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

AOT35 (2017A) Call for proposals. Deadline 30.11.2016


CALL FOR PROPOSAL TNG & REM
also featuring GIARPS, EXP-RES, HAN-GTO and NOT-TIME

AOT 35 (2017A) is now open for proposals
Applications for observing time for the period

April 1st, 2017 - September 31st, 2017

are solicited and should be submitted by
Wednesday 30th November, 2016, 12:00 UT



This semester the available time offered at TNG via INAF-TAC is 13 nights.
See at the bottom for a detailed schedule breakdown.
See below for the additional 20 nights available at NOT telescope (different deadline!).

Recommended mode is service, where TNG staff astronomers will perform the observations in the scheduled nights. Queuing mode is not offered.
We will be accepting (few) DDT-like proposals during the whole semester, which will be judged in few days by TNG staff and INAF-TAC. 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.
Four instruments are now offered: Harps-N, NICS and Dolores.
Visit http://www.tng.iac.es
GIANOB (Giano in Nasmyth B) is now offered after the refurbishment, but still on a shared risk, best effort basis.
The observing mode GIARPS, which uses simultaneously HARPS-N and GIANOB, will likewise be offered on a shared risk, best effort basis. (see alsa below)

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 long term programs can be submitted.

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 35

GIARPS, the new observational mode at TNG

Using a dichroic the light from the telescope is split into visible and infrared. The former will feed as usual HARPS_n, the latter will be beamed into the new configuration of GIANO-B.
This new GIANO-B will use a slit entrance in place of the old fibre, and the commissioning of the new mode has started but not completed, so we are not in the position to quote numbers for efficiency and for overheads. Please use the old GIANO page and recipe to prepare your proposals. These will serve as upper limit.
In the course of the month of November the scientific commissioning will perform observations in order to assess the instrument efficiency, please stay tuned on our webpage.

For those proposals wishing to use the dual GIARPS mode, please check both HARPS-N and GIANO-B boxes in the submission form, and state this clearly in the text. The total time requested by the proposal will be the sum of the greater between HARPS-N and GIANO-B requested time of each observing block.

NATIONALITY RESTRICTIONS APPLY

INAF-TAC is receiving for TNG only Italian proposal, defined as PI and at least half of participants being affiliated to an Italian Institution. Non Italian proposals should be submitted with the OPTICON TNA program.
Special treatment is given to Nordic countries as explained in the next item. This restriction does not apply to REM proposals.

COMMON OFFER FOR OBSERVING TIME TNG-NOT

The astronomical communities of Italy, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden 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 now submit normal observing proposals to the NOT, and vice versa. 10 TNG nights will be reserved to Nordic observers for this joint call. Italian astronomers will have access to 20 nights with the NOT telescope. Applications for each telescope should use the proposal form for the telescope they are applying for, and will be evaluated by the telescope TAC.
INAF staff and Associates will benefit of the same FGG funding scheme as for TNG observations.
NOTE: for this call the deadlines for TNG and NOT differ.

Harps

HARPS-N GUARANTEED TIME

Continues during this semester the guaranteed time GTO at TNG for the Harps-N Consortium. 40 nights will be allocated for this project.

Harps

EXOPLANET RESERVED TIME: EXP-RES

During this semester a total of additional 40 nights will be reserved for a special program on exoplanets at TNG, as indicated by the INAF Scientific Director ( see letter).

AOT 35 TIME BREAKDOWN

For sake of completeness and clarity we report here the foreseen TNG time breakdown, expressed in nights, for coming semester:

  • 31 Spanish CAT
  • 7 ITP international time
  • 14 OPTICON TNA (up to 14, to be confirmed)
  • 10 TNG-NOT joint call (to be submitted with this call for proposals)
  • 40 HAN-GTO
  • 40 EXP-RES
  • 4 other approved Long Term Programs
  • 13 nights for the INAF-TAC (this call)

REM available time is 1000 hours.