 of the Nordic reserved nights (see below). PI and 50% of the proponents must be affiliated to Nordic countries Institutes. The previous submission of the NOI (Notice of Interest) does not apply to Nordic proposals.

Harps