Announcements
Special Call for Proposals to Observe Comet Tempel 1 Deep Impact Event
March 18, 2005
Keck Observatory, Gemini Observatory & Subaru Telescope
This is an open call to the world astronomical communities to observe the Deep Impact event on Comet Tempel 1 in July 2005, using the most powerful telescopes and instruments currently available.
In support of the Deep Impact mission to intercept Comet Tempel 1, windows of Director’s Discretionary time have been reserved on the Keck I & II, the Gemini North & South and the Subaru Telescopes. These windows (corresponding to times before, during and after the impact) are:
For Keck, I & II, the
night of July 3rd;
For Subaru, the night of July 3rd;
For Gemini North, the nights of July 2nd,
3rd, and 4th
For Gemini South, the nights of July 3rd,
4th and 5th
[The encounter time is currently scheduled for 06:10 4 July 2005 UT, which is 20:10 July 3rd in Hawaii. These times could move slightly later. This timing means that the comet will have set as seen from Chile, and the impact itself will not be observable there.]
Keck has reserved only the night of impact itself for the high resolution spectrograph, HIRES on Keck I, and the near infra-red spectrograph, NIRSPEC on Keck II. All capabilities currently available on Gemini (except GNIRS and GMOS-South) and Subaru are offered. Selection of the instruments will be based on the proposal’s scientific merit and coordination between the observatories.
The three observatories are inviting joint or individual proposals to all three facilities. Proposers should be aware that the observatory Directors will coordinate the efforts to provide the most complete coverage of the event and to exploit their respective observational strengths. Data from all observatories will be made public immediately after completion of quality assessment.
All proposals can be submitted directly to all (but at least one) of the observatory sites:
For the Keck programs, send your proposal(s) to Randy Campbell at rcampbell@keck.hawaii.edu
For the Gemini programs, send your proposal(s) to Phil Puxley at ppuxley@gemini.edu for Gemini South proposals, and to Jean-Rene Roy at jrroy@gemini.edu for Gemini North proposals.
For Subaru programs, send your proposal(s) to Masa Hayashi at masa@subaru.naoj.org
Deadlines for proposals are April 30th, 2005. The observatory directors will then meet to choose the programs. Selected PIs will then be contacted to prepare the appropriate phase II material.
Observatory, telescope and instrument information
can be found at the three observatory web sites:
Keck Observatory is at http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu
Gemini Observatory is at http://www.gemini.edu
Subaru Telescope is at http://www.naoj.org
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Proposal Submission to Subaru Telescope Send following information to <masa@subaru.naoj.org > via e-mail with the key word "DEEP IMPACT" in the Subject line. The information should be in either English or Japanese.
Please feel free to ask <masa@subaru.naoj.org> if you have any questions. |
March 18, 2005 : Release
April 6, 2005 : Update
