Cycle 7 Call for Proposals (CfP: 2019 - 2020) 

Deadline: September 16th, 2019 (11:59am Bangkok Time)

Proposals are invited to request time on the 2.4m Thai National Telescope (TNT) and a network of smaller, 0.6-0.7m, Thai Remote Telescopes (TRTs) for the observing seasons,

- Cycle 7: November 1, 2019 - May 15, 2020 for TNT

- Cycle 7A: October 1 - December 31, 2019 for TRT

Eligible proposers

The call is open to all Thai and International affiliated astronomers. Proposals with at least ONE Thai-affiliated CoI (or PI) are strongly encouraged. Non-Thai affiliated PI/Co-I proposals can be submitted in the usual way. However, if a Thai-affiliated and a non-Thai-affiliated proposal are ranked equally, preference will be given to the Thai-affiliated proposal. 

Furthermore, in deciding on proposal rankings the Time Allocation Committee will take into account the publication record and impact of the proposers with previous NARIT telescope time allocations. 

The Proposals will be reviewed and ranked on the basis of their scientific merit by a Time Allocation Committee (TAC) nominated by the NARIT Director. TAC members include qualified researchers from NARIT and other institutes in Thailand and Asia. The technical feasibility of the proposals will be reviewed by the NARIT Operations Department. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their proposals around early October, 2019.

What's new in this Cycle?

- The ARC 4k Camera is now fitted with a focal reducer which enlarge the instrument's Field of View (FoV) to approximately 14'. The instrument is being offered on a shared risk basis and under a commissioning terms for up to TWO cycles. Please note that any publication resulting from data taken with the instrument during the commissioning phase MUST include the focal reducer development team members (PI. Christoph Buisset) as the co-authors beside the normal TNT acknowledgement rules given below. For further detail regarding the early measurement of the instrument's performance please contact the operation team.

- There will be a compensation period during May 16 - 31, 2020. We will allocate observing time for people who cannot perform the observation due to weather or technical problem. The allocation will be announced late April 2020. 

- We are expecting a new 1-meter telescope to be installed on the rooftop of TNT control building later this year. The CfP for using the telescope is expected to be announced later, aiming at observing time between February - May, 2020.

- TRTs observing time are still offered on a shared-risk basis. The observing cycle is denoted with 7A to emphasise the different observing period for the call, i.e. October 1 to December 31, 2019. Similar to the last cycle, there will be four CfPs during the year. 

- The TAC will be putting a strong emphasis on the past publication record of PIs and projects previously allocated time on the TNT during the past cycles. The proposer of an application under these conditions must take good care in filling out section C) and G) in the "Description of the proposed project" of the online form. 

Important Notes

- Observers are expected to contact the NARIT staff to prepare their visit at least one month in advance of their run. They are expected to cover their expenses for travel to the TNT Doi Inthanon site as well as for local accommodation and subsistence. A set of Instructions for Visiting Astronomers are available to facilitate the logistics of the visit. Visitors are strictly required to fill an End of Run report and submit it to the NARIT staff within one week after the end of observations.

- You are required to read the Instructions very carefully before making the applications. You must ensure that the applications are filled out truthfully and as accurately as possible. PIs are responsible for the content in the proposal, any misuse of NARIT facilities, data or false information may result in being disqualified from application process or any scheduled time slot. 

- Beginning from Cycle 6, Target of Opportunity (ToO) application can be made outside of normal active CfP periods and can be submitted at any time. Normal application can only be submitted during an active CfP.

- The proposer may now submit a Target of Opportunity (ToO) application outside the normal active CfP periods. Normal application can only be submitted during an active CfP.

- For TNT application, PI can request the use of ONLY ONE scientific instrument per application. 

- Titles and Abstracts of all the proposals we received during this and later cycles will be published on NARIT website. 

- Metadata of the data taken during this and later cycles, except the ULTRASPEC GTOs, will be made available on NARIT public scientific data archive. However, the actual data themselves will be kept proprietary for a period of ONE year after the end of the cycle which the data were taken. After which, the data may be queryable by the public or any user of NARIT scientific data archive. If for any reason, e.g. nature of the scientific campaign etc., PI may request an extension of the proprietary period which the TAC will consider on a case by case basis. 

Acknowledgement Rules 

Any publication resulting from observations and data obtained by the TNT or TRTs MUST include the following sentence,

For TNT:

“Based on observations made with [instrument] at the Thai National Observatory under program ID [ID], which is operated by the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (Public Organization).”

For TRT:

“Based on observations made with the Thai Robotic Telescope under program ID [ID], which is operated by the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (Public Organization).”