Dear All,     for your info. All the best, Anita -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: AsrtoSat - Announcement of Opportuntiy : A10 Cycle Date: Fri, 29 May 2020 11:51:28 +0000 (UTC) From: apps(a)issdc.gov.in 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… 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_submissio…). 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