Proposal Submission 2020A

LBTO is currently CLOSED for 2020A Proposals

Introduction:

Partners participating in the 2020A call included: University of Virginia, The Ohio State University, Notre Dame, University of Minnesota, MPIA, AIP, and Arizona.
Different partners have different dates and deadlines during their proposal seasons. Please check your partner webpages or ask your Partner Coordinator for specific CfP information and closing dates. Given the differing deadlines, joint proposals to several partners in a single submission are NOT currently accepted. If you are interested in a joint proposal that spans multiple partners, please submit a proposal to each partner during their call. You should note in the body of your proposal the partners to which you are applying and the time requested.

Phase I Tool:

LBTO has developed a Phase I Tool (PIT) for proposal submissions. For 2020A the following partners are currently participating in PIT submission of all or some proposals include in the General PIT include: Arizona (AZ, NAU, ASU), The Ohio State University, University of Virginia, Notre Dame, MPIA, AIP, and University of Minnesota. See the download pages for more details. Other LBTO users are welcome to examine the new tool, but should NOT use it to submit their proposals.
This tool allows PIs to easily enter basic information about their program and create a LBTO cover sheet and instrument summary to include with their proposals. For 2020A, partners should upload their entire proposal, including partner-specific cover page, as a PDF attachment. An example of a completed proposal is here. Partner PIs may choose whether or not to describe their program in the Observation and Target Tabs or to submit in a minimalist way with just cover sheet information and their PDF attachment.

Links to the General PIT (used by non-INAF PIs) for Mac, Windows, and Linux are available on the installation page. Links to the INAF-PIT are available on this installation page.

LBTO Partnership (LBTB, INAF, OSURC, AZ)

Instruments Offered:

LBTO is currently offering the following instruments for 2020A science:

Visible	Near-IR	Mid-IR
Facility Instruments
MODS1: (SX) 320-1100nm multi-object, long-slit spectrograph and imager	LUCI1: (SX) 0.85-2.4µm multi-object, long-slit spectrograph and imager
MODS2: (DX) 320-1100nm multi-object, long-slit spectrograph and imager	LUCI2: (DX) 1.00-2.4µm multi-object, long-slit spectrograph and imager
LBCB: (SX) 350-650nm wide-field imager
LBCR: (DX) 550-1000nm wide-field imager
PI/Strategic Instruments
PEPSI: 383-907nm high-resolution spectrograph and polarimeter. CONTACT PI	LMIRCam on LBTI: 1-5µm high resolution camera and coronagraph. Optimized from 3-5µm.	NOMIC on LBTI: an 8-13 μm camera.

Available Tools:

While the observatory does provide an online archive for data access and download, no in-house pipeline or data reduction tools exist. For more information on the availability of community-built tools, please contact sciops@lbto.org.

Telescope/Instrument Configurations

For the 2020A observing season the available telescope configurations offered are as follows:
Seeing Limited:

Monocular: all facility instruments in seeing-limited mode

Homogeneous Binocular: all facility instruments in seeing-limited mode; twin or fraternal only

Heterogeneous Binocular with LBC:

- LBC + MODS in SHARED RISK**
- LBC + LUCI (SL) in SHARED RISK**

During the SOUL 2020A end-of-commissioning of DX, Diffraction Limited, ESM, and ARGOS options will be limited:
Diffraction Limited:

LUCI1: Offered in Imaging only
LUCI2: Imaging only in SHARED RISK** or DEDICATED Science Verification

ESM:

LUCI1: Offered
LUCI2: offered in SHARED RISK**

ARGOS:

LUCI1: Offered
LUCI2: Offered in SHARED RISK**

* For more information about ARGOS and ESM strategies, see this page. ESM is highly recommended for all seeing-limited LUCI observations with appropriate AO Reference Stars. Please be aware that we cannot perform ARGOS observations below 35 degrees in elevation. This is a hard limit imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

** In “shared-risk”, LBTO and its partners jointly acknowledge that the instrument, capability, or facility may experience suboptimal efficiency or technical downtime during nighttime operations and that, at the discretion of LBTO staff and for the benefit of the greater community, the investigation of the origin of the problem(s) or the pursuit of recovery options may occur.

PI Strategic Instruments:

It is critical that astronomers who would like to use the PI/Strategic instruments, LBTI or PEPSI, must contact the Principle Investigator of these instruments before submitting proposals to the TAC:
LBTI – LBTI PI (lbtipi@lbto.org)
PEPSI – Klaus Strassmeier (kstrassmeier@aip.de)

Observations will be carried out with assistance from the instrument team during scheduled PI instrument blocks.

Special Instructions for 2020A:

Mask Deadline for Successful Proposals is January 11, 2020. Please contact slitmasks@lbto.org for any questions.

Observing Modes Available:

For the 2020A observing season the observatory will operate as it has for the last several years, which is in “classical/service” and “PI Instrument” modes. In classical/service mode, partners will select PIs of successful proposals or partner service observers to visit the telescope during observatory-scheduled partner blocks. These designated observers will complete observations for themselves and potentially other PIs in their partnership.

Recent Past CfP:

PIT 2019B release: closed
PIT 2019A release: closed
PIT 2018B release: closed
PIT 2018A release: closed
PIT 2017B release: closed
PIT 2017A release: closed
PIT 2016B release: closed
PIT 2016A release: closed

The LBTO would like to thank Gemini Observatory for extensive use and adaptation of the materials and webpages published by Gemini staff at www.gemini.edu/sciops. The Gemini Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brazil), and Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina).