TO: ALL MCDONALD AND HET OBSERVERS
FROM: Anita Cochran
SUBJECT: Call for HET and McDonald Observing Proposals
Also, call for IGRINS Mini-queue for March 2017

DATE: 12 January 2017

This trimester will cover the April 1 2017 to July 31 2017 period
for HET and McDonald Proposals. What follows is long - please read it!
Also, note the unusual McDonald deadline.

NOTE that the deadlines (see below) are FIRM and we will close the
web site shortly after the deadline.

WEB SITES OPEN ON 17 January 2017

FLEXIBILITY: Please be as flexible as possible with your dates and moon
constraints. The more flexible you are, the more likely I will be able
to schedule you for some time! PLEASE DO NOT BURY YOUR CONSTRAINTS IN
THE TEXT - make sure there is something to flag them on the cover page.

FOR REQUESTING PARTIAL NIGHTS: If you are requesting partial nights,
put the actual sum of partial nights in the "nights requested"
box (e.g. for 3 half nights the sum is 1.5 nights - do NOT put 3x0.5)
and put something like "3x0.5 nights' in the "Specify range of dates
box". If you ask for 1/2 nights, the new form will request which half
is needed. Be creative with this e.g. "second half in April, May or
first half in June, July."

IGRINS (MINI-QUEUE): We will have a weeklong mini-queue when IGRINS
returns to McDonald Observatory in March. Observations still on the DCT
queue will be rolled over into the McDonald queue. The mini-queue will
be executed from March 10-17. Proposals FOR THE MINI-QUEUE ONLY are due
by 5 March 2017, to be submitted through the form found at this link:
https://goo.gl/forms/QwlhdlPYfuMzOXG02. Large requests need to be
prioritized by science goal.

IGRINS (CLASSICAL): Classical observing with IGRINS in Trimester 2
(April-July) will be limited to 30 nights of TAC awarded time, of which
about half will be supported by the IGRINS Team, the rest must go to
people who are trained to run the instrument themselves. Guaranteed time
for KASI Legacy and UT YSO programs will share 20 additional nights. It
is a requirement for IGRINS proposals that you have one of the team
members as a collaborator. If you want a suggestion for a collaborator,
contact Kimberly Sokal (ksokal@utexas.edu), Greg Mace
(gmace@astro.as.utexas.edu), or Jae-Joon Lee (leejjoon@kasi.re.kr).
Proposals should be sent to your IGRINS collaborator by January 25th so
they can be reviewed for feasibility ahead of the proposal deadline
(February 2nd). Proposals that meet these early deadlines do remarkably
better with the TAC.

McDONALD
Proposals for the McDonald telescopes on Mt. Locke will be due on
Thursday February 2nd at 8am. ***Note that this unusual deadline is
because of the Korean Lunar New Year*** All proposals are to be
submitted using the on-line web submission form. This system is located
at hydra.as.utexas.edu/mtlocke/. It is password controlled. You can
assign yourself an account the first time you use it. If you have
forgotten your password, the system can send you a new one. Note that
there are some upgrades to the form. If you encounter problems send them
to me and Jim Umbarger (jimum@astro.as.utexas.edu)

In the web format, some of the routine items are menu selectable. The
long text portions (e.g. Scientific Justification) are uploadable in
pdf or ps format. You may prepare them in any text processor you wish
as long as you can upload pdf. Margin and font size information are
given on the web site. You may upload the text sections either as a
single document or as a separate document for each section. PLEASE PUT
A SECTION HEADING ON EACH SECTION. You may edit your proposal repeatedly
and the last submission will be the one which counts (so you do not need
to wait for the last minute!). For LaTeX users, there is a (very) simple
template available for download from either the instruction page or the
page for text uploads.

PROPOSALS FOR THE 30 INCH TELESCOPE only require the cover pages (plus
a plan for training submitted where your science justification would be
if this is your first time). Please indicate at the end of the abstract
if you will observe on-site or via the web.

HET
Proposals for The University of Texas' share on the HET will be due on
Tuesday 7 February at 8am. The PI for the proposal MUST be at UT Austin
We have an electronic submission form (similar but not
the same as the McDonald form) which you MUST use. As with the
McDonald form, you may create your own account information if it does
not already exist. The web site may be found at
http://www.as.utexas.edu/mcdonald/observers/proposals.html
(the same place as with the McDonald proposals). You must submit your
science justification as pdf. We have a LaTeX style file
(HETprop60.sty) plus template available at the web site (page 4 of the
proposal web site once logged in and editing a proposal)
or you may use a word processor of your choice. Details of the needed
format are given at the web site (p. 4). If using a different
word processor, PLEASE PUT A SECTION HEADING ON EACH SECTION

The ONLY HET INSTRUMENT available at this time is LRS2. The current
LRS2 performance and specifications can be found at
http://hydra.as.utexas.edu/?a=help&h=95.
Note that LRS2 has no changeable settings except blue vs red.

LONG-TERM STATUS:
Long-term status can be conferred on projects for periods of 1 year for
Mt. Locke only. Only UT-led proposals are eligible for long-term
status. Only a fraction of the telescope time will be allocated for
long-term projects. Simply needing a large allocation is not generally
considered a justification. The TAC is looking for a reason such as the
science requiring multiple epochs. Generally the TAC does not approve
long-term status on the first trimester of a new program - they would
like some proof-of-concept.

The Web forms have a place to upload the request for long-term
status and it must be submitted as part of your normal proposal.
Note that this extra page is only for justification of the
need for long-term status. The request must indicate why your project
needs long-term status, what milestones you expect to achieve by the
end of the 1 year period and details of the numbers of nights you need
n the current and following two trimesters. Only 1 page is allowed. ON
THE COVER PAGE for number of nights requested put the request for the
CURRENT trimester. There is another place that will appear to indicate
your needs for the full year.

SUMMARY
The McDonald and trimester will cover the 1 April 2017 to 31 July
2017 period. You do not need to submit ANY hard copies. NOTE that the
deadlines are FIRM and we will close the web site shortly after the
deadline. Proposals may NOT be submitted via email.

McDonald proposals:
Web submission by 8am on 2 February 2017

HET proposals:
Web submission by 8am 7 February 2017.

If you have problems with the web submission system, send email to
jimum@astro.as.utexas.edu AND anita@astro.as.utexas.edu.

Updated Mt. Locke Operations Schedules
http://www.as.utexas.edu/mcdonald/schedules/