1 / 11

Telescope Access Metrics

Telescope Access Metrics. Presentation to NOAO Users Committee October 12, 2004. Ground rules. Categorize telescopes as Large: 6.5m or greater Gemini, others with TSIP (FIP) access Medium: 3-4.2m Mayall, Blanco, WIYN, SOAR Small: 0.9-2.1m KP 2.1m, WIYN 0.9m, SMARTS

walter-clay
Download Presentation

Telescope Access Metrics

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Telescope Access Metrics Presentation to NOAO Users Committee October 12, 2004

  2. Ground rules • Categorize telescopes as • Large: 6.5m or greater • Gemini, others with TSIP (FIP) access • Medium: 3-4.2m • Mayall, Blanco, WIYN, SOAR • Small: 0.9-2.1m • KP 2.1m, WIYN 0.9m, SMARTS • Count nights available for science for past semesters • Extrapolate for future semesters • Gemini ramps up to 60 U.S. nights/telescope/semester • Currently averages ~50 • SOAR begins science observations in 2005B and ramps up over 1 year

  3. Precommitments-Surveys • Surveys • Note that surveys are subject to the same peer review as regular proposals • 20% cap • Proposals only taken once per year • Program started in 1999; none solicited in 2003 or 2004 • Surveys can run up to 5 years • Actual nights committed run 10-20% for both medium and small telescopes • No surveys have been granted on large telescopes

  4. Precommitments - NASA • Agreements with HST, Chandra, Spitzer • Up to 5% of NOAO time available for complementary (not follow-up) ground-based observations connected with successful proposals • Proposals go through NASA peer review and NOAO technical review • Actual nights committed typically are 5-15 per semester on all telescopes << 15% maximum

  5. Precommitments – instrument partnerships • Aimed at providing new instrumental capabilities on NOAO telescopes for guaranteed time • U Maryland agreement: 20% of Mayall time • Exchangable for WIYN or 2.1m • U. Md contribution (cash plus manpower) for NEWFIRM • Flamingos: base (4m: 3n, 2.1m: 5n) plus 4-6n for every 14 nights (after first 14) allocated to community • GSFC IRMOS: draft MOU – 4-5 n per semester on 4m, 8-10 n per semester on 2.1m, • Ge Exoplanet Tracker: draft MOU – 21 n per semester on 2.1m • All “guaranteed time proposals” go through TAC • If they do not succeed (which is rare), they are deferred to a later semester so the proposal can be improved

  6. Current tally

  7. Reasonable predictions • TSIP will continue to add 25-30 large telescope-nights per year • TSIP will also add 30-60 medium telescope-nights per year • The survey program will resume in 2005, leading to a future level of precommitment about the same as the past • The NASA precommitments will continue at a level of a few nights per semester • PREST will add approximately 200 nights of small telescope time per year

  8. Tally with reasonable predictions

  9. Nights remaining with predictions

  10. Oversubscription rates • Nights requested divided by nights available after precommitment • Even with devolution of small telescopes, access is reasonable • Survey proposals (not included in graph) run 4.5-5.5 for medium telescopes; 1.5-2.5 for small telescopes

  11. Conclusions • All oversubscription rates are in healthy range – and increase with increasing aperture • Status quo results in reasonable access • TSIP and PREST are expected to improve the situation – particularly for medium and small telescopes • Large telescope access is limited by willingness of independent observatories to give up more nights (TSIP) and by our fraction of Gemini.

More Related