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Targets of Opportunity
| TARGETS OF OPPORTUNITY |
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Definition
A Target of Opportunity is one which
- will produce urgent and compelling science in a short observation
(of order two hours or less)
- is not appropriate for the service observing programme (because
the next service slot is too far in the future)
- is not the subject of a PATT-allocated override programme
Policy
- UKIRT operates override programmes as formally allocated by the
UK PATT panel; this is the normal route for monitoring programmes and
multi-telescope campaigns on variable or transient objects. See the
UKIRT Submission pages (linked to below) for more detail on submitting
programmes to PATT.
- Programmes requiring regular, pre-scheduled monitoring of
relatively bright objects are best catered for through the UKIRT
Service Programme (linked to below).
- Targets of Opportunity are normally accommodated informally, by
agreement between the requesting PI and the summit observer.
- The three conditions laid out in the definition above must be
fulfilled before summit observers can be contacted. The first condition
may be very clear to the PI requesting the observations, but please
note the following two points.
- The summit observer has discretion over whether to undertake
observations. If they agree to do it, they will set up the observation
in their own science program file.
- Any time spent will come out of the observer's own allocation,
whether or not they do the observations in conditions good enough for
their own programme.
If, having read the above, you still wish to proceed, send an email
describing the target and observations required to uktarget at
jach.hawaii.edu. This
copies the message to support scientists and the telescope operators.
In
that email, make a case. Since you are asking a busy observer
to override themselves at their own expense, be complete but be brief.
The observer
has no obligation and UKIRT does not exercise override authority in the
case of non-PATT requests. The summit can be contacted directly via
1-808-961-6091. Do not contact the summit, or email the summit
observer, without first sending email to uktarget.
Impact of Flexible Scheduling
UKIRT is flexibly scheduled. Summit observers (other than those from
University of Hawaii and Japan) have a fixed allocation of time which
is in most cases less than
their physical time at the summit. If their project's own allocation
has been exhausted, the observer will not in fact be in a position to
carry out observations, because any time taken would be to the
detriment of the queue rather than from their own allocation. In that
case the Service programme may be used, at the expense of some
delay, to provide an override. There are two steps:
- Submit a service project (see the service observing pages - link
below)
- Email uktarget
requesting that the service programme be awarded urgent status (which
will enable it to be carried out before the next service observing
night).
Your service programme will then be sent as soon as possible to the
UKIRT service panel for an assessment of its science and its urgency.
If successful, it will be observed as an override in PATT queue
time, charged to the service programme. Note that this does not give
the project the right to override the summit observer unless that
observer's project has run out of time on their own project. University
of Hawaii and Japanese time is not subject to such
overrides (but they may of course be asked to consider the original
ToO).
Associated Links
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