NSF NOIRLab Semester 2025A Observing Proposals Due 30 September 2024

NSF NOIRLab has issued a Call for Proposals (CfP) for Semester 2025A; the CfP25A can be found at this link. Please read the CfP25A carefully, as some observatories or facilities continue to have their observing protocols and procedures impacted by COVID-19.

The Dual Anonymous Review Process (DARP) for all observing proposals submitted to NOIRLab (including proposals submitted for time on the Gemini telescopes proposals) continues in Semester 2025A. This process requires that the abstract, science justification, and experimental and technical design sections in all observing proposals must be anonymized. In the second stage of the process, additional non-anonymized information relevant to the proposal will be revealed to the review panel in order to obtain a final ranking

Detailed anonymization instructions for PIs can be found here, while a FAQ document can also be found here.

Time requests for 2025A may be made for Gemini North and South, as well as Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) (including the SOAR Telescope), and Kitt Peak National Observatory on the WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope.

Time is also available on the CHARA interferometer, the Keck I and Keck II telescopes, Magellan I (Baade) and Magellan II (Clay) telescopes, Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), a 2.56-meter telescope located on La Palma, Spain, and the Milanković Telescope, a 1.4-meter telescope located near Prokuplje, Serbia. Nights are also available on the Subaru Telescope through a time-exchange agreement with Gemini.

We point out a few highlights:

• Vera C. Rubin Observatory in-kind telescopes offered this semester are the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) with 70 hours available, and the Milankovic Telescope with two nights per month available.
• Four nights in total are available on the Magellan I & II (Baade and Clay) telescopes in 2025A.
• The NN-EXPLORE program, which offers time on the WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope (approximately 40 nights), 300 hours (equivalent to 30 nights) on the CTIO SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope, and 150 hours on the precision radial-velocity spectrometer at the MINERVA-Australis exoplanet observatory, operated by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), in Queensland, Australia. 
• Nights continue to be available on the Keck telescopes, with two nights on Keck I and three nights on Keck II. 
• CHARA has 50 nights available in Semester 2025A. 
• AEON time is available on SOAR and Gemini

Questions about the proposal form or the proposal process may be directed to proposal-help@noirlab.edu.

Gemini related questions may be sent to the Gemini Helpdesk.