Astronomy

Information for UF GTC Proposers

The Department of Astronomy has a total of 12 UF nights per year and 8 nights shared with Spain per year on the GTC. However, during these early days with the telescope, the actual time is less and, because we are using exclusively the queue scheduling mode, the time is counted by hours instead of nights. For example, in the 2010B semester, we ahve an anticipated total of 22 hours of UF-only time (11 hours dark) and 14 hours shared with Spain. This time is allocated to UF observers by a departmental Time Allocation Committee (TAC) presently comprised of Fred Hamann (Chair), Steven Eikenberry, Elizabeth Lada and Ata Sarajedini.

To submit a proposal for UF GTC Time, please follow these guidelines:

1. PI of UF proposals must be either:
   • UF faculty
   • UF postdocs who will be UF employees at the time of the observations
   • UF graduate students who:
     • have successfully passed their oral candidacy exam
     • are in good standing
     • are applying to obtain data for their thesis
     • have the written support/approval of their thesis advisor
2. Proposals must be submitted using the Spanish TAC website.
   • PI’s and Co-I’s are required to register at this site.
3. There are two categories of UF GTC proposals:
   • UF-only
     • Select “Other GTC CAT Florida”
   • UF-Spanish collaborative proposals that include investigators at a Spanish research institution
     • Select “Other Acuerdo IAC/Florida”
4. Important note: UF-Spanish collaborations are are eligible for both UF-Spanish shared time and UF-only time. (The converse is not true: proposals submitted for UF-only time are not eligible for UF-Spanish time, even if they include a Spanish Co-I). Therefore, UF proposers with Spanish collaborators are strongly encouraged to request UF-Spanish shared time.

Evaluations

UF-only and collaborative UF-Spanish proposals are both reviewed by the UF TAC. The collaborative proposals are also reviewed by the Spanish CAT. After these reviews, the chairs of the UF TAC and Spanish TAC meet to decide a final ranking for the UF-Spanish shared time proposals, with approval from their committees.

The UF TAC ranks all of the UF-only and UF-Spanish proposals together to ensure that the best ones get time on the telescope. As noted above, this can result in proposals submitted for UF-Spanish time receiving only UF-time if they are ranked higher than UF-only proposals by the UF TAC.

The UF TAC considers several factors in evaluating proposals. The most important considerations are the overall quality and potential impact of the proposed science, along with the technical feasibility of the proposed observations. Other factors that may receive consideration in no specific order of importance are:

• Whether observations are part of a PhD thesis
• The publication record of the proposers using GTC data
• Whether the proposed observations are an important complement to other observation taken, or to be taken, with other telescopes
• Whether the proposed observations are technically matched to the capabilities of the GTC/instrument