Observers

• APF in winter. Photo by Laurie Hatch.

Call for Proposals

To: Observers on the Automated Planet Finder (APF) 2.4 m telescope
From: Claire Max, UCO Director
Date: March 10^th, 2021
Semester 2021B
(August 1^st, 2021 through January 31^st, 2022)

Deadline: Tuesday, April 20^th, 2021 at 5:00 pm PST

The APF is now by default a queue scheduled telescope. Because of this policy:

• Requested nights should be “clear” nights with no correction for weather, only science observation time and overheads will be charged to a program.
• The TAC will be allocating time based on the expected 800 hours of clear time for UC proposals.
• Queue priorities will be set based on TAC grades.
• We welcome all proposals for high resolution, R > 80,000, spectroscopy of stars as well as proposals for precision radial velocities of GKM stars.
• We encourage proposals to request additional time for your program on the cover sheet, in case other programs cannot be executed or the APF is undersubscribed.

Proposal Information

1. The first page must include an abstract - see Proposal Submission Requirements
2. Select Cadence for queue observing on the cover sheet - see Proposal Submission Requirements
3. Pure classical nights must be justified - see Proposal Submission Requirements
4. Assume 10 hours per night for calculating total requested time - see Proposal Submission Requirements
5. Long Term proposals from the past year need only submit a one page update - see APF Long Term Programs
6. Large, multi-semester programs (LMAPS) are now an option - see APF LMAPS
7. Proposal ranking will determine queue ranking - see Queue Priority and Proposal Ranking
8. Time critical observations will be given higher queue ranking but must be justified - see Time Critical Observations, ToOs, and Proposal Ranking
9. TOO programs can submit targets during the night starting in 2021A - see Time Critical Observations, ToOs, and Proposal Ranking

Information about the APF telescope can be found at:
https://apf.ucolick.org

For the 2021B semester, 800 hours will be available in the APF queue for UC proposals.

The time will be scheduled in two different modes at the request of the observers. The observer can (1) ask for their targets to be inserted into the queue operated by the University of California Observatories (Cadence), or (2) ask for specific nights and conduct observations as they wish (Classical). Classical requests need to be justified.

All time requests should be in hours. The cover sheet should list the request in nights, assuming 10 hours per night, with fractional nights as appropriate. The TAC will allocate grades to the proposals and those grades (A, B, C) will determine the relative priority on any given night, with guaranteed or purchased time being granted A time.

The queue will be run on all nights, except for the whole or half nights allocated to specific classical programs. The queue software is capable of handling multiple programs per night. The target list and the data files for a given observer will be private to the PI unless otherwise requested. A given program can be executed on any given night the queue is running, with the balance of observing time monitored over the course of the semester to match the allocated amount. Simple cadence requirements, ranging from multiple times a night, to once a month can be met and the total observations can easily be supported.

Sincerely,