AOT54 Call for Proposals. Deadline submission on Monday May 25th, 12:00 UT

LARGE PROGRAMS (exo-planetary science) at TNG

In semester AOT53, two of the five large programs of exo-planetary science approved in the call of semester AOT48 were completed. Therefore, TNG opens observing time to new major, large scientific programs on exo-planets, extending over several semesters. The basic features of these "Large" programs are:

• Programs can use the following instruments permanently installed and commissioned on the TNG: HARPS-N and GIANO-B (also in the so-called GIARPS mode).
• Large Programs not accepted by the TAC as such can be downgraded to normal proposals covering a single semester, with a possible reduction of the observing time.
• Large Programs may extend up to 2 years (4 semesters) and, as a bare indication, should require at least 8 nights/semester and a minimum of 30 nights of total time for execution. The number of allocated Large Programs will be decided by the TAC subpanel on exo-planets taking into account the need to leave an adequate number of nights for normal programs in each semester.

IMPORTANT notes on time-sharing among programs of exo-planetary science

Researchers who would like to submit a proposal on exo-planetary science needing monitoring of radial velocities over a wide range of dates, should also take into account the following considerations:

• There are several Large Programs on exo-planetary science ongoing at the TNG, with granted time until AOT57 (or 2028A). To optimize the scientific return for their science goals, the two main scientific groups with approved LPs (HARPS-N and GAPS collaborations) already agreed on sharing the observing time at the telescope.
• Exo-planetary science (with HARPS-N and/or GIANO-B) is not the only observing mode of the TNG. Other science cases with different instruments have been approved which means that dense monitoring with frequent observations every few days is not possible, even in case of time-sharing (TS). TS is only available when exo-planetary science programs are scheduled and even so, on a best effort basis.
• At the earliest time, or at least one week before the closure of a new call for Observing time (TAC, CAT, ITP, OPTICON), the researchers who know that their science goal could only be attained with TS should properly fill the form available at the following link: https://forms.gle/Puecao5LQ9nmGEKD6.
• The form will only be available on-line until one week before the deadline of the call. Fail to submit the compiled form in due time will imply that the program is technically unfeasible.
• The final acceptance of the TS by the other groups is subjected to the following constraints:
  • The scientific goals of the programs joining the TS should not overlap with the scientific goals of the programs already in the TS group;
  • The target list should not encompass targets for which one of the programs in the TS has already expressed interest. In case of a strong and justified interest on the same target, a spirit of collaboration is encouraged and a policy on the use and publication of the data should be agreed before submitting the proposal. The time allocation committees judging the proposal should be informed of the possible conflict due to mutual interest and know in advance if the groups already agreed on collaborating;
  • The scheduling of the targets of the new proposal will be organized on a best effort basis and in any case will not be detrimental for other programs already in the TS. Asking for TS is accepting the scheduling of the targets organized by one of the two main groups;
  • PIs of the proposal accept to provide observers for the scheduled nights who: [1] will follow the scheduled observations from the schedulers of the two main groups (HARPS-N Collaboration and GAPS) and [2] will accept that the observing shift could be larger than the assigned time to their proposal (i.e. assigned 1 night to the proposal, but could be observing for 3 consecutive nights);
  • PIs of the proposal accept that the calculated percentage of shared time will be based on the allocated time by the TAC and that the bad weather loss will be equally distributed with the same percentage;
  • Time Constraint observations (transits) are typically not included in the TS, however the hours of the night outside the transit could be used for TS;
  • PIs and observers of programs within the TS will respect a no disclosure of the data from other programs.
• Proposals that fail to demonstrate that an agreement of TS has been reached will be considered as technically unfeasible by the TNG staff.

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 for a maximum of 27 hours. 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 https://www.tng.iac.es/instruments/sifap2/.

Commissioning of the visitor instrument NIGHT at TNG

For the semester 2026B TNG will host the NIGHT spectrograph as Visitor Instrument, installed at the Nasmyth A folded focus. NIGHT is a R~60000 fiber fed spectrograph from Observatory of Geneve centered on the HeI line at 1083nm, and dedicated to the study of Helium escape from transiting exoplanets. 4 nights are reserved to demonstrate the capabilities of the Instrument. Researchers willing to collaborate in the commissioning of NIGHT should contact the PI Dr. Casper Farret (casper.farret_at_unige.ch).

Polarimetry with DOLORES unavailable during semester AOT54

The PAOLO polarimeter will be unavailable during the semester AOT54 (2026B).

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 fed 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 an 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.

NATIONALITY RESTRICTIONS APPLY

INAF-TAC is receiving only Italian proposals for TNG, defined as the PI and at least half of the participants being affiliated to an Italian Institution. However, proposals belonging to the exo-planetary research area can be submitted by Italian PIs or by any PI affiliated to the HARPS-N Collaboration.

The Nationality restriction does not apply to REM proposals.

AOT54 TIME BREAKDOWN

For sake of completeness, we report the foreseen TNG-time breakdown for the AOT54 semester

• 20 nights (this call) for the INAF-TAC;
• 10 nights (this call) for the Exo-planetary science Programs reserved to Early Career Researchers;
• 37 nights (this call) for generic Exo-planetary science Programs, 4 of which are reserved to normal programs proposed by non-Early Career Researchers;
• 33 nights for the ongoing Large Programs of Exo-Planetary science;
• 12 nights for the ongoing INAF Long-Term Programs;
• 31 nights for the Spanish CAT;
• 5 nights for the OPTICON project;
• 8 nights for the CCI International Time Program;
• 4 nights for the commissioning of the visitor instrument NIGHT.

REM available time is 1000 hours.