LBT Italian Coordination Facility Centro Italiano di Coordinamento alle Osservazioni LBT Call for Observing Programs at the Large Binocular Telescope Italian time Applications for programs based on LBT observing time for the period Sep 1 2013 Jun 30 2014 are solicited and should be submitted by Friday May 24th, 2013, 14:00 CEST The Large Binocular Telescope is a binocular facility composed of two 8.4mtelescopes rigidly mounted, located atop the Mount Graham, Arizona, USA at an elevation of 3221 m, as part of the Mount Graham International Observatory. LBT is an international joint project among Italy, Germany and the United States of America, of which Italy has 25% of the total observing time. Regular scientific operations started in 2010. A summary of the programs executed during the Italian nights is available at the web page http://lbt.inaf.it/science.html The LBT is currently operating with three instruments: 1) The Large Binocular Camera (LBC) composed by two wide field prime focus cameras offering imaging from the ultraviolet to the near-ir wavelengths (1 micron) simultaneously at the two telescopes; 2) LUCI1 a near-ir imaging and spectrograph camera offering imaging, long-slit and multi-object spectroscopy; 3) MODS1 an imaging and spectrograph camera in the optical wavelength regime offering imaging, long-slit and multi-object spectroscopy. The LBT can be operated in binocular mode observing the same field with the two LBC cameras or in single telescope mode with either the LUCI1 or the MODS1 instruments. In the period Sep 2013 Jun 2014 a fraction of approximately 60% of the total telescope time will be devoted to science observations. This corresponds to about 40 nights of Italian time, with dark sky. The calendar of Italian observing runs will be established after the selection of the programs by the TAC, in order to optimize their execution.
1) Important changes in 2013_2014 Two major changes have been introduced in this call with respect to the previous ones: - At variance with the previous years, the schedule of the Italian nights is not defined at the moment of issuing the call. LBTO will define the schedule after the selection of observing proposals by the various partners, in order to optimize as much as possible the execution of these programs. Users can apply in principle for any target during the period, including time-constrained observations, such as planet transits. Users must be aware that timeconstrained observations are in shared risk mode, since the relevant observing night may eventually not be available to Italian observers. - The policy of carryover for programs that have not been terminated in 2013-2014 has been modified. Only Strategic Programs will be carriedover to the next observing period. We also remind the major changes introduced with the previous call: - The call covers nearly one year, corresponding to the whole period of aperture of the telescope from September 2013 to June 2014. This ensures a higher efficiency in completing programs and minimizes the organizational effort. - A new class of proposals named Strategic Programs has been established. They are meant to increase the impact of LBT in the astronomical community at large by leading to significant advances in key scientific topic, highlighting the capabilities of the LBT unique instruments, i.e. LBC (especially in the bluest bands) and LUCI1 in MOS. These programs will have the highest priority and can (but don t necessarily need to) extend up to two years. - A new policy for INAF Discretionary Time has been established. Observations can be requested at any time during the year in the case of programs that cannot be requested now or of new, unforeseen proposals requesting urgent observations. 2) Offered Instruments and modes: LBC (Binocular) LBC is a twin optical imager composed of two identical large field cameras, with a FoV of ~25' x ~25', mounted at the prime foci of the two telescopes. LBC is a fully binocular instrument that observes simultaneously the same field with the two cameras. The camera on the left side (LBC-Blue) is optimized for the UV/blue wavelength range and offers imaging in the Bessel filters (U,B,V) and in the SDSSlike filters (Uspec,g,r). The camera on the right side (LBC-Red) is optimized for the red/near-ir range and offers imaging in the filters V,R,I (Bessel), r,i,z (SDSS), 1µm broad-band Y and the narrow band F972N20, centered at 972 nm. Details on the instrument can be found at http://lbc.oa-roma.inaf.it. LUCI1
LUCI1 (LBT NIR spectroscopic Utility with Camera and Integral-field unit, formerly known as LUCIFER1) is a near-ir spectrograph and imager mounted at the Nasmyth focus. It offers imaging, long-slit and multi-object (MOS) spectroscopy in the wavelength range 1-2.5 µm over a field-of-view ~4 x 4. Details on the instrument can be found at http://abell.as.arizona.edu/~lbtsci/instruments/lucifer/lucifer.html MODS1 MODS1 (The Multi-Object Double Spectrographs for the Large Binocular Telescope) is an optical spectrograph and imager mounted at the SX Nasmyth. MODS1 has two arms highly optimized for the Blue and Red portions of the spectrum. With a 6 arcminute square field of view, it is capable of long-slit and multi-slit spectroscopy as well as imaging in the ugriz bands from 0.33 to 1.1 microns. All modes currently work in seeing-limited mode. Details on the instrument can be found at: http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/mods/ and http://abell.as.arizona.edu/~lbtsci/instruments/mods/mods.html INSTRUMENTS NOT AVAILABLE We remark that no instrument included in the present call is capable of AO-assisted observations, despite the fact that AO secondaries have been successfully commissioned in both mirrors. The IR imager PISCES used in these months to exploit the AO capabilities has been de-commissioned. 3) Who can apply The PI of a proposal must be a researcher affiliated to an Italian astronomical institute or university. Researchers affiliated to institutions that are not LBT partners are allowed in the CoI list up to the 50% of the total number of applicants. Proposals that do not fulfill this requirement will not be evaluated by the TAC. Collaborative programs aiming at using also observing time from other LBT partners are encouraged, and should be described in the proposal. However, each application must be independently submitted to the various TACs, and will be independently evaluated. Since there is no connection among the various TAC, each application should be self-consistent, i.e. not relying on observations carried on by other partners to be scientifically productive. Coordinated observations with other partners may either be used to enlarge the programs and/or to increase their observing efficiency and likelihood of completion. 4) Strategic Programs In addition to normal programs, a new class of proposals named Strategic Programs has been established in 2012. They are meant to increase the impact of LBT in the astronomical community at large by leading to significant advances in key scientific topic, highlighting the capabilities of the LBT unique instruments. For this
reason only programs requesting LBC (especially in the bluest bands) and LUCI1 in MOS can be qualified as Strategic Programs. The main differences with respect to Normal Programs are that: - They can (but must not necessarily) extend up to two years. - Their status of Strategic Programs must be explicitly confirmed by the TAC; - In such a case, they have the highest priority during observations; - They will be carried over to the next period in case of delay in their execution. Because of the relatively small number of nights available to the Italian community, Strategic Programs should by no means be intended as Large Programs. They should typically not exceed 40-60 hours of integration time, roughly corresponding to 100 hours of execution time, over two years. Based on previous experience, individual targets (or targets that are close in RA) cannot be observed for much more than 20 hours of observing time per year. The ideal Strategic Program includes several different targets that can be conveniently followed over most of the year. Proposers are strongly advised to contact the LBT Italian staff (via e-mail, to lbt_obs at oa-roma.inaf.it) at an early stage of the proposal preparation to check the feasibility of their programs. 5) INAF Discretionary Time To allow for more flexibility in the use of LBT, the policy of INAF Discretionary Time has been established in 2012. In addition to the present call, observations can be requested at any time during the year in the case of: o Proposals requiring the immediate observation of a sudden and unexpected astronomical event; o New, unforeseen proposals requesting urgent observations on a hot and highly competitive scientific topic, o Proposals asking for follow-up observations of a program recently conducted from ground-based and/or space facilities, where a quick implementation should provide break-through results, o Proposals of a somewhat risky nature requesting a small amount of observing time to test the feasibility of new observing capabilities. Users interested to these INAF-DT projects should contact the LBT staff via e-mail at lbt_obs at inaf.it for instructions. 6) Time-constrained observations and Schedule of Observing nights Time-constrained observations (planet transits, objects of the solar systems that request non-sidereal tracking, and similar) can be requested through this call. Unplanned observations (e.g. Gamma Ray Burst, unusual SN, and similar) may also be requested, but will be executed only in case of very high ranking from the TAC, given their disruptive nature for the observations. At variance with previous years, the schedule of the Italian nights is not defined at the moment of issuing the call. LBTO will define the schedule after the selection of observing proposal by the various partners, in order to optimize as much as possible the execution of these programs. It is also intention of LBTO to experiment some degree of flexibility in allocating the nights, again in order to maximize the chances
of executing the programs. In this framework, it is easy to foresee that most of the observing time will be anyway reserved to dark-moon nights. For this reasons, users can apply in principle for any target during the period, including time-constrained observations, such as planet transits. Users must be aware that time-constrained observations are in shared risk mode, since the relevant observing night may eventually not be available to Italian observers. 7) Evaluation of the exposure times For all instruments, applicants must compute and specify in the proposal only the net exposure time requested (including special calibrations, see Sect. 10), with no correction for overheads. Exposure times can be evaluated using the following tools: - The LBC Exposure Time Calculator, available at: http://lbc.oa-roma.inaf.it/cgi-bin/etc.pl. - The LUCI1 available at: http://www.lsw.uni-heidelberg.de/lucifer-cgi/calculator/calculator.py -MODS1 preliminary estimates available at http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/mods/performance/. 8) Calibrations and Pre-imaging All applicants must describe their calibration needs and strategy in Sect. 12 of the proposal forms. A basic set of calibration observations will be provided by the service observers, and the relevant observing time must not be inserted in the proposal. This basic set of calibrations include bias/dark, flats and photometric standards for imaging, and darks, flat-field and arcs for spectroscopic modes. They are typically taken at the beginning and at the end of night, or in daytime. Due to feasibility limitations, the availability of standards and flat in the same night of the science data is not guaranteed. Any other needed calibration, requiring observations during night-time (including in particular (spectro)-photometric standards taken between consecutive observations, IR telluric standard etc) must be described in Sect. 14 of the form and accounted for in the requested time. Photometric standards need 15 min. each to be executed, while spectroscopic standards -either telluric of spectrophotometric- require 30min each. Pre-imaging is not required for MOS observations with LUCI1 and MODS1. Masks can be prepared using the dedicated tool (LMS) using a pre-existing image (in any wavelength) with accurate WCS astrometry. Given the low distortion in LUCI1 and MODS1, the resulting masks are accurate for all slit widths equal or larger than 1.
If the target coordinates are not known with the required accuracy, and a MODS1, LUCI1 or LBC image is needed to locate the objects, the observing time needed for the pre-imaging must be explicitly requested in the proposal. 9) Targets and observing runs Each proposal is split into one or more runs. In practice, a run is the smallest part of an observing program that delivers self-contained results. Each run may be evaluated independently and given different priorities by the TAC. Applicants are invited to provide a clear strategy for data publication in case of complex programs, especially those that imply multiple targets. 10) Proposal Evaluation The proposals will be evaluated by the INAF Time Allocation Committee. The TAC will rank the proposal primarily on the basis of their scientific relevance, taking also into account other factors: the scheduling constraints, the likelihood of completion and the previous record in the use of LBT data. The likelihood of completion of any program will be evaluated by the LBT team and will be taken in consideration by the TAC in assessing the rank. Applicants can check the amount of hours per night during which their targets are observable from LBT using the dedicated tool at http://deep01.oa-roma.inaf.it/lbttargetobservability.php 11) Observing modes and carryover The observations will be conducted in service mode. The scheduling of the observations will be designed in order to follow as strictly as possible the scientific ranking established by the TAC, and respecting the observational constraints requested by the applicants. The PIs of programs scheduled for execution in the whole period will be required to produce and submit the needed information (OB, finding charts etc) within a month after notification of the TAC results. Detailed instructions for the OB preparation will be provided by the LBT staff. Only Strategic Programs will be carried-over to the next period (2014-2015) if not terminated within 2013-2014. 12) Data Flow All the scientific data from LBC, LUCI1 and MODS1 will be stored at the IA2 italian archive (http://ia2.oats.inaf.it/) in raw form, and are accessible to the P.I. within few days from the observations. Imaging data from LBC, LUCI1 and MODS1 will be reduced at the LBC Survey Center (LSC) at OA Roma and made available to the P.I. at http://lsc.oa-roma.inaf.it/. The LSC staff will also provide user support for those willing to reduce the data with their own software.
Similarly, LUCI1 and MODS1 spectroscopic data will be reduced at IASF-Milano and made available to the P.I. For further information, contact the LBT Italian Coordination Facility staff at the address lbt_obs at inaf.it. 13) Application forms and proposal submission. Proposal submission is handled by the TNG system. Forms can be downloaded at http://lbt.inaf.it/observing.html and proposals must be submitted at http://www.tng.iac.es/lbt/submit.html within Friday May 24th, 2013, 14:00 CEST.