Gemini Observatory invites its community to propose scientific investigations for the 2025B semester, 1 August 2025 - 31 January 2026.
The table below shows submission deadlines for all Gemini Participants, and the Subaru community under the Gemini/Subaru time exchange. Multi-participant joint proposals should be submitted by the deadline of the participant country to which the Principal Investigator is affiliated. For more on the Gemini proposal submission and time allocation process, please consult the Phase I page.
Participant | Submission Deadline |
United States | March 31, 2025 at 23:59 (Mountain Standard Time) |
Canada | April 02, 2025 at 16:00 (Pacific Daylight Time) |
Brazil | April 03, 2025 at 23:59 (Brazilian Time) |
Argentina | April 01, 2025 at 17:00 (Argentina Time) |
Korea | March 31, 2025 at 23:59 (Korea Standard Time) |
Chile | April 01, 2025 at 23:59 (Chile Standard Time) |
Univ. of Hawaii | April 01, 2025 at 10:00 (Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time) |
Subaru Community | March 31, 2025 at 23:59 (Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time) = April 01, 2025 at 18:59 (Japan Standard Time) |
The Call is open to all participants and host institutions:
US time is open to all astronomers worldwide including those at non-US institutions, although in that case, the proposal must explain why U.S. national facilities are needed.
Time Available in 2025B
A summary of the time distribution at each telescope is shown in the Table below. More information is available in the time distribution section of this Call for Proposals. At Gemini North, 128 nights are expected to be available for science. At Gemini South, 159 nights are expected to be available for science.
Participant/Type | North hours | South hours | Notes | Participant/Type | North hours | South hours | Notes |
US* | 483 | 548 | US open skies policy allows PIs from any country to apply. | Director's Discretionary | 55 | 69 | Open to any astronomer. |
Canada** | 132 | 164 | Fast Turnaround | 102 | 123 | Open to PIs from US, CA, AR, BR & KR. Not open to UH or CL. | |
Argentina | 19 | 24 | Large and Long | 161 | 200 | Pre-allocated in A semesters. In B semesters, open to US and CA PIs. | |
Brazil | 60 | 76 | Guaranteed Time | 48 | 60 | For the MAROON-X, GHOST & speckle instrument teams. | |
Korea | 68 | 84 | Engineering | 560 | 250 | ||
Univ. of Hawaii (host) | 123 | ||||||
Chile (host) | 153 |
** The CA time available includes a deduction for the Gemini Large and Long Programs.
New and Notable in 2025B
The following capabilities and announcements are notable for the 2025B semester. Please see the relevant instrument pages and subsections of the call for proposals for details. General:
|
Summary of 2025B Gemini Capabilities
Gemini North
Targets are generally limited to 17 < RA hours < 13.5 and -37 < Dec degrees < +90. Additional constraints are described in the target accessibility and instrument restrictions page of this Call for Proposals. Note that the RA ranges with limited accessibility near the start and end of the semester are typically in very high demand, and so prospective PIs may wish to consider avoiding targets with these RAs, where possible. |
Facility instruments offered in 2025B are:
|
Visiting instruments offered in 2025B (subject to demand) are:
|
Gemini South
Targets are generally limited to 16 < RA hours < 12 and -90° < Dec degrees < +28°. There are additional constraints as described in the target accessibility and instrument restrictions page of this Call for Proposals. Note that the RA ranges with limited accessibility near the start and end of the semester are typically in very high demand, and so prospective PIs may wish to consider avoiding targets with these RAs, where possible. |
Facility instruments offered in 2025B are:
|
Visiting instruments offered in 2025B (subject to demand) are:
Visiting instruments not available in 2025B :
|
Important Dates for 2025B
The deadline for Phase I submission varies with participant (see the submission deadline Table at the top of this CfP). For successful proposals, both queue and classical, the Phase II submission deadline is 18th July 2025. Check the "Important Dates" page of this Call for Proposals for key dates and events in the proposal process.
Phase I Submission Guidelines for 2025B
Proposals for time on Gemini, and for time on Subaru via the Gemini-Subaru time exchange program, must use the Gemini Phase I Tool (PIT). Latex and Word templates are available to create pdf attachments which include the science and technical cases, and investigator information. The template has been revised to enable the anonymous review process, and to make proposals requirements uniform across the partners. Two attachments are required for the proposal so that team information can be separated from the science case.
All Gemini proposals requesting time from the US, CA, BR, KR or AR must be anonymized. Proposals which do not meet the guidelines will be penalized. This applies to proposals requesting time only from these partners, as well as joint proposals requesting time from multiple participants which include any of these partners. This requirement applies whether it is the PI or a co-I that has the relevant partner affiliation.
Specific Timing Windows: In order to maximize the chances of completing observations with timing windows, 25B proposals should:
- Provide a clear indication of the need for timing windows at Phase 1. Please provide all timing windows throughout the semester that are associated with your targets. Any additional timing windows requested by PIs after the proposal submission deadline has passed will not normally be approved. Timing windows should be entered in the "Scheduling" section of the PIT. Timing windows must be specified by indicating the start time in UT, followed by the duration (in hours); for example: 2025-11-08 05:38 04.25. Ensure the format follows: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm hh.hh.
- Use observing constraints appropriate to the expected conditions. For example, if the only timing window for your proposal occurs during dark time, you should make sure to choose SB20 or SB50 as appropriate. Similarly, if you have a monitoring program with a cadence of a few days, you should define two sets of observations in the PIT, one with SBAny for bright time and another alternative option with SB50 for dark time (to allow for possible changes in sky brightness within the usable period).
Additional options in the Time Requests module in the PIT are available for semester 2025B:
- The Gemini 2025B Phase 1 Tool includes options to specify that the proposal is for the AEON multi-telescope-facility system.
- Also in the 2025B Time Requests module, there is an option to identify proposals which have synergies with James Webb Space Telescope science. The goal for providing this proposal category is to encourage development of science programs that benefit from a combination of Gemini and JWST observations.
Time for baseline partner calibrations is automatically added to the total time requested for each target in the PIT. Investigators should continue to include the time associated with overheads (acquisition time, readout time, etc). The ITC output gives overhead estimates. 'Alopeke and Zorro PIs should include program time for PSF standards if they need them.
Targets of opportunity proposals must include all instrument configurations which the team may want to use, at Phase 1. This enables automatic creation of templates, and avoids errors at Phase 2.
Subaru Exchange Time
The exchange of time between the Gemini and Subaru communities will continue in 2025B; around 5 nights are expected to be available on Subaru for the Gemini community via the exchange program. Subaru exchange time is open to all Gemini partners, including Chile. A summary of the Subaru capabilities in 2025B is given below, PIs should also consult the Subaru Call for Proposals. In addition, the Gemini community can propose shorter programs for Subaru's Service mode. PIs must indicate on the proposal whether regular or service time is requested. Service programs must be short programs of less than 4 hours duration including calibration and overheads, using one of IRCS, HDS, FOCAS or MOIRCS. Up to 1 night is expected to be available in this mode for the Gemini community. Prospective investigators must carefully review the Service Program web page. In particular, some additional, detailed technical information must be provided at the time of Phase-1 submission. Service proposals are reviewed by the National TACs together with the regular proposals. Details:
While the NIR WFS provides high-performance AO correction, NGS and LGS mode performance is unchanged because they use 188-element WFS. Please consult the AO3k web page for more information.
|
Facility instruments offered in 2025B:
Visiting instruments offered in 2025B, are listed below. Proposals to use visiting instruments must include the instrument PIs as Co-investigators.
CHARIS, Fast PDI and VAMPIRES can be used together at the same time as the modules of SCExAO (Subaru Coronagraphic extreme Adaptive Optics). Please check the relevant instrument web pages for the latest information. |
Other Proposal Opportunities in 2025B
Other proposal opportunities are available at Gemini Observatory in 2025B. These include:
- The Fast Turnaround (FT) Program provides monthly opportunities to submit proposals, with successful programs scheduled for observation starting one month after each proposal deadline. Up to 10% of the time at Gemini North and Gemini South is available for the FT programs. PIs must be members of the Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Korea, the United States or Subaru astronomy communities. The University of Hawaii and Chile do not take part in the FT program and therefore UH and Chilean PIs do not have access to FT time.
- Director's Discretionary Time is open to any astronomer worldwide and proposals can be submitted at any time.
- Poor Weather Proposals are solicited for programs that can use poor, but usable, conditions and are executed when nothing in the regular queue is observable. Proposals can be submitted via the normal TAC process (this call) or at any time. PIs must be based in Gemini participating countries or the host institutions.
- The Gemini community is eligible to propose HyperSuprimeCam (HSC) filler programs on Subaru. Filler programs are executed in poor observing conditions (typically seeing >1.5 arcseconds, and/or poor transparency) and up to 35 hours can be requested by a filler proposal, although the first 4 hours have priority. Execution is not guaranteed: observations are made only when there is no other program in the HSC queue. In recent semesters, typically of order 15% of HSC time has gone to filler programs. Proposals must be sent through the Subaru submission system (NOT Gemini), and are considered only by the Subaru TAC. Note that only a short text summary of the program is required, not a full detailed Science Justification.
- The Gemini community has the opportunity to propose Subaru Intensive Program programs as LLP proposals, which request more than 5 nights in classical mode and 3.5 nights for the HSC/PFS queue mode.
Data Rights, Proprietary Periods and Data Distribution
All data taken with the Gemini telescopes are the property of the Gemini Observatory. Principal investigators of Gemini regular programs (Queue/Classical/Poor Weather) have exclusive access to the data for their program for a period of 12 months. Data acquired as part of a Director's Discretionary (DD) program have a standard proprietary period of 6 months, however in exceptional circumstances the Observatory may remove DD proprietary periods. See the page Data Rights and Proprietary Periods for more information.
All data, including raw and available processed data, obtained with the Gemini telescope are distributed exclusively through the Gemini Observatory Archive. More information about the data distribution is given here.
Supporting Information for the Call for Proposals
Relevant general information related to the applications for time on Gemini Telescopes is presented in the supporting information page. Consult there for the following:
- Time Allocation Process (National and International Time Allocation Committees)
- Submitting for time on both telescopes
- Band 1 Persistence
- Electronic PIT Submission
- Joint Proposals
- Under-utilized Instruments
- Targets of Opportunity
- GMOS Mask definitions
- Poor Weather Programs
- Exchange Time
- Target information (guide stars, non-sidereal objects, time-specific observations)
- Duplicate Observations
Prospective users should also refer to the target and instrument accessibility page, and the instrument pages for detailed and up to date information on instrumentation.
Questions and Answers
All questions concerning proposals, or any other subject, should be made using the Gemini HelpDesk. The system will send the request to your National Gemini Office staff in the first instance who will escalate it to Gemini staff if necessary.
Comments and suggestions on the format and content of this page and supporting pages are welcome, and should be sent to Joan Font-Serra and Mark Rawlings.