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

AOT 43 Call for Proposals. Deadline Wednesday November 25th, 2020


CALL FOR PROPOSALS TNG and REM
also featuring NOT time

AOT 43 (2021A) is now open for proposals.

Applications for observing time for the periods

April 1st, 2021 - September 30th, 2021

are solicited and should be submitted by
Wednesday, 25th November, 2020, 12:00 UT.



Despite the difficult times we are experiencing, the TNG is regularly operating. At time of writing, all the observations are in service mode, but we are confident to resume the visitor mode in 2021.

The available time offered at TNG via INAF-TAC is 26 (twenty-six) nights in this call. This budget can increase if not all the nights offered in other calls will be effectively allocated by the respective TACs. The foreseen schedule breakdown is reported at the bottom.

LARGE and LONG-TERM PROGRAMS cannot be requested answering the AOT43 call. In particular, a Long-Term program on the optical counterparts of gravitational wave events is already running at TNG and proposals on this topic will not be accepted anymore. The PIs of the AOT37 Large Programs are requested to submit a report on the activities carried out in the previous semesters (deadline Wednesday, 16th December, 2020). Instructions will follow separately. The TAC could revise the amount of time initially allocated to the Large Programs and therefore the number of offered nights to normal proposals could vary accordingly.

We will be accepting (few) Directory Discretionary Time proposals during the whole semester (http://www.tng.iac.es/observing/director_time_policy.html), which will be judged by the TNG staff in few days. These observations will be performed in Service Mode only.

TNG is a 3.58-m optical/infrared telescope located at Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory in the island of La Palma (Canary Islands). 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.
The offered instruments are: HARPS-N, NICS, DOLORES and GIANO-B (GIANO in Nasmyth B).
The observing mode GIARPS, simultaneously combining HARPS-N and GIANO-B, is also offered (see below).
For details, visit http://www.tng.iac.es

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 up to 1000 hours of observations.
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 greater between the two.
For details, see http://www.rem.inaf.it

NOT is a 2.56-m telescope, also located at Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory, next to the TNG. Offered instruments are ALFOSC (UV-optical imaging, polarimetry and low-resolution spectroscopy), NOTCam (NIR imaging and low-resolution spectroscopy), FIES (High-resolution, high-stability optical spectroscopy), MOSCA (High-resolution, high-efficiency UV-optical imaging), STANCam (Standby CCD imager), DIPol-UF (double image polarimeter, visitor instrument).
For details, see http://www.not.iac.es/instruments/instruments.html


NEW FORMS

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

Following new ideas on the refereeing process, the PIs (ex officio) and CoIs (from 2 to 5) could be used as external reviewers for the other proposals in this or next call (Box 16).


Incomplete computation of the overheads, poor target visibility in the semester, too dense monitoring are recurrent weaknesses pointed out when assessing the technical feasibility. Important information for a more careful preparation of the proposals are reported at https://tngweb.tng.iac.es/call/info.html

Objects included in the TNG Protected Target List (http://www.tng.iac.es/observing/protected.html) cannot be requested.

All proposals will be judged strictly on their scientific merit.



NOTICES FOR AOT 43

SiFAP2 offered as a visitor instrument at TNG

The high-temporal resolution photometer SiFAP2 is available as a visitor instrument at the TNG. It is not a common-user instrument, but it will be supported in two slots of maximum 27 hours each in May and August 2021. Target selection has to take this into account. Moreover, before submitting the proposal, the proponent team must contact the SiFAP2 PI Alessandro Papitto (alessandro.papitto@inaf.it) for a technical validation. Publications based on SiFAP2 data must include builders as co-authors. For more information about SiFAP2 and the available observing modes (photometry and linear polarimetry) see http://www.tng.iac.es/instruments/sifap2/.

The observational mode GIARPS at TNG

The light from the telescope is split into visible and infrared domains by means of a dichroic. The former feeds as usual HARPS-N, the latter is beamed into the new preslit of GIANO-B. The slit of GIANO-B is directly feed through a new optical relay instead of the previous fiber fed preslit. For efficiency and for overheads, please use the old GIANO page and recipe to prepare your proposals. They will serve as upper limit.

For those proposals wishing to use the dual GIARPS mode, please tick both HARPS-N and GIANO-B boxes in the submission form, and state it clearly in the text. Proponents must also report the respective total HARPS-N and GIANO-B observing times. The greater value will constitute the effective time request of the proposal. For technical reasons, please indicate the preferred instrument.

If the maintenance work will last more than foreseen, GIANO-B could not be available in April.

NATIONALITY RESTRICTIONS APPLY

INAF-TAC is receiving only Italian proposals for TNG, defined as PI and at least half of participants being affiliated to an Italian Institution. Non-Italian proposals should be submitted following the OPTICON TransNational Access program. Special treatment is given to Nordic countries as explained in the next item.

The Nationality restriction does not apply to REM proposals.

COMMON OFFER FOR OBSERVING TIME TNG-NOT

The astronomical communities of Italy, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and the Universities of Iceland and Stockholm may apply for reserved observing time offered jointly on the TNG and NOT telescopes. Rules for applicants may be found here.

Accordingly, Italian scientists can submit normal observing proposals to the NOT, and vice versa. Due to the high-pressure on the NOT time, Italian astronomers will have access to 10 nights with the NOT telescope; proposals will be evaluated by the NOT-OPC. Nordic astronomers will have access to 5 TNG nights; proposals will be evaluated by the INAF-TAC. We strongly encourage the submission of joint "Italo-Nordic" proposals using NOT, TNG, or both telescopes. Applicants must use the proposal form for the telescope they are requesting. INAF staff and Associates will benefit of the same FGG funding scheme as for TNG observations.

The Italian community can request up to 10 (ten) nights on the basis of this exchange-time agreement.

REM NEWS

As ESO La Silla is planning a gradual reopening, we will soon start operation with the visible camera ROS2 only, due to low impact on la Silla management. Later also the infrared camera REMIR will be reinstalled and made operative. ALL programs which were not executed due to Covid-19 shutdown, completely or partially, will be automatically rescheduled. All PIs will be contacted individually, and can also contact us directly (info.rem@inaf.it). They do not need to resubmit a proposal. Due to recovery for many programs (albeit mitigated by the actual unavailability of REMIR) we are in the position to offer only 600 hours in place of the usual 1000 per semester. Follow http://www.rem.inaf.it for news about the reopening.

AOT 43 TIME BREAKDOWN

For sake of completness, we report the foreseen TNG-time breakdown for the AOT43 semester:

  • 26 nights for the INAF-TAC (this call)
  • 5 nights TNG-NOT agreement (this call)
  • 34 nights ongoing INAF Large Program, subject to possible changes
  • 6 nights ongoing INAF Long Term Programs
  • 40 nights Harps-N Consortium GTO
  • 31 nights Spanish CAT
  • 10 nights OPTICON H2020 TransNational Access
  • 7 nights CCI International Time Program

REM available time is 600 hours.


Ennio Poretti

Director
Telescopio Nazionale Galileo
Fundacion Galileo Galilei - INAF