Hubble Space Telescope Call for Proposals for Cycle 13
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1.1 About this DocumentChapter 1:
General Information
1.2 New and Important Features of Cycle 13
1.3 General Guidelines for Proposal Preparation
1.4 Resources, Documentation and Tools
1.4.1 Cycle 13 Announcement Web Page
1.4.2 HST Primer
1.4.3 Instrument Handbooks
1.4.4 The Astronomer's Proposal Tools (APT)
1.4.5 Exposure Time Calculators (ETCs)
1.4.6 The Visual Target Tuner (VTT)
1.4.7 HST Data Archive
1.4.8 Duplication checking
1.5 STScI Help Desk
1.6 Organization of this Document
1.6.1 Policies, Procedures and General Information
1.6.2 Preparing and Submitting Your Proposal
1.6.3 Information Pertaining to Accepted Proposals
1.6.4 Appendices
1.1 About this Document
Two documents are of primary relevance for HST proposers: this Call for Proposals and the HST Primer (see Section 1.4.2). The Call for Proposals discusses policies and procedures, and explains how to submit a Phase I proposal. The HST Primer provides a basic introduction to the technical aspects of HST and its instruments, and explains how to calculate the appropriate number of orbits for your Phase I observing time requests.
The Call for Proposals is only available electronically in HTML and PDF formats. The HTML version is optimized for on-line browsing, and contains many links to related or more detailed information, both within the document itself and within other STScI documents. You are therefore encouraged to use the HTML version electronically. Nonetheless, some people may prefer to read a hardcopy, and with this in mind, the PDF version was optimized for printing.
In a hardcopy printout of the PDF version any links to information on the internet will appear as underlined text. You can look up the internet address of the corresponding link in Appendix D.
1.2 New and Important Features of Cycle 13
- Cycle 13 will start nominally in July 2004 and have a duration of one year.
- STScI experience with scheduling some Large and Treasury programs in Cycles 11 and 12 has shown that these can introduce substantial difficulties in developing an effective and efficient long-range observing schedule for HST. Proposers submitting Large and Treasury programs are asked to include additional technical detail in the "Description of the Observations" section to provide information on the scheduling aspects of their program.
The following features also deserve special mention, but have not changed since the last cycle:
- The Phase I proposal deadline, which traditionally fell in early September, has now been moved to January 23. Since the start of the cycle will continue to be in July, this change will shorten the time interval between the submission of observing proposals and the scheduling of the observations. This has important advantages. The pace of discoveries in astronomy has quickened and the possibility of writing proposals closer to the beginning of the observing cycle will allow the latest developments to be fully folded into the current round of proposals. Also, in some cases, it will now be possible to write proposals that are based on data obtained during the current observing cycle, thus making cogent follow-up proposals more likely.
- Starting in Cycle 12, a java-based software tool, APT (the Astronomer's Proposal Tools; see Section 1.4.4) is the new interface for all Phase I and Phase II proposal submissions for HST. Please refer to Chapter 7, Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 for a description of how to prepare and submit your Cycle 13 Phase I proposal using APT. The Phase I LaTeX templates that have been in use for many years will no longer be accepted.
- The proposal category of `Innovative Programs' that existed in previous cycles was cancelled in Cycle 12. STScI continues to encourage the submission of proposals that explore new and innovative ways of using HST. However, these will now be dealt with in a similar manner as other observing proposals.
- The instruments offered for observations in Cycle 13 are: the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS); the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS); the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS); the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS); and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). ACS was installed on HST in March 2002 during servicing mission SM3B. NICMOS resumed operations after the installation of a cryo-cooling system. All instruments are working nominally at the time this document was written (Aug. 2003).
- In addition to the proposal categories that have existed for many cycles, STScI continues to solicit proposals in the categories of `Treasury Proposals' (see Section 3.2.4), `Theory Proposals' (see Section 3.5) and `Legacy AR Proposals' (see Section 3.4.2), all of which were started successfully in Cycle 11. Also, it remains possible to request observing time on Chandra (see Section 3.7) or NOAO telescopes (see Section 3.8) in combination with requests for HST observations.
1.3 General Guidelines for Proposal Preparation
Here are some suggestions to keep in mind when writing your proposal.
- Stress why your science is critically important and why it requires HST.
- Write for the appropriate audience.
Review panels span a broad range of scientific expertise. It is therefore crucial that your proposal provides sufficient introductory material for the non-specialist, and explains the importance of the program to astronomy in general.- Explain clearly and coherently what you want to do and why.
Make sure to get your point across to reviewers who have to judge on order of 100 proposals in a few days.- If you have a project that requires a significant investment of HST observing time, do not hesitate to propose it.
In recent cycles, the proposal acceptance rate has been approximately independent of proposal size. So the odds of getting a large proposal accepted are no worse than for a small proposal.- Make sure that what you propose is feasible.
It is the responsibility of the proposer to insure that the proposed observations are technically feasible; proposals that are not technically feasible will be rejected. So familiarize yourself with the technical documentation provided by STScI. In particular, make sure that your observations do not exceed bright object safety limits (see Section 5.1 of the HST Primer). Contact the STScI Help Desk (see Section 1.5) if anything is not clear, or if you are unsure about the feasibility of a particular approach or observation.1.4 Resources, Documentation and Tools
1.4.1 Cycle 13 Announcement Web Page
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.
1.4.2 HST Primer
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.
1.4.3 Instrument Handbooks
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.
1.4.4 The Astronomer's Proposal Tools (APT)
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.
1.4.5 Exposure Time Calculators (ETCs)
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.
1.4.6 The Visual Target Tuner (VTT)
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.
1.4.7 HST Data Archive
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.
1.4.8 Duplication checking
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.
1.5 STScI Help Desk
If this Call for Proposals and the materials referenced above do not answer your questions, or if you have trouble accessing or printing Web Documents, then contact the Help Desk. You can do this in either of two ways:
- Send e-mail to help@stsci.edu.
- Call 1-800-544-8125, or from outside the United States,
[1] 410-338-1082.1.6 Organization of this Document
1.6.1 Policies, Procedures and General Information
Chapter 2 summarizes the policies regarding proposal submission. Chapter 3 describes the types of proposals that can be submitted. Chapter 4 describes the types of observations that can be done with HST; it includes discussions of various types of special requirements. Chapter 5 addresses policies regarding data rights and duplications. Chapter 6 describes procedures and criteria for proposal evaluation and selection.
1.6.2 Preparing and Submitting Your Proposal
Chapter 7 outlines the steps to follow when preparing and submitting a Phase I proposal. A proposal consists of a completed APT proposal form and an attached PDF file. Chapter 8 describes the items that must be filled out in the APT proposal form; this information is also available from the context-sensitive `Help' in APT. Chapter 9 describes the items that must be addressed in the attached PDF file.
1.6.3 Information Pertaining to Accepted Proposals
Chapter 10 provides information on the implementation and scheduling process for accepted proposals. Chapter 11 describes Education/Public Outreach (E/PO) proposals. Chapter 12 provides information on budgets, grants and funding policies.
1.6.4 Appendices
The appendices provide a variety of additional information, including contact information (Appendix A), lists of scientific keywords (Appendix B) that can be used in proposals, a glossary of acronyms and abbreviations (Appendix C) and a list of internet links used in the document (Appendix D).
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