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Significant changes in S26A

  • Change in Phase 2 submission period: The Phase 2 submission period is now between the deadlins for Normal/Intensive and Service proposals. PIs are asked to prepare Phase 2 based on "Total number of requested hours".
  • Change in deadline for Filler proposals: In accordance with the above change, the deadline for Filler proposals is now the same as that for Normal/Intensive proposals (and the Phase 2 submission period is also aligned with Normal/Intensive proposals, i.e., it is between the deadlines for Normal/Intensive and Service proposals).

Significant changes in S24A

  • Introduction of weather factors: Simply put, beginning in S24A, the observatory will assume, on average, 30 per cent of the night will be lost due to bad weather and allocate telescope time accordingly. Please see the announcement issued by the Subaru Advisory Committee for details. The most significant change that may affect potential queue observers is the reduction of the maximum acceptable Total Requested Number of Hours from 50 to 35 hours [i.e., 50*(1-0.3)=35] for Normal and Filler proposals. For intensive proposals, the new limits are up to 140 hours (reduced from 200 hours) in a semester and 280 hours total (from 400 hours; spread across up to 6 consecutive semesters).
  • Carry-over for Grade A proposals abolished: We will no longer carry incomplete Grade A proposals over to next semesters. Please resubmit them if missing data are crucial to the completion of your projects.

Important Notices

  1. The program completion rate against the seeing/moon-phase constraint of S19A-S20B programs is shown in the Completion Rate section.
  2. Requested telescope time for HSC queue-mode observation must be a multiple of 1 hour including overheads (see following notice), which is considered to be equivalent to 0.1 nights.
  3. Applicants for HSC queue-mode observation must include various overheads to the requested time. Total requested time for observing plan should be calculated using the HSC overhead and required time calculator or in accordance with this page. Please clearly indicate at "Observing Method and Technical Details" in your proposal how it is calculated (please list an exposure time and a number of exposures).
  4. Filler programs are executed only under inferior conditions (e.g., seeing \(\ge\) 1.6 arcsec and/or transparency \(\le\) 0.4) or situations in which there are no suitable programs with higher grades. Up to 35 hours can be requested by a filler proposal. Please refer to Note on Filler Program.
  5. Seeing and transparency conditions have to be chosen from specific values. Seeing must be 0.8, 1.0, 1.3, 1.6, or 100 arcsec, and transparency 0.7, 0.4, 0.1, or 0.
  6. Proposals requesting to use narrow-band filters with their central wavelengths shorter than 400 nm must only be submitted to classical mode, and not to queue mode. Currently, this applies only to the NB387, NB391, and NB395 filters.
  7. The maximum number of short exposures (60 sec or shorter) allowed in an OB (the minimum Observation Block) is 5. The length of an on-source exposure time in an OB must be equal to or shorter than 30 minutes (1,800 seconds).
  8. Proposal requesting to use both broad- and narrow-band filters must clearly state whether broad- or narrow-band only dataset is at all useful, or both must be obtained in order to pursue your science goal(s).
  9. HSC queue mode programs will be executed on queue observation nights and to fill in any gaps ('Sukima time') in HSC classical mode programs.
  10. A single event time critical observation is offered to all programs (i.e., Normal, Intensive and Filler).
  11. No cadence proposals are accepted (for a definition of cadence observations, please refer to Monitoring Proposals in the HSC Queue-Mode PI document).
  12. Monitoring proposals are accepted. Please check the Phase 1 section and the PI document carefully.

Introduction

What is the HSC queue mode?

The queue mode is a non-visitor mode of operation, i.e., observations are carried out by observatory staff without a direct involvement of investigators (PI and co-Is). Observations will be scheduled based on the rank of proposals, the priority of targets, observing conditions (seeing, transparency, moon phase, moon distance, etc.), telescope slewing time, and current instrument configuration (filter selections, etc.). This enables an appropriate selection of observations that can best utilize given conditions, and in principle increases chances of collecting what each PI considers 'useful' data, which hopefully results in better scientific outcomes (more publications!).

Program preparation consists of two parts, namely Phase 1 and Phase 2. Phase 1 is proposal submission. PIs must describe observing constraints such as acceptable seeing, transparency, moon phase, etc., in their proposal. Phase 2 can and should probably begin at the same time as Phase 1. PIs must prepare and submit details of their observing plan (as a list of Observation Blocks) before a pre-arranged deadline (currently the same as that for Service proposals, which is about a month after the Phase 1 deadline).

Subaru Telescope will manage scheduling and execution of queue-mode programs. Data will be delivered to PIs after we assess their quality.

Below, we summarize each step of the queue-mode observations and provide useful references. For details, please see the HSC Queue Mode Program PI Document.

Summary of Procedure

Process What are done by PI What are done by the observatory
Phase 1
(CfP period)
Aug.-Sep. (A semesters)
Feb.-Mar. (B semesters)		 Proposal submission.
The PI submit a proposal via ProMS (Proposal Management System) in the same way as for classical programs. The observing condition constraints such as seeing, transparency, etc., must be specified in the proposal.
  1. Announce Call for Proposal.
  2. Receive proposals via ProMS.
Phase 2
(Before TAC)
Aug.-Oct. (A semesters)
Feb.-Apr. (B semesters)		 Observing Block (OB) submission.
An OB is the smallest unit of observations in queue mode. Using tools Subaru Telescope provides, the PI must complete OBs before the deadline.
  1. Request preparation of OBs to PIs.
  2. Assist PIs to complete OBs. Check submitted OBs and give feedback.
  3. Check completion probability for the semester. Queue Coordinator may ask PIs to relax the observing constraints to increase the probability of OBs being scheduled/executed.
Observation Observations will be executed by observatory staff. After data acquisition, PIs will be notified of the results.
  1. Scheduling and execution of queue mode will be done by Subaru Telescope.
  2. Initial Quality Assessment (IQA) is performed almost immediately after an OB has been executed.
  3. In the daytime, Final Quality Assessment (FQA) will be performed in order to determine whether the executed OBs are successfully completed or returned to the queue.
  4. Subaru Telescope will inform PIs regarding progress of their programs.
Data Delivery When data are ready for download, PIs will be notified with instructions on how to obtain them. Subaru Telescope will provide raw science data as well as associated calibration data and observation logs.

References

Contact

Please contact hsc-queue_at_naoj.org, if you have any questions, comments, and suggestions regarding the HSC queue-mode proposal.