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UK Service ProgrammeThe UK Service Programme has recently come under new management after the retirement of Alex McLachlan. Alex had been the controller and administrator for the service programme since its inception in semester Y. The 'UK' in the title is a bit of a misnomer since the service programme is open to applications from UK and International applicants alike. Canada and the Netherlands run their own service programmes on the JCMT.Applications are accepted for observations that take no more than 4 hours to complete (half of a standard JCMT shift). Typical applications include those requiring completion of PATT projects that have been partially weathered out or nearly-but-not-quite finished; pilot projects which may lead to full-blown PATT applications; short investigations that would not justify a full PATT application; monitoring programmes; and targets of opportunity. Currently the UK-TAG allocates about 9 shifts to UKServ per semester which the JCMT Scheduler then attempts to distribute throughout the semester so as to maximise the RA range covered. This is not always as simple a task as it may sound. An Announcement of Opportunity (AO) is then circulated to a wide list of users via e-mail well in advance with a deadline for submission for a particular UKServ session about 4 weeks prior to that session. All applications are awarded a scientific grading by 2 independent assessors, one of whom is a member of the UK-TAG for PATT. In addition the applications are technically assessed by staff at the JAC. The assessment process should take no longer than two weeks after which the applicant is notified whether his project has been added to the service list or whether a rewrite is necessary. The UK Service Programme can be an extremely rapid method of obtaining your data. Prospective applicants can obtain information about the UK Service Programme from the ROE home page on the World Wide Web (http://www.jach.hawaii.edu). If you wish to be included on the e- mail distribution list for AOs then send an e-mail request to: jcmt@roe.ac.uk It is appropriate here to thank all the observers, telescope operators, assessors, and Alex who have built up this useful system over the semesters. During semester 94B the UKServ scheme processed 29 new applications in addition to 18 remaining from the previous semester during which many service shifts were lost to weather. A total of 185.5 hours was requested from an allocation of 8 shifts (64 hours). An extra 10 shifts came available from the UKFlex block thus giving 144 hours to service. Of course the RA time within the service shifts never quite matches the time required so it is impossible to directly compare time required against time available.
UKServ in semester 95A Date Shift Instruments Times Feb. 12 M UCBA 0530-0930 Feb. 13 M UCBA 0530-0930 Feb. 14 M UCBA 0530-0730 Feb. 15 M UCBA 0530-0730 Mar. 4 E UCBA 2130-0130 Mar. 5 E UCB 2130-0130 Mar. 6 E UCB 2130-0130 Mar. 7 E UCB 2130-0130 Mar. 16 M UCBA 0130-0930 May 9 E UCBA 1930-0130 May 10 M CBA 0130-0330 May 22 E UCBA 2130-0130 May 23 E UCBA 2130-0130 May 24 E UCBA 2130-0130 May 25 E UCBA 2130-0130 Jun. 4 E UCBA 1730-2130 Jul. 24 E UCBA 1730-1930There are 8.25 shifts of UKServ scheduled this semester. They are provisionally located on the above dates (but are subject to change). In the second column E indicates evening shift and M indicates morning shift. The third column indicates the instruments expected to be available for each period: U=UKT14; C=RxC2; B=RxB3i; A=RxA2. The times in the fourth column are local Hawaiian time on the date given. Graeme Watt / ROE |