CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR GEMINI OBSERVATORY 2021 LARGE AND LONG PROGRAM TIME |
Important Restriction for New Gemini LLP Proposals:Time is only available in poorer seeing and in Band 2. |
Important Restrictions for New Gemini-AllocatedSubaru Intensive Programs:Time is only available at 22 ≤ RA h ≤ 8. |
Important Dates
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The estimated time available for new Gemini LLPs is provided in the table below. The time available is estimated as 200 hours less any previously allocated LLP time. The exact time available will depend on instrument commissioning, engineering, campaign science, limited-term partnerships, etc. Due to pre-comitted time allocations, only Band 2 time is offered in this Call, and that time must use IQ85 or worse seeing.
| Site | Band | 2021B | 2022A | 2022B | 2023A | 2023B | 2024A |
| North | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 76 | 85 | 85 | 85 | 85 | 85 | |
| South | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
An individual LLP need not request a balanced program across North/South, RA range, observing conditions, etc. However, the ensemble of approved LLPs must not overly impinge on other observing programs. Therefore, the ensemble of approved LPs should not exceed ~25% of any relevant parameter, such as hemisphere, RA range, and observing condition bins. See http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/telescopes-and-sites/observing-condition-constraints for further information on observing condition constraints.
LLPs will also be subject to general semester target availability restrictions, as published in the general call for proposals for each semester.
Previous LLP allocations further reduce the availability of certain Right Ascension and Observing Conditions constraint combinations in future semesters. For this Call, new Gemini LLPs are restricted to the poorer seeing constraint IQ85 or worse, at both sites. Other than this constraint there is no limit on RA or Declination, cloud cover, sky brightness or water vapor, apart from the semester and site-specific limits stated in the regular 21A proposal call. Note however that the new proposals will be in Band 2, and so tight scheduling constraints will reduce the probability of completion. There is no completion guarantee for LLPs in Band 2.
New Subaru Intensive Programs are limited to RAs of 22 hours to 8 hours. This is due to pre-committed time at other RAs.
The instruments available for new LLPs are listed below, along with any particular restrictions of note. At a minimum, facility instruments and modes must be currently commissioned to be available for new LLPs. Successful LLPs may also be limited by the semester-specific instrument availability restrictions announced with each semesters regular Call for Proposals.
Gemini Observatory welcomes LLP proposals utilizing visitor instruments. The policy on LLP proposals requesting a visiting instrument is available as part of the Visiting Instrument policy. Any PI, either from the instrument team, or from interested members of the community considering a LLP proposal using a visiting instrument is encouraged to contact Gemini Observatory at largeprograms@gemini.edu prior to Letter of Intent submission to discuss the feasibility of any request.
In previous LLP call for proposals, NIRI has not been available due to the risk of an instrument failure that could heavily impact a NIRI-dependent LLP. Under this current call for proposals, we are including NIRI as an available instrument. However, proposals using NIRI should include a statement on a mitigation strategy if NIRI becomes unavailable during the duration of their large program. This could include a discussion of how GNIRS keyhole imaging could be used to reach the scientific goals of the program, or a discussion of what could be obtained from a partial data sample.
The GMOS instruments can hold 9 masks at any given time. These masks include those required by regular programs, which may need to be installed for lengthy periods if monitoring is required or if the observation time is large. For these reasons new LLP programs should limit the number of masks needed to around 20 masks per site per semester. The number of masks in a given 3-hour RA range must be less than this - around 5 per semester per site.
PIs from LLP participating partners (currently the US and CA) are invited to submit proposals for Subaru Intensive programs (SIP) to Gemini through the Gemini-Subaru time exchange program. Subaru Intensive programs applications follow the same rules and eligibility used for the Gemini Large and Long Programs (LLPs). The request of Subaru Intensive program must be clearly stated in the title of the proposal. The required Subaru instrument configurations should be specified in the Abstract. At most, one proposal will be selected for observations beginning in 2021B. Subaru reserves the right to reject this program if it cannot be reasonably accommodated in the Subaru schedule. Instruments available for new SIP programs starting in 2021 are: FOCAS (optical imaging and longslit and multi-slit spectroscopy), HDS (extremely high-resolution optical spectroscopy) and IRCS (infrared camera and spectrograph). The Hyper Suprime-Cam large-field imager is typically available for up to 5 nights a semester. All new SIP programs starting in 2021, allocated via Gemini, are limited to RAs of 22 to 8 hours.
This information may be updated in early February 2021, when Subaru issues its 21B Call for Proposals.