FLAMINGOS I Proposal Checklist

To demonstrate technical feasibility you may wish to consider the following checklist when writing your telescope proposal:

Is the filter (for imaging) or slit (for spectroscopy) specified in the proposal instrument resource list?
Does your choice of slit give appropriate spectral resolution and sensitivity?

Have you specified an appropriate guide star for the peripheral wavefront sensor(s)? Is any vignetting of the science field acceptable?
Is the same guide star likely to be accessible for all planned dither positions or have alternate guide stars been specified?

Are the baseline calibrations sufficient? If not, what additional calibration data are required for your program?
Is photometry better than 10% needed? If so, have appropriate standard star observations been included?
Has sufficient observing time been requested for additional calibrations?

Are overheads included in the time requested in your proposal including any for additional calibrations?
Is time included for off-source sky measurements, if needed?
If many very short exposures are needed, you may need to include larger overheads to account for the lower observing efficiency.
If accurate centering of the slit on the target is essential, have appropriate overheads been included to allow periodic checks of the slit centering?

Is the expected image quality (scaled to the airmass of your target) sufficient for your program? What is the minimum image quality necessary for the science?
What level of cloud cover is acceptable? Is photometric weather required?
The sky background and water vapour conditions generally are not relevant for JHK observations.
Note the product of the probabilities of each of the conditions listed above. You might wish to reconsider the minimum requirements of your program.

Last update February 26, 2001; Phil Puxley