ReSTAR Phase 2 Proposals Received and Reviewed

As reported in the last issue of Currents, NOAO has been engaged in a selection process to identify collaborators for the second three-year phase of ReSTAR, our program to build a more capable and robust system of smaller aperture telescopes. The first phase of ReSTAR, funded at $6.9M in FY09-10 by the NSF, is nearing completion. This successful program has provided three years of open access to the Palomar Hale 200-inch telescope, two modern optical spectrographs for the NOAO 4-m telescopes, a near-infrared spectrograph for SOAR, and two instrument upgrades (new focal planes and controllers for Mosaic 1 at the Mayall, and the Hydra South fiber spectrograph at the Blanco).

Phase 2 of ReSTAR enhances community participation and concentrates on new facilities, operations modes, and capabilities that the US OIR community has not had open access to in the past.

Proposals were due 1 February, and NOAO received 16 proposals from individuals or groups that wished to collaborate. The diversity of ideas in the proposals was considerable: they included open access to facilities, instrumentation development, and improvements to or new features for existing instruments. Some respondents addressed bold new scientific opportunities in proposing new capabilities in areas such as wide-field infrared imaging and follow-up to time-domain discoveries. The budgets of all the proposals totaled about $24M, demonstrating that there is no dearth of innovation or interest among the users and operators of the smaller aperture component of the US System.

The proposals were reviewed by a committee that included both NOAO staff and external members. The latter were drawn in large part from existing NOAO oversight or advisory committees, including the NOAO Users Committee and the ReSTAR committee. The committee forwarded their recommendations to the NOAO Director, who approved this suite of elements for Phase 2. NOAO is now working with each of the selected groups to create a composite proposal of approximately $10M that will be submitted to the NSF in early FY12.