From February 1 to March 1, 2017 we will accept applications for the 2nd half of the year at the BTA, RATAN-600 telescopes and small-sized telescopes.

Applications

Call for Telescope Time Submission is performed through online forms given in the Requests page. When preparing your application, pay special attention to the Scientific part that is to be attached to the application in the PDF format. It is recommended to start preparing the application with this part.

The Technical Part structure

Items of the proposal technical part are the same with the corresponding forms in the online web version (and the same as in the previous halfyears):

•     1. Program title (not more than 15 words).
•     2. Brief (not more than 100 words) description of the scientific content of the program.
•     3. Full name of the principal investigator, affiliation (1 person).
•     4. Full names of co-investigators, affiliations (no limitation).
•     5. Request status: long-term (more than two years), short-term (1-2 years), or one-time program.
•     6. Amount of time needed, optimum and admissible periods of observations. Can the program be combined with any other programs? Is this a principal or duplicating program? The applicant should bear in mind that a combined program is the one united with others to be accopmlished by the same techniques or in the other focus of the telescope not to interfere with each other. The duplicating program is fulfilled under bad weather conditions (seeing, etc.) or in the twilight as supplementary with respect to principal one.
•     7. Mode of observations. Please, give a detailed description of equipment, light detectors, S/N-ratio, spectral or/and time resolution recording systems, etc. The description of observing methods, proposed by SAO RAS can be found here. The applicant can propose a guest mode of observation. In this case, coordination with the administration of SAO is needed.
  If questions arise, one has to address people in charge of the observing method for the executive secretary of the Program Committee (request@sao.ru).
•     8. Indicate coordinates and stellar magnitudes of the program objects.

The Scientific Part structure

To be issued in PDF with a required minimum structure given below. Can contain figures, formulas, etc. There is a volume limit - up to 5 pages of at least 11pt.
The scientific part of an application is viewed by Committee experts in respective categories (it depends on the type of objects). Where necessary, the Chairman will appoint an external expert. Each application is reviewed by at least two experts.

• 1. Principal Investigator (Institution) – Program
• 2. Annotation (up to 100 words)
• 3. Type of objects (choose from):

      E - Extragalactic, S - Stars, P - Sun and Planetary systems, M - Miscellaneous, T - ToO (Targets of Opportunity)

• 4. Scientific problem
  •    4a. Current state of the field of study. Topicality of the problem
  •    4b. Brief information on objects under study
  •    4с. Results achieved earlier (including those by co-investigators) (if available)
• 5. Methods proposed to solve the task

  Why additional studies are needed? How and to what extent is it proposed to conduct additional observations? What did determine the choice (sample) of objects to observe? What is the scientific significance of the expected results?

• 6. Motivation
  •     6a. Justification for the use of the telescope
  •     6b. Justification of the choice of an instrument (instruments) and receiver (s), spectral resolution, etc.
  •     6c. Observing strategy

    Describe the features of observations, such as, for example, seeing, priorities of objects, the duty cycle of expositions and others. It is recommended to specify the minimum amount of time (number of objects), which is required for the basic objectives of the application (without taking into account the weather factor).
    For the ToO proposals – the trigger of observations and the maximum possible delay in the start of observations after the trigger. The decision on conducting the ToO is taken by the director of SAO RAS in accordance with the allocated quota and observing conditions.

• 7 Publications
  •    7a. For a new proposal - evidence of the applicant’s competence in dealing with the observation data (existing experience, publications on similar applications, etc.).
  •    7b. For an ongoing one - a list of publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals (5 most significant publications on the results of the program).
    In a PDF-file, it is recommended to give a table with the following structure:

    | Authors |	Paper title |	Journal, volume, issue |	Year of publication |	NASA ADS Code |

For convenience you can download and use the the scientific part template in RTF format.

Rating of applications

Rating of applications is carried out by the RTPC (Russian Telescopes Program Committee) based on a technical review and scientific investigation. The technical part is done by experts of the institutions managing the instruments required. The experts performing the technical review can recommend changing a number of objects, exposure time, and a plan of observations. On passing the technical review, all the applications undergo the scientific investigation. The scientific expertise is carried out by the Committee members with possible assistance of external experts.

Categories of applications

Based on technical and scientific investigation, applications are assigned a category:

• А – a scientifically significant and technically feasible application aimed at solving specific topical problems. It is of the highest priority in allocating and scheduling the requested observation time.
• B – a scientifically significant and technically feasible application but of the lower priority than the one of A category. The time requested for observations (number of nights, objects) can be reduced. Applications of Category B are scheduled after the distribution of applications of Category A.
• C – a scientifically significant and technically feasible application of low priority. The time is allocated for a minimum number of nights (objects). When scheduling, the applications of Category are put into the time intervals (nights) remaining after the distribution of applications in Categories A and B.
• D – an application is not accepted (lacking of scientific justification for the requested observing time, a high risk of a non-significant scientific result, technical impossibility, etc.).

Accepted applications for urgent observations of transient sources (ToOs) are by definition assigned Category A.

Upon the review, the Committee will announce categories of applications. PIs can receive comments (obligatory for Category D).

The schedule of accepted applications for the current half a year is made after the applications have been assigned Categories A-D. The applications are executed in the scheduled time and are under the control of staff members of organisations managing the instrument requested. Failure to execute the requests of all types due to bad weather conditions and other objectively reasonable causes in the time scheduled is not compensated. In some cases, the A-C non-fulfilled applications can be executed in maintenance and standby time (if possible) with the approval of the director of the organization and the chairman of the Committee.

Small-sized Telescopes

The amount of quotes as well as corresponding circulars for small-sized telescopes are here (in Russian).

When filling in applications for small-sized optical telescopes, please note that the principal system for accepting applications is the online version for the BTA. It is recommended to indicate the abbreviated name of a telescope in the title of an application for small-sized telescopes and then, after the colon, the name of the main program (Zeiss-1m, Zeiss-2m, ZTSh-2.6m). Any special features of the technical side of an application for small-sized telescopes (instruments, light detector, etc.) are to be indicated in the "Additional Information" field. The scientific part is made according to the above form in the PDF format.

Regulations of Data Archives

According to the Regulations of the Observational Data Archives (in Russian) of SAO RAS:
    1) exclusive copywrite of using the data is held by the program applicant for 2 years;
    2) after the expiry of this term, the data lose the exclusive status and can be used unrestrictive with obligatory references to the source they were borrowed from;
    3) an aknowledgement for the use of BTA, RATAN and Zeiss-1000 would be appreciated.

Go to Online forms

Any questions to request@sao.ru