The Cycle 13 Announcement Web Page contains links to information and documentation (including this Call for Proposals) that will be useful to you while preparing your proposals. This page will also provide any late-breaking updates on the Phase I process, and answers to frequently asked questions.
The HST Primer provides a basic introduction to the technical aspects of HST and its instruments, and explains how to request the appropriate number of orbits in a Phase I proposal. The HST Primer is accessible from the Cycle 13 Announcement Web Page.
The Instrument Handbooks are the primary source of information for the HST instruments. You should use current versions of the Instrument Handbooks when preparing a proposal. They are available for all instruments, including former instruments that may be of interest for Archival Research. The Handbooks are distributed electronically, and can be accessed from the HST Instruments Web Page. This page also provides links to more detailed technical information, such as that provided in Instrument Science Reports.
In a continuing effort to streamline our systems and improve service to the science community, STScI developed and released the Astronomer's Proposal Tools (APT) in Cycle 12. This java-based software tool is now the interface for all Phase I and Phase II proposal submissions for HST. It brings state of the art technology and more visual tools into the hands of proposers to optimize the scientific return of their programs. APT helps to decrease the time between Phase I and the start of the observing cycle. The Cycle 13 version of APT has significantly improved performance over last year's version. In addition, the observation entry forms have been reorganized to allow faster and more concise specification of observations. Many other enhancements have been introduced to make proposal preparation and submission more friendly, robust, and accurate. The APT Web Page contains information on the installation and use of APT.
STScI provides Exposure Time Calculators (ETCs) for each of the HST instruments. Please use these electronic tools to estimate how long you need to integrate to achieve the signal-to-noise ratio required for your project. The ETCs will also issue warnings about target count rates that exceed linearity and safety limits. The ETCs can be accessed from the individual instrument web pages, which in turn are accessible from the HST Instruments Web Page.
The Visual Target Tuner (VTT) displays HST apertures and fields of view that are superimposed on sky images. The VTT is available as both an integrated and a stand alone tool within the Astronomer's Proposal Tools (APT) software package (see Section 1.4.4). Detailed information about the VTT is accessible from the APT Web Page.
The VTT can be useful in Phase I proposal preparation to help answer questions such as: How many exposures will I need to mosaic my extended target? Which of my potential targets "fits best" in the aperture? Is there anything interesting I can observe with a coordinated parallel in another aperture? Do any of my potential targets have nearby bright objects that could spoil the observation? Is there an orientation that would avoid the bright object? Where are the guide stars in the field?
The VTT also includes an interface to StarView (the HST archive software; see Section 7.2.1 of the HST Primer). This means you can invoke the VTT from StarView to graphically represent StarView results on areas of the sky that have previously been observed. Conversely you can also call up StarView from the VTT to show what observations have been made near a particular pointing.
The HST Data Archive is a part of the Multimission Archive at STScI (MAST). The HST Data Archive contains all the data taken by HST. Completed HST observations from both GO and GTO programs are available to the community upon the expiration of their proprietary periods. Observations taken under the Treasury and public parallel programs carry no proprietary period.
The Mast web page provides an overview of the HST Data Archive, as well as the procedures for retrieving archival data (see also the introductory description in Section 7.2 of the HST Primer). A copy of the HST Data Archive is maintained at the Space Telescope - European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF; see Appendix A.2) in Garching, to which European requests should normally be addressed. The Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC; see Appendix A.3) also maintains a copy of HST science data (only), and is the preferred source for Canadian astronomers. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ; see Appendix A.4) maintains a nearly complete copy of public HST science data, and should provide faster access for astronomers in Pacific rim nations. However, the NAOJ site does not yet have all public data available since it does not provide the re-processing and re-calibration services that the other HST archive sites do and it does not yet have a complete set of pre-Servicing Mission 2 data.
The HST Data Archive provides access to several tools that allow you to check whether planned observations duplicate any previously executed or accepted HST observations. See Section 5.2.2 for details.
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