Cycle 8 Call for Proposals (CfP: 2020 - 2021)
Deadline: August 31st, 2020 (11:59 am Bangkok Time)
Proposals are invited to request time on the 2.4m Thai National Telescope (TNT), the 1m telescope at TNO, and a network of smaller, 0.6-0.7m, Thai Robotic Telescopes (TRTs) for the observing seasons.
- Cycle 8: November 16, 2020 - May 31, 2021, for the 2.4m TNT (public) and the TNO-1m (NARIT PI only)
- Cycle 8A: October 1 - December 31, 2020, for the TRTs
The proposal must be submitted in ENGLISH ONLY.
Eligible proposers
The call for the 2.4m TNT and the TRTs is open to all Thai and International affiliated astronomers while the TNO-1m telescope is currently open only for NARIT 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 on October 1, 2020, for the TRTs and October 15, 2020, for the TNT and the TNO-1m.
What's new in this Cycle?
- A new 1-meter telescope has been installed on the rooftop of the TNT control building in 2020. The CfP for using the telescope is currently open ONLY for NARIT PIs. This new telescope is offered during the same period as 2.4m TNT and on a shared risk basis. Please go to the TNO-1m section to see the available instruments for this telescope.
- ULTRASPEC: observers using this instrument are expected to use the HiPERCAM pipeline (http://deneb.astro.warwick.ac.uk/phsaap/hipercam/docs/html/) and perform their real-time reduction process on /home/observer/reduce/yyyy_mm_dd on the drpc.
For observation/details of ULTRASPEC at TNT, contact: Puji Irawati (puji.irawati@narit.or.th)
- The ARC 4k Camera is now fitted with a focal reducer which enlarges the instrument's Field of View (FoV) to approximately 14'. The instrument is being offered on a shared risk basis and under 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 acknowledgment rules given below.
For observation/details of this instrument, contact: Thawicharat Sarotsakulchai (tavijarus@narit.or.th)
- MRES: For observation/details of MRES, contact: David Mkrtichian (davidmkrt@gmail.com)
Important Notes
- 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.
- NARIT PIs whose proposal is accepted for observation with the TNO-1m have to follow a training (mandatory) which will be held at NARIT headquarter at the beginning of November (date TBC). There will be no OPD staff to assist the observers during their observations.
- Observers are expected to contact 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 the application process or any scheduled time slot.
- Starting from Cycle 6, Target of Opportunity (ToO) application can be made outside of normal active CfP periods and can be submitted at any time. A normal application can only be submitted during an active CfP.
- For the 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 the 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 in which the data were taken. After this, the data may be queryable by the public or any user of the 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.
Acknowledgment Rules
Any publication resulting from observations and data obtained by the TNT or TRTs MUST include the following sentence,
For the TNT and the TNO-1m:
“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 the TRTs:
“Based on observations made with the Thai Robotic Telescopes under program ID [ID], which is operated by the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (Public Organization).”
