New proposals for AAT time to ATAC are not being accepted at present.
The next call for proposals (for Semester 2010B) will be announced in late February 2010.
There is currently a call open for European-led and dominated OPTICON AAT proposals to the separate OPTICON Time Allocation Committee (deadline 12pm UT, March 1).
Notes for the previous 10A proposal call
- Blank 10A Proposal Form: Prepare your telescope application using the LaTeX style file (save it as a text file called `aatac.sty') and blank template file. This example proposal shows you how to fill in the LaTeX template file (you will also need to download the accompanying figure).
- This is the final semester that the UK has direct access. UK-based applicants should note the AAT Board's announcement concerning the reduction in UK share of AAT time in the period 2008-2010. (Non-Australian proposals will continue to be welcomed in future semesters. The public access policy for Semester 10B and onwards will be released in due course.)
- The fractional access to the AAT in Semester 10A is: 71.2% Australian: 8.8% UK: 20% Other. Australian or UK proposals whose national share has been exhausted may draw upon international "Other" time. (All applicants should familiarise themselves with the method of time accounting which has been in use since Semester 08B, and which will end after 10A.)
- Due to existing commitments to the WiggleZ and GAMA Large Observing Programs in Semester 10A, all applicants are warned that availability of dark/grey time in March-May is extremely limited. Programs that can use dark/grey time outside of these months are more likely to be schedulable.
- CYCLOPS, the new cassegrain-mounted fibre feed for UCLES/UHRF will be offered on a shared-risks basis in 10A, (subject to the successful commissioning of the instrument in January 2010). The AAO expects that CYCLOPS will be the default feed into UCLES for most applications using the 79 l/mm echelle. Interested users are urged to consult the UCLES instrument pages for more information, and should also state in their proposals whether they can use the conventional coude slit feed (in the event that CYCLOPS is unavailable).
- 2dF top-end maintenance time is scheduled for the period 1 - 4 February 2010. During this time it will be unavailable.
- Large Observing Programs (i.e. those requiring 50 nights or more, possibly over several semesters) are not being accepted in this round. The next call for such programs will be made in February 2010.
- Australian-based AAT observers are eligible for AAO Travel and Accommodation support. UK observers are eligible (in some cases) for support under agreement with the Science and Technology Facilities Council. European (non-UK) observers are potentially eligible for support under the OPTICON FP7 agreement.
Observing semesters and closing dates:
| Semester | Observing Dates | Proposal Deadline | AATAC meeting |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10A | 1 Feb 2010 - 31 Jul 2010 | 15 Sep 2009 | Nov 2009 |
| 10B | 1 Aug 2010 - 31 Jan 2011 | 15 March 2010 | May 2010 |
Contacting the AATAC Secretariat:
| The Secretary, AATAC Anglo-Australian Observatory PO Box 296 Epping NSW 1710 Australia |
|
| Phone: +61 (0)2 9372 4812 | Fax: +61 (0)2 9372 4880 |
| Email enquiries: Helen Woods (hmw -@- aao.gov.au) |
Heath Jones, aatac -@- aao.gov.au