UKIRT CALL FOR PROPOSALS, SEMESTER 08B

General Notes for Semester 08B

The deadline for submission of proposals is midnight, at the end of 15-Mar-2008 Hawaii Standard Time. The proposal system will come online on 1-Mar-2008 Hawaii Standard Time.

The projected WFCAM/Cassegrain schedule is available here:

Instrument Blocks

The semester will comprise three blocks (inclusive):

• Cassegrain (CGS4, UFTI and UIST): August, 2008

• Wide Field (WFCAM): start-September to end-November, 2008

• Cassegrain (CGS4, UFTI and UIST): start-December, 2008 to end-January, 2009

It is currently planned that WFCAM will be reinstalled for the first month of semester 09A (February, 2009).

RA Ranges & Bad-Weather Projects

UKIRT is flexibly scheduled and targets which are up for less than an entire night can be observed. For the Cassegrain block spanning August, 2008, we will accept targets at any RA, but be aware that there will be little opportunity to observe targets from approximately 13 h through to 16 h in RA. For the WFCAM block running from September to December, 2008 (inclusive), we will accept targets from 18 h through to  10 h in RA (wrapped around).  Also, PIs should note that in both modes, projects which can use less than optimal conditions tend to do well in the queue; so such "poor weather" proposals are encouraged.

Length and Origin of Proposals

UKIRT accepts submissions requesting anything from small (a few hours) to large (10 nights or more) amounts of time. Please note that UKIRT is an open telescope and accepts applications without restriction on country of origin. PIs with short projects should also consider the UKIRT Service Programme.

European PIs should note that UKIRT is part of the Opticon trans-national access programme, which is supported by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), and that successful European applicants may qualify for travel and subsistence support via this programme. See

http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/UKIRT/applying/UKIRT_opticon.html

for more details. In Semester 08B, it is expected that Opticon funding will be available for up to two summit nights.

Proposal Forms, Submission System and Integration Time Calculator (ITC)

Note that the UKIRT PATT2 submission system used for previous semesters will be replaced by the NorthStar submission system for 08B. Should you wish to obtain a preview of the overall look and feel of this system, please see the NorthStar documentation for the UKIRT Service Programme. NorthStar has already been in use for UKIRT Service submissions for several semesters, and the two submission systems are very similar. Updated NorthStar documentation for PATT proposal preparation and submission will be made available at the end of February, 2008.

PATT submissions for semester 08B will open on 1-Mar-2008 HST. The submission system will be accessible via the Applications page.

WFCAM is a wide field 0.8 - 2.5-micron camera covering a 0.75 square degree tile in 4 pointings. See http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/UKIRT/instruments/wfcam/ for details on the instrument and filter availability, and the General notes above for constraints on scheduling and proposals. WFCAM sensitivity estimates are available on the WFCAM instrument page, and via the integration time calculator.

WFCAM filters available for public use in semester 08B will be Z, Y, J, H, K, H2 1-0 S1 and narrowband H.

The Brackett gamma filter will not be available for semester 08B.

UIST is available for imaging, integral-field and long-slit spectroscopy. It may also be used with IRPOL for imaging- and spectro-polarimetry. Note that new blocking filters for the IJ and JH grisms are also now available.

UIST provides the following capabilities:

• Imaging at high angular resolution with two spatial scales: 0.12" (0.06") over a 2' × 2' (1' × 1') field. SEE BELOW FOR AN UPDATE ON IMAGING IN THE THERMAL INFRARED.
  
• Long (120") slit spectroscopy with resolving powers from 1000 - 4000 at 1 - 5 microns, (with optimal sensitivity between the OH sky lines in the JHK bands). Slit widths are 0.12", 0.24", 0.48", 0.60" and 0.84"(1, 2, 4, 5, 7 pixels).
• Integral-field spectroscopy over a rotatable 3.3" × 6.8" field with an angular resolution of 0.24" × 0.12". The IFU can be used with any grism except the IJ and JH. The IFU is optimised for use in the K-band.
• Imaging polarimetry and spectropolarimetry with all available filters and grisms. The former uses a 20" × 120" focal-plane mask, the latter a 2- or 5-pixel (0.24" or 0.60") wide by 20" long rotatable slit mask.
  
• Coronagraphic imaging and coronagraphic imaging polarimetry is available using either a 0.7" or a 1.3" occulting wire (see the UIST manual for details).
  

Standard JHKL'M' broad band filters are offered for imaging, together with a selection of narrowband 1.0 - 4.0-micron filters. The additional new imaging WFCAM-Y MK 0.97 - 1.07-micron filter will also be available.

See

http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/UKIRT/instruments/uist/uist.html

for a description of UIST and its sensitivity.

UIST THERMAL PERFORMANCE

N.B. UIST has now been equipped with a new controller and the full array area may now be read out when imaging in the thermal wavebands. Currently, the full-array readout is available with both the 0.06"/pix and 0.12"/pix cameras and with both the broad L' and M'-band filters.

UFTI - AVAILABLE AUGUST 2008 AND DECEMBER 2008 - JANUARY 2009

UFTI is a 1 - 2.5-micron imager equiped with a 1024 × 1024 HgCdTe array (pixel scale 0.09"; f.o.v. ~ 90 arcsec). See

http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/UKIRT/instruments/ufti/ufti.html

and

http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/UKIRT/instruments/ufti/ufti_fp.html

for details of the imager and its Fabry-Perot mode respectively. Note that for point-source non-thermal imaging requiring a small field of view, UFTI is more sensitive than UIST and should be the instrument of choice.

Additional notes:

• The following additional imaging filter will be available: WFCAM-Y 0.97 - 1.07 microns
• In order to accommodate the new WFCAM-Y filter, the H2 2.248 MK filter will not be available for semester 08B with UFTI.  It will, however, still be available with UIST.
  
• The old 'Z' filter has been retained, so the new Mauna Kea consortium Z filter will not be available for semester 08B.
  
  

CGS4 - AVAILABLE AUGUST 2008 AND DECEMBER 2008 - JANUARY 2009

CGS4 is a 1 - 5-micron 2D grating spectrometer offering resolutions of 600 - 2000 with the 40 l/mm grating or 37000 with the echelle. The 150 l/mm grating is not available. CGS4 should be explicitly requested for use with the 15km/s resolution Echelle, or for high-sensitivity observations of sources where the wider wavelength coverage provided by UIST is not required. Users should consider the relative sensitivities, available slit widths and wavelength coverages of UIST and CGS4 before deciding on which instrument is best suited to their programme.

See

http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/UKIRT/instruments/cgs4/cgs4.html

for CGS4 documentation, and

http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/UKIRT/instruments/cgs4/current.html

for the current and future configuration status.

N.B. The planned CGS4 ALICE controller replacement and other system changes are currently scheduled to be completed during semester 08B. CGS4 will therefore be offered in shared-risks mode for the December 2008 - January 2009 Cassegrain block.