Call for Proposals 2020A - SOAR Opportunities

Submitted by jelias on Fri, 2019-09-13 12:27

This article is intended to highlight opportunities available on SOAR for semester 2020A. As always, prospective observers need to apply for time through the individual SOAR partners (as outlined here).

More AEON Options

The number of configurations supported for queue observing through AEON is increased to include both Goodman spectrograph cameras (red and blue) and additional grating configurations. For details, see the SOAR/AEON home page. This program is available to all SOAR partners in 2020A, not just through NOIRLab.

Instrument Suite

As a reminder, the available facility instruments comprise:

• Goodman High-Throughput Spectrograph (both AEON and classical)
• TripleSpec 4.1 IR spectrograph
• SOI optical imager
• SAM+SAMI ground-layer AO imager
• SIFS IFU optical spectrograph
• Spartan IR imager
• HRCam, a "visitor-class" speckle imager, is also available

Targets of Opportunity

The target of opportunity policy has been revised slightly, with the objective of simplifying allocation of interrupts. In general, this may enable one or two additional programs, but is not a major change from the last two semesters.

March Aluminizing Shutdown

We completed aluminization of the secondary and tertiary mirrors last year, but re-coating of the primary is still pending. The coating team has developed a reliable procedure to deposit aluminum with the Gemini-S coating plant, and we have planned to carry out the primary mirror coating in March of the coming year. This will likely place pressure on February and April for observing time.
Once the primary is successfully coated, we will be done with mirror aluminization for several more years.