May Call for Proposals

Gemini North and South are accepting proposals for the Fast Turnaround (FT) program. Here, we give information specific to this proposal cycle. Please see the other FT pages - particularly the rules - for general information about the program. FT-specific proposal templates must now be used for all FT proposals; see the "PIT information" section below. As of this month the revised 2016B PIT  will have to be used. 

1. Important dates
   • Proposal deadline: 23:59, Hawaiian Standard Time (HST), May 31.
   • Reviews must be complete by 23:59 HST, June 14;
   • Results will be announced by June 21;
   • The deadline for preparing observations will be June 30. Observations will remain valid until the end of September;
   • FT observations will be merged with the queue and observed on queue nights.


2. Eligibility
   • PIs from all partners taking part in the FT program may apply for this cycle.
   • We further welcome Japanese community PI proposals. 
   • PIs from partner countries whose FT time for the semester has been used up should not apply for the remainder of the semester. Currently no partners have reached their limit. However, at GN, Argentina has 1.5 hrs remaining and Brazil has 5.8 hrs left. At GS, Argentina has 0.5 hrs remaining, Brazil has 6.4 hrs, and Chile has 9 hrs left. All other partners have > 10 hrs remaining. Note that some partners only have very small amounts of FT time available each semester. See rule #4 and Q&A for more information.


3. Acceptable RA ranges
   • Targets from RA~11  hrs to ~3.5 hrs can be accepted during this cycle. Note that RAs near 11 will only be accessible for a few hours during the first month (July). RAs near 3.5 will only be accessible for a few hours during the final month (September).


4. Available instruments and observing modes
   
   
   • Gemini North
   • GMOS, GNIRS, NIRI, and NIFS (including Altair NGS and LGS for the latter three) will be available during this FT period. However, GMOS will be unavailable during 11-25 July and its 150 l/m grating will be unavailable prior to 25 July. Also, NIRI and NIFS will be alternately available during the three months.
   • GRACES is unavailable in July and at the present time its availability is unknown in Semester 16B. GRACES proposals will not be accepted in this round.
   • See the 2016A telescope schedule for more information about instrument availability (the 2016B schedule is not yet available).
   
   
   • Gemini South
   • Gemini South has an engineering shutdown during 16-25 April; no observing during that interval.
   • GMOS-S and Flamingos-2 will be available during this FT block.
   • GPI is unavailable during approximately 6-31 July. A limited amount of GPI time is available thereafter.
   • GeMS+GSAOI and PHOENIX are not available for FT.
   • See the 2016A telescope schedule for more information about instrument availability (the 2016B schedule is not yet available).
   
   
   • Both telescopes
   • Please contact the FT team (fast dot turnaround at gemini dot edu) for questions about GPI and GRACES availability.
   • FT observations may not be executed during classical, priority visitor (PV) and Korean blocks, depending on the prevailing conditions.
   • For GMOS proposals, please indicate whether your program could be carried out with either GMOS (North or South).
   • The R600 grating in each GMOS instrument is NOT offered for FT (or regular queue) observations.
   • MOS observations are now available for FT, subject to some caveats/restrictions
   • As discussed in the rules and Q&A, please contact the Fast Turnaround team in advance of the deadline if you would like to propose for an unusual instrument configuration or observing mode.


5. Time available
   • 20 hrs per month at each telescope is available for FT observations. Very roughly, this implies:
     • i. 4 hrs of 20%-ile conditions (IQ=20, for example; see this web page)
     • ii. 10 hrs of 50%-ile conditions
     • iii. 14 hrs of 70%-ile conditions
     • iv. 17 hrs of 85%-ile conditions
   • PIs may propose for up the amount of time in their most restrictive observing conditions, subject to partner's time availability - see rule #4 .


6. PIT information
   • Proposals must be submitted using the version of the Phase I Tool specified on this web page (in the "Time Requests" tab, select Fast Turnaround Observing at Gemini as the proposal class).
   • In the Time Requests tab, select "Fast Turnaround Observing at Gemini" as the proposal class and specify the reviewer (and mentor, if appropriate). Note that this is where the reviewer is defined; changes cannot be made after the proposal has been submitted.
   • Dedicated LaTeX/Word templates must be used to prepare FT proposals: tex | sty | doc.
   • Submitting the same proposal more than once during a given cycle (e.g. after correcting/editing a submitted version) should be avoided if at all possible.
   • The FT proposal template (which differs somewhat from the queue template) is now compulsory for all FT proposals.