THE UNITED KINGDOM INFRARED TELESCOPE
ANNUAL REPORT
1995 AND 1996

3. The Service Observing Program

3.1. Status

Service observing at UKIRT was started in 1984 to carry out observations of up to two hours in length that would be difficult to schedule through PATT time. The proposals are usually one of: short, self-contained observations; completion of PATT projects; targets of opportunity; feasibility tests; or long term monitoring. A description of the Service Programme, and its status as of July 1995, is given by Ramsay Howat & Davies 1996 (Observing Modes for the Next Century, ASP Conference Series Vol. 87, 125).

The Service Programme continues to be popular, with about 100 proposals per year submitted, and an allocation of 18 nights of telescope time per year. In 1995 Ramsay Howat & Davies reported a completion rate of about half the submitted proposals. Due to a bad weather in winter 1996 the completion rate at the end of that year was only a third of the proposals submitted. The programme continues to be productive as measured by refereed publications: there were at least seven papers reporting the use of the Service program published in 1995 (11% of the total UKIRT publications) and at least fourteen in 1996 (18% of the total). Only 8% of the nights are made available for Service.

In 1996 the proposals grouped by instrument were as follows: 57% CGS4,37% IRCAM and 6% CGS3. The scientific distribution was: 64% galactic, 30% extragalactic, and 6% solar system. These distributions are very similar to those of 1995 and are also similar to the PATT awards and publications groupings (see Appendices A and B). Typically about 10% of the proposals are awarded an A grade by the Service referees, 45% AB, 10% BA, 10% B and 25% rejected (usually on technical grounds). In 1996, 46% of the A-grades were completed 4 months after submission, but only 26% of the AB's and only 12% of the BA's. None of the B's were completed within this time frame.

In 1996 the Service referees were: T. Geballe (UKIRT, JAC), T. Moore (Liverpool), T. Naylor (Keele) and S. Ridgway (Oxford). In September 1996 Sandy Leggett at the JAC took over management of the programme from Suzanne Ramsay Howat at the ROE. Submission of proposals, acknowledgement of proposals, distribution of proposals to referees, collation of referees assessments, reports of assessments and data distribution, all continue to be handled by personal email and ftp on short timescales. The UKIRT web pages provide general information on the Service Programme, contain the application form, report the results for each Service night, and announce instrument availabilities and application deadlines for future runs.

In view of the success of the UKIRT Upgrades Programme and the anticipated arrival of new instruments in 1998, it is expected that the Service Programme will continue to be both popular and productive. We are very grateful for the voluntary effort of the referees and of course also for the effort by JAC staff at the telescope.