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Dear All,
ISRO has established AstroSat as an astronomical observatory and
over the
last few years, has periodically released announcements of
opportunity (AO)
calls, soliciting proposals from national and international
Astronomy
community to observe using AstroSat instruments.
This announcement of AO cycle 10 (AO10) is planned to begin from
Oct 01,2020 to Sept 30th 2021. The full AO is available at
https://www.isro.gov.in/announcement-of-opportunity-ao-soliciting-proposals-tenth-ao-cycle-observations
NOTE: We have introduced a new proposal type "AstroSat Long Term
Key
Proposals (ALTKP)" from this year. The full details of the same
are
available as an annexure I (page 13) of the full AO whose link
is given
above.
The APPS will be opened for proposal submission from 08th June
to 13th
July 2020 5:00pm IST. With this early announcement, proposers
are
encouraged to initiate proposal planning at the earliest and
ensure that
final submission gets completed within the above time window.
Proposers with queries on AstroSat, instruments and observation
planning,
are strongly encouraged to have them addressed through the
Astrosat Support
Cell operating at IUCAA, jointly supported by ISRO and UGC/MHRD
(
http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in).
Instructions for submitting AstroSat proposal:
Proposers will need to use the AstroSat Proposal Processing
System
(website:
https://apps.issdc.gov.in/apps/auth/login.jsp)
to create, prepare
and submit proposals. The AstroSat proposers guide available
online at
http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in/?q=proposal_preparation
provides a detailed
description of various steps in proposal preparation. A brief
description
of these steps is given below.
1. Before preparing the proposal, decide on your target list. To
start
with, check if any observations of your target(s) are available
in the
AstroSat archives
(
https://astrobrowse.issdc.gov.in/astro_archive/archive/Home.jsp).
An
up-to-date list of observations carried out may be found using
the AstroSat
Observation Finder tool
(
http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in:8080/ObservationFinder/)
and observation IDs
listed there may be used in the AstroSat Schedule Viewer
(
https://webapps.issdc.gov.in/MCAP/)
to obtain the details of the
instrument configuration used. Data from some of the
observations carried
out may not have entered the archive yet, and some data in the
archive may
not have been released publicly yet. Nevertheless if your
science goals
are likely to be met by existing observations then the proposal
will not
receive priority in time allocation. If you still need fresh
observations
then a suitable justification must be provided in the proposal.
Once you are convinced about the need for new observations,
ensure that
your targets can be observed with AstroSat as described below.
2. Ensure that the targets are visible to AstroSat for the A09
cycle
observing period (1 October 2020 - 30 September 2021). Proposers
can
use the AstroSat visibility tool "astroviewer" available at
http://issdc.gov.in/astroviewer/index.html.
Please examine the output
of this tool carefully to make sure that there is adequate
visibility
during the cycle period. In case of any difficulty, proposers
can also
use the simpler visibility tool "Avis"
(
http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in:8080/AstroVisCal/)
for a graphical
display of the visibility profile. If your science case (say
coordinated observations or specific orbital phase etc) requires
time
constraints, then ensure that the time constraints are covered
by the
visibility windows. Pleaae do not enter Time Constraints just to
reflect the source visibility - this is automatically taken into
account. Output in the pdf format from one of the visibility
tool
will need to be uploaded in the APPS.
While using Astroviewer, please check the button "Generate plot"
to
generate plots. The last plot generated gives the visibility of
the
target. Please attach this plot to the astroviewer output before
submission.
3. If you want to observe with UVIT, it is mandatory to
establish a
safety check as described in the mandatory safety-check document
available at ASSC
(
http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in/uploads/APPS/Guidelines_for_proposal_submission_8.pdf).
First, find the safe FUV filters for your target using the
online tool
available at UVIT POC website (
http://uvit.iiap.res.in/Software/gaia/).
Save the output by printing in the pdf format. It is necessary
to use VIS
channel for tracking if you are using FUV channel. If FUV is
safe for your
target, find the safe VIS filter(s) using the online tool at
UVIT POC
website
http://uvit.iiap.res.in/Software/theia/.
The pdf outputs of FUV and
VIS filter check tools should be merged and uploaded in APPS as
the "UVIT
Bright Source list". FUV gratings can be used when the count
rate in FUV
CaF2 filter is less than 892 in the full window of 512x512
pixels, please
check the output obtained from the run of the UV filter check
tool.
Proposers also need to check for scattered light from nearby
ultra-bright
sources as described in the mandatory safety-check document. If
your target
is within +/-30 degrees of Galactic latitude and no Galex images
are
available, you will need to first establish the safety by
proposing a UVIT
safety check ToO proposal. Please see the AstroSat Proposers
Guide for more
details.
4. For observations with LAXPC, the source should be fainter
than 2 Crab.
SXT data will be severely piled-up if there is a very bright
optical source
with V magnitude less than about 4 magnitude (see AstroSat
Handbook
available at ASSC website).
5. Estimate exposure time, count rates and signal-to-noise etc.
using the
online exposure time calculators: UVIT
(
https://uvit.iiap.res.in/Software/etc),
X-ray instruments
(
http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in:8080/WebPIMMS_ASTRO/index.jsp)
or Spectral
simulation tools such as XSPEC, Sherpa, ISIS. Perform scientific
feasibility study with simulations as needed.
6. Prepare scientific and technical justification pdf files
using Latex
templates available at the ASSC website and following the
instructions
given in the latex templates. Proposals are evaluated based on
the
importance of science, choice of targets, justification of
exposure time,
technical and scientific feasibility. Hence these sections need
to be
carefully prepared. The scientific feasibility should be
established based
on spectral/timing simulations, signal-to-noise calculations,
surface
brightness above the background for the study of diffuse UV
sources, etc.
as per the case may be.
7. Login to APPS and create a proposal for A10 cycle. Select one
of
the proposal types Regular pointing, Monitoring or Anticipated
ToO
proposals as per the requirement.
8. Fill the mandatory fields such as the title, abstract,
investigators, scientific category etc.
9. In the "Target list and Instrument configuration page", add
target(s).
Use target names recognized by NED/Simbad if available. Enter
source size,
V magnitude and 2-10 keV flux. In the instrument configuration
page, choose
a primary instrument which is most critical for your science
case.
Configure the instruments for each target considering the safety
of the
instruments. Please note that there are offsets up to several
arc minutes
in the pointing directions of different instruments. Choosing
one
instrument as primary may render the observations in other
instruments
somewhat sub-optimal. If a restricted window size is chosen for
an
instrument (for example, SXT FW mode) then that instrument must
be made
primary, otherwise the target may fall outside the observing
window.
10. Upload the technical and science justification pdf files.
For each
target, upload the AstroSat visibility information either from
astroviewer
or Avis tool as the Astroviewer Output file and merged VIS/UV
filter check
pdf output as UVIT BSC.
11. Check and verify pdf copy of the proposal cover page and the
attachments, edit the proposal if needed, and recheck and
submit.
Thanks & Regards
AstroSat Team at ISRO