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Phase 1

Proposal submission is made through Proposal Management System (ProMS) which has been updated to accommodate HSC queue mode. Please select 'HSC Queue' for Normal and Intensive program or 'HSC Filler' for Filler program, then follow the instructions in ProMS.

Select 'HSC Queue' for a Normal and Intensive program or 'HSC Filler' for Filler program.

Important Policies

  1. The requested observing time must be a multiple of 1 hour (except zero!), which is base on the assumption that there are 10 hours of observable nighttime available on average and 0.1 nights = 1 hour. The observing time must include overheads. Total requested time for an observing plan can be calculated using the HSC overhead and required time calculator.
  2. The requested observing time for Normal Program must be between 1 and equal to or less than 35 hours.
  3. Observing constraints in proposal must be the strictest value: seeing (upper limit), transparency (lower limit), Moon phase (brightest acceptable phase), and Moon distance (lower limit). For example, if one target requires seeing \(\le\) 1.0 arcsec while the others can be observed with seeing \(\le\) 1.6 arcsec, the PI needs to set the seeing constraint as 1.0 in ProMS. The Moon distance from the target must be \(\ge\) 30 degrees. Note that the moon-target separation is automatically relaxed to 30 degrees in dark time.
  4. Time critical observations are supported for Normal programs only. Please state "Time critical" in the Comments on observing run box, and provide sufficient information on the time constraint (i.e., acceptable time windows) in Box 13 of Application Form. If different constraints apply to different targets/fields, please define the constraints in the list of targets, by adding comments in the "Magnitude" field. Multiple time windows are accepted. The time constraints of each window must be clearly described, preferably in UT. Note that chances of OBs being executed increase by specifying as relaxed time windows as possible. Time windows are limited by the number of queue nights in a semester.
  5. Cadence observations, which require regularly repeated series of observations, are not supported. Therefore, all observation blocks have to be independent, i.e., an order of execution of OBs cannot be specified.
  6. Proposals requesting to use narrow-band filters with their central wavelength 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.

Note on Monitoring Program

  • Subaru Telescope offers HSC queue-mode observations of monitoring programs (in shared-risk mode). A monitoring proposal is defined as a proposal a scientific goal of which requires more than one observation block in the time domain. We only accept monitoring proposals for which all time windows can be defined in Phase 2. Please check the PI document for further requirements and restrictions regarding this program, and contact the HSC queue working group to ensure whether your program can fit our scheme.

Note on Filler Program

  • PIs are not allowed to submit multiple filler proposals which have similar scientific/educational objectives. This is identical to the "One Proposal for One Project" policy in the call for proposals.
  • PIs can submit a filler program which has similar scientific objectives to a Normal/Intensive program, if part of their scientific goals can be achieved with inferior observing conditions. Note that in this case the maximum on-source exposure time to be requested is 4 hours per proposal. Also note that proposals with identical titles cannot be submitted.
  • Total requested time must be equal to or less than 35 hours (equivalent to 3.5 nights).
  • Once total on-source exposure of completed OBs of a filler program reaches 4 hours, the priority may be lowered compared to other filler programs which have not yet used 4 hours.
  • Filler programs may be recycled to further semesters if there is a shortage of filler programs.
  • Proposals for educational and public outreach purposes are also invited for submission.
  • As a general rule, filler programs will only be carried out under poor conditions with either bad seeing (\(\ge\) 1.6 arcsec) and/or bad transparency (\(\le\) 40 per cent). Higher priority will be given to normal and intensive open-use programs (i.e., Grade A, B, and C). Filler programs will also be selected and observed when there are no other programs to be executed in the time slot [see Filler Program Form].

Statistical Information for Observing Condition Constraints

Please set observation constraints to achieve your scientific goal. In ProMS, PIs need to specify the strictest value of each constraint. The following information is provided as reference to judge the typical seeing and transparency conditions, based on actual observations with HSC.

Seeing statistics in S16B

Seeing distributions of the HSC data

The above document shows the seeing distribution for each filter. We used data taken (1) with an exposure time longer than or equal to 60 seconds; (2) at elevation between 40 and 75 degrees; and (3) when transparency was higher than or equal to 0.5. For the i filter, for which the SSP-Wide program required slightly better seeing conditions than average, two numbers are provided, including and excluding SSP-Wide data, respectively. Here is a table summarizing median values in units of arcsecond.

Filter median mean
g 0.80 0.87
r 0.82 0.90
i 0.61 0.68
i (w/o SSP-Wide) 0.70 0.82
z 0.71 0.77
Y 0.75 0.84

Cumulative probabilities of seeing and transparency

25% 50% 75% Average
Seeing (arcsecond) <  0.616 <  0.736 <  0.924 0.809
Transparency (0 - 1; 0=worst, 1=best) <  0.811 <  0.928 <  0.953 0.856

Seeing was measured from Mar. 2014 to Jul. 2015 and transparency was measured in Jan. - Jul. 2015 based on HSC data.

See also:

Estimation of Total Exposure Time

Please use the HSC Exposure Time Calculator (ETC) and HSC overhead and required time calculator to estimate the S/N, overheads and total exposure time for your targets.

Note that the HSC Exposure Time Calculator is updated in June 2021. Please check the evaluation report.

Target Field Check

Please ensure that your important target does not fall on bad CCDs or columns or gaps between CCDs.