Proposal Submission 2021A

LBTO is currently CLOSED for 2021A Proposals

Introduction:

Partners participating in the 2020B call include: University of Virginia, The Ohio State University, Notre Dame, University of Minnesota, MPIA, AIP, and Arizona. As of September 1, 2020, Arizona and University of Minnesota are currently CLOSED.

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 2021A 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 2021A, 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 2021A 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
PEPSI: 383-907nm high-resolution spectrograph and polarimeter.
PI/Strategic Instruments
	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 2021A observing season the available telescope configurations offered are as follows:

Seeing Limited:

Monocular: all facility instruments in seeing-limited mode including PEPSI, LBC, MODS, and LUCI

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**

Heterogeneous Binocular with PEPSI:

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

Diffraction Limited, ESM, and ARGOS options are as follows:
Diffraction Limited:

LUCI1: Imaging only
LUCI2: NOT OFFERED

ESM:

LUCI1: Offered
LUCI2: NOT OFFERED

ARGOS:

LUCI1: NOT OFFERED
LUCI2: NOT OFFERED

* 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 30 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 must contact the Principle Investigator of these instruments before submitting proposals to the TAC:
LBTI – LBTI PI (lbtipi@lbto.org)
Observations will be carried out with assistance from the instrument team during scheduled PI instrument blocks.

Special Instructions for 2021A:

Mask Deadline for Successful Proposals is January 11, 2021. Please contact slitmasks@lbto.org for any questions.

Observing Modes Available:

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to impact normal operations, observing modes for three partners have not yet been announced. The observatory currently offers “C-19 mode”, a service mode where lead observers from the partnership participate in observing runs with LBTO staff, who execute observations. Remote Observing opportunities are under development and when/if travel and quarantine restrictions are lifted, normal modes of observing, with partners physically present at either our headquarters or the LBTO summit could again be offered.

The Arizona partner now operates in Mini-Q mode. Like partner service mode, the observing time is still scheduled in discrete blocks, however LBTO’s expert staff now execute observations on behalf of AZ PIs, with attention to priority and weather conditions.

Recent Past CfP:

PIT 2020B release: closed
PIT 2020A release: closed
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