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LBTB Call for Proposals 2024B & 2025A

 

LBTB Call for Proposals 2024B and 2025A

 

AIP Observing Time at the LBT

The German partners in the Large Binocular Telescope are expected to be allocated a total of about 54 nights for the semesters 2024B and 2025A (Sep.2024-Jun.2025). The AIP share is about 9 nights which will be available for general observing programs.

Note that that the availability of the LBT via the LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft will end by the end of 2025. This means that this is the last call for projects in the spring semester (2025A) and the next call for proposals (Apr.2025) will only cover the fall semester 2025 (2025B). While new programs are welcome, priority will be given to completing already started programs. As always we do not carry over programs so if you do not expect to complete your ongoing program this semester you have to reapply for the coming period.

Please use the Phase I Tool named "pit"  (instructions and download available at the LBTO: pit help) for proposal preparation and submission.

INSTRUMENTS OFFERED:
Please check the instrumentation offered at this LBTO webpage. The information on the instruments and their use is available from LBTO Science Operations. Note that successful applicants might have to provide an observer for taking active part in executing the observing queue, either on-site or remotely.

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS:

 

8:00am (CEST), Tuesday, April 30, 2024

THE PROPOSAL PROCESS:

The ISC has been tasked with organizing the call for proposals and a Time Allocation Committee TAC has been charged by the institute management to rank the proposals according to scientific merit, but also judge their perspectives to generate visible scientific output on relatively short timescales. Given that the use of the LBT via this process will end by the end of 2025 priority will be given to completing programs which have already been started. Remember that we do not carry over programs from one period to the next so if your program is not expected to be completed in the present semester please make sure to submit a new proposal for the coming period.

Before passing the accepted programs to the observatory for implementation, there will be a phase-II where observing blocks for LBC, scripts and MOS masks for LUCI and MODS and README files for PEPSI will have to be prepared.

The assignment of observing time is intended to be completed by the end of June and successful applicants will be asked to submit their phase-II material for targets which can be observed during 2024B by July 15'th 2024 to lbtprop@aip.de (with a Cc to jstorm@aip.de).

THE PROPOSAL:

We do not have a fixed format for the proposal but the scientific justification should not be longer than one page. Another two pages can be used for the technical justification, references and figures. Please make sure that you clearly state the objective of the project and give a justification for the amount of observing time requested and that you address explicitly the selection criteria listed below. Please use the new Phase-I Tool (pit) for preparing and submitting your proposal. Your three page justification can be attached as a pdf file from within the tool.

Selection criteria for the present call:

  • Scientific merit as assessed by the TAC. Be aware that the TAC members will be from various scientific areas. Proposals avoiding jargon and expressing their cases in simple terms may find it easier to convince the TAC. The concrete criteria which will be applied and which should be specifically addressed in the proposal include:
    • The relevance and importance of the proposal within the area of specialization
    • The scientific merit in the larger context of astronomical research
    • The suitability of the experimental design to achieve the scientific goals (technical feasibility/potential problems with the data)
    • The significance of the proposed observations for the completion of the project
    • The likelihood that the researchers will complete the project and publish their results (adequacy of available resources and foreseen visibility)
    • Status of previous LBT time allocations
    • Completion of already accepted and ongoing program before the LBT access via this process ends
  • Due to the low pressure factor for observations under marginal conditions there is a category of back-up programs. These programs will not be counted against our share of 'good' condition observations, so such programs are particularly welcomed! If you have such a proposal, please make it expressly clear that it belongs to this category.

Links with technical information about the LBT, the available instruments and their performance can be obtained from the LBTO Science Operations. We also have an LBT resource page with additional relevant information.

PHASE-II MATERIAL:

Phase-II material should be prepared using the LBT Observing Tool (OT) available in the Observing Tool Manual. In addition to the output from the OT an ASCII README file is required which should contain the relevant primary constraints (coordinates, seeing, cloudiness, time constraints, etc).  Note that MOS observations require MOS masks to be produced well in advance of the observing run, so all phase-II material including mask files should be made available by July 15'th, 2024. The phase-II material should be send to the e-mail address: lbtprop@aip.de as a gzipped tar-file with a Cc to jstorm@aip.de.

With the best regards on behalf of the ISC,

Jesper Storm (AIP LBT observing contact person)

LBT
Last update: 22. March 2024