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RevMexAA (Serie de Conferencias), 24, 125–128 (2005)

PROPOSAL GENERATION TOOLS FOR THE GTC : PHASE II

L. J. Corral,1 V. J. S. Bejar,1 P. L. Hammersley,1 R. Macıas,1 J. M. Rodrıguez Espinosa1

RESUMEN

Presentamos el ciclo que seguiran las propuestas de observacon en el GTC, ası como las herramientas in-formaticas creadas para completar y remitir dichas propuestas para su evaluacion y ejecucion.

ABSTRACT

We present an overview of the life-cycle of the observing proposals to the GTC and the software tools designedto help the astronomers to create and submit these proposals for evaluation and execution.

Key Words: METHODS: OBSERVATIONAL — TELESCOPES

1. INTRODUCTION

The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) will workin base of the proposals that will be produced by theastronomical communities of Spain, Mexico, and theUniv. of Florida. These proposals must be evaluatedby the corresponding TAC that will give a priorityfor each of them.

Those proposals that will be granted observingtime will be used to construct the observing plansof GTC. These plans will be produced by a softwaretool (Scheduler) that will take in account the prior-ity of the proposal and the actual atmospheric andobservational conditions. These observing plans willbe executed by the GTC support astronomers groupusing a control facility known as Sequencer (Perez-Calpena, 2001a).

In order that the Scheduler works is necessarythat the proposals must be separated in observingblocks taking in account the required telescope andinstrument configuration, the requested integrationtime and the positions of the sources in the sky.These observing blocks must be created by the ob-server using the software tool developed by the GTCcontrol group. We will review the life-cycle of theobserving proposals to GTC in §2, and the softwaretool (OPMS) for the Phase II proposal generation isreviewed in §3

2. THE LIFE-CYCLE OF THE OBSERVINGPROPOSALS TO GTC

The life-cycle of an astronomical proposal forGTC can be split in five main phases (Perez-Calpena, 2001b). Phase I proposal preparation,Approvaling tasks, Phase II proposal preparation,

1GTC Project, Instituto de Astrofısica de Canarias, VıaLactea s/n, E-38200 La Laguna, Espana (lcorral@iac.es).

Fig. 1. Flow of the scientific observing proposal.

Observing proposal execution, Data reduction andarchiving. Each of these phases has its own timesand schedules, and are designed to be executed eachsemester. Figure 1 gives a data flow of the scienceobserving proposals.

The life cycle of the proposals begins 6 monthsbefore (T-6 months) the first day (T) of the obser-ving semester with the announcement to the GTCastronomical community. The proposals must besubmitted with a dedicated tool (maybe a web basedform) to the corresponding TAC, the limiting datewill be around (T- 4.5 months). The proposals aresent to the GTC support astronomers group (T-3.5months) for a technical review and are evaluated andapproved by the TAC (T-3 months). The astronomerare informed if they have been awarded observingtime at (T-2.5 months), and at that time GTC willrequest the information that define the observingblocks that make the proposal. This information isknown as Phase II, and must be prepared with thededicated tool (OPMS).

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126 CORRAL ET AL.

Fig. 2. Time-cycle of the request of proposals for GTC.

There will be 2 types of awarded observingmodes, classical with the presence of the astronomerand with complete (or part) nights awarded, and inqueue mode where all observations are performed bythe support astronomers group that will distributethe observational data to the astronomer. The sche-dule of the observations in classical mode will bereleased at (T-1.5 months) and at that time the ob-servers will be notified. These observers must pre-pare the Phase II submissions prior the beginning ofthe semester.

For the observers with awarded observing time inqueue mode the deadline to prepare the Phase II in-formation will be at (T-1 month). It must be notedthat this Pase II information will be reviewed by theGTC support astronomers group and at the deadlineall problems with submissions must be clarified. Fi-gure 2 gives a resume of the lifecycle of the observingproposals.

Those observing programs approved in queuemodes will be approved for 3 semesters, that meansthat the observations start to be in the observingqueue at the beginning of the semester they wereapproved and remains in it until they are executedor until the third semester ends. While any obser-vation of a particular observing program remains inthe observing queue, the PI could contact the GTCto request changes in the observations.

For observing programs approved in classicalmode, the PI must prepare the observations usingthe OPMS. These observations are carried out as inthe queued mode, but only one observing programis active, and the astronomer has full control overthe queue and can modify the order of execution oradd new observations generated during the night. Inany case, the classical observers will be encouragedto prepare and submit to GTC their Phase II infor-mation in advance of their observing seasons.

3. OPMS

OPMS (Observing Programs Management Sub-system) is the tool to prepare and submit the obser-ving proposals with granted time by the TAC. Thistool must create the observing blocks that the Se-quencer will handle to perform the observations re-quired for each observing proposal. The tool hasseveral characteristics that we will review.

OPMS is written in Java to assure that it will runin several operating systems. It uses ESO’s JSky alibrary of Java components for astronomy (Brightonet al. 1999). At the GTC web pages will be avail-able the Time Exposure Calculators (TEC) for theavailable observing modes, with the latest informa-tion available about the performance of the telescopeand the instruments. A copy of the TEC will be in-cluded in the OPMS with new versions released everysemester in order to reflect the latest measurements.

The structure of the OPMS is based on the obser-ving tool of Gemini, and follows the same tree distri-bution of layers. In the first screen (see figure 3) ap-pears the information about the observing program(Title, status, PI and contact address). From thisinitial level there are several branches, the first onewith the information coming from the Phase I form(Abstract, science justification, etc) where the com-ments from the TAC will be included.

The observations that form the observing pro-gram appear below. Each observation correspondsto one telescope acquisition. There will be as muchobservations as different configurations are neededby the observing program (see figure 4).

The observing conditions must be those whichwas asked in the Phase I tool and can not be changed.The schedule is orientative in most cases and mustbe defined only in the case of critical timing obser-vations (periodic phenomena, simultaneous observa-tions, etc).

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GTC PHASE II TOOL 127

Fig. 3. Front screen of OPMS with information aboutthe observing program.

Fig. 4. Each observation will be defined by the instru-ment’s configuration needed.

The target position must include proper motion(when available) or tracking details in the case of fastmoving objects. One of the tools available is a TargetEditor, that opens an astronomical image visor of thearea of the observations. The image is obtained viainternet from several places (CADC, ESO, 2MASS)and can also show images locally stored. On top ofthe image appears the outline of the window of therequested observing mode. Its position and orienta-tion can be changed with the mouse. In figure 5 wecan see the position and orientation of the ELMERfield of view in long-slit mode.

The instrument configuration is defined in thenext layer. At this time only ELMER imaging modeis included, but in the future every instrument’sobserving mode will be available following the guide-

Fig. 5. The position and orientation of the requestedobserving window can be modified with the mouse.

Fig. 6. The pointing positions of a 3 × 3 20 ′′grid definedby the user

lines found in Macıas, 2003. A TEC is included andis possible also to define different read-out modes ofthe detector. At the right side of instrument con-figuration screen (see figure 4) is a box under thetitle Sequence. Every line in this box is a tool usedto create sequences of observational modes. For ex-ample, is possible to include repetition of observa-tions changing only the filter used or to define offsetsaround the target with the same instrument configu-

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128 CORRAL ET AL.

ration. In figure 6 are shown the pointing positionsof a grid of 3×3 offsets of 20 arc sec.

A local checking is done at the final screen toassure that there are no missing data and if so itis requested. When all the required information iscompleted, it is sent to the GTC for a final technicalevaluation by the GTC support astronomers groupprior to scheduling.

L. J. Corral, V. J. S. Bejar, P. L. Hammersley, R. Macıas and J. M. Rodrıguez Espinosa: GTC Project, Institutode Astrofısica de Canarias, Vıa Lactea s/n, 38200 La Laguna, Spain (lcorral@iac.es).

REFERENCES

Brighton, A. et al. 1999. in JSky - Java Components forAstronomy, ESO, http://archive.eso.org/JSky/

Macıas, R., 2003, GTC Document NTE/CTRL/0187-RPerez-Calpena, A., 2001a, GTC Document

PRO/OPER/0025-RPerez-Calpena, A., 2001b, GTC Document

PRO/OPER/0024-R