Keck Call & Proposal Instructions

Call for Proposals: UC time on the Keck telescopes

Semester 2024B (Aug. 1, 2024 through January 31, 2025)

Deadline: Proposals are due on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 by 5:00pm PT

1.1 Due Date

Proposals for UC observing time on the Keck Telescopes for Semester 2024B are due by 5:00 pm PDT on Tuesday, March 19th, 2024.  This is a change in the normal due date of Thursday but places more time between the Keck due date and the HST proposal due date.There will be 60.5 nights available on K1 and 53.5 nights available on K2 spread evenly across the semester and lunar phase.  There are 7 one-hour Partnership ToO interrupts available.    A PI may ask for a larger number of UC-time only ToO interrupts as well.   

1.2 Proposal Process

NOTE:   This semester UCO is offering funding for participation in the The Pilina and Kōkua Initiative, a pilot project to facilitate observers from our constituencies to travel to Hawaiʻi, observe at WMKO headquarters, meet and perhaps give informal talks to WMKO staff about science and their scientific program, and most importantly participate in Hawaiʻi community activities. The Pilina (relationship to people and place) and Kōkua (to help in ways that are called for) Initiative will provide travel support for observers for the period of their observations in addition to two extra days to provide time for connection and service to people and place. Participants will spend at least one full day devoted to community engagement programs while at WMKO.   If you wish to apply for participation in The Pilina and Kōkua Initiative please indicate this in section 3.5 of your proposal.   

The principal consideration in evaluating proposals will be the scientific merit of the proposed project. Projects that take maximum advantage of the unique capabilities of the Keck Telescopes will be given high weight. A brief description should be given of backup programs that will be carried out if conditions are not suitable for the primary program. Please see https://www.ucobservatories.org/observatory/keck-observatory/keck-proposal-instructions/ which describes the UC online proposal submission process, and https://www.ucobservatories.org/observatory/keck-observatory/keck-proposal-guidelines/which describes the required sections and their page limits. The Time Allocation Committees take page limits very seriously, so please pay close attention as you draft your proposal. 

Keck is continuing the login-password system to allow you to retrieve and modify your coversheets. Returning observers should use the same account information as last semester. New observers may request an account from the page http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/PILogin/login.php 

The coversheet form is available through the login page link above. Once you have created a coversheet and you are logged in, please go to the instructions for submitting Keck proposals at: https://spg.ucolick.org/cgi-bin/TAC/login.cgi to create the rest of your proposal as a PDF file to upload to the UC proposal server. Note that the cover-sheet has been modified again this semester, so please pay close attention when filling it out. 

You may use the extra page allocated to the project update if this is a resubmission to respond to the previous TAC comments, even if the previous submission was unsuccessful.  It would be useful to mention the previous proposal title (if different), PI (if different) and proposal number.    

1.3 Be Kind to your TAC Members 

Please read the page limits carefully on the keck-guidelines web page (https://www.ucobservatories.org/observatory/keck-observatory/keck-proposal-guidelines/) and adhere to them. TAC members will be instructed to stop reading any text beyond the stated page limits. Note that the text format is 12 point font; single-spaced; one-inch margins. 

Although there is not a formal limit on the number of Keck proposals that one PI can submit, experience has shown that TAC members view one PI submitting numerous proposals as a real burden on the reviewing process; it generally does not increase the odds of a PI getting Keck time. Please use moderation. 

1.4 Time Domain Astronomy (TDA)

Observers will continue to have the ability to propose both Target of Opportunity (ToO) and Cadence programs using the Keck Cover Sheet. Keck policies related to Target of Opportunity (ToO) and Cadence proposals can be found at https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/common/Keck_TDA_ToO_policy_SSC_Approved.pdf and https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/common/Keck_TDA_Cadence_policy_SSC_Approved.pdf.

If your project involves both Classical and TDA observing, you MUST put in two separate cover sheets so that the Keck TDA software can clearly distinguish between the two. Instead of submitting the same text twice, please submit the actual proposal text under the Classical cover sheet; the text submitted under the TDA (ToO or Cadence) cover sheet should merely include the proposal title, PI, and proposal number, together with a sentence stating that the main text can be found under the proposal number of the Classical cover sheet. The Cover Sheet form will not let you submit one proposal requesting both Classical and TDA observing time. 

For Semester 2024B, two types of ToO requests can be made.  TAC- approved ToO projects which are able to interrupt observers at any of the four institutions, to increase the utility of the ToO process. These are called Partnership ToO proposals. There is a limit to the number of Partnership ToO interrupts.   The second kind of TAC approved ToO program (Institutional) can only interrupt UC programs.   Note that there is not a limit to the number of “Institutional” ToO interrupts of fellow UC observers. But because UC nights are only a fraction of the total available Keck nights, the probability of a successful ToO interrupt using UC time alone is smaller than for Partnership ToOs. Also note that UC Institutional ToO time can be interrupted by a Partnership ToO, so think through your strategy carefully.   Both Partnership and Institutional ToO interrupts are counted in full 1 hour increments even if less than 1 hour of time is used.  All ToO proposal requests should be made in units of 1 hour interrupts.

In 2024B, partial-night observations can be interrupted. The Keck guidelines state that “Individual TACs may designate a few nights (partial or whole) as exempt from ToO interrupts. This designation must be scientifically motivated, namely that such interruptions would seriously compromise the scientific return of the entire observing time. Proposers should make any such requests to their individual TACs as part of their observing proposal. Use of these exemptions is expected to be rare.” So if you think your project deserves, for scientific reasons, to have one of these rare exemptions from interruptions, please state so in your proposal and give a very strong justification for your request. 

1.5 Cadence Observations 

Keck’s policies for Cadence observing (https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/common/Keck_TDA_Cadence_policy_SSC_Approved.pdf) are reasonably complicated. These include a new category called “Partnership Snapshot” observatories. If you are contemplating applying for Cadence time, please read the guidelines carefully. 

Keck continues to reconcile cross-institutional cadence and ToO allocations. Scheduled cadence time is returned to the institution at a one to one rate, and ToO time is returned at a rate of two hours for every one hour interruption because the ToO PI will not choose to call for a trigger if the weather is unacceptable. 

1.6  Twilight Cadence Observations

In 2024B, institutions will continue to be able to allocate one twilight observing program per telescope, for a total of up to two programs.  On Keck I, OSIRIS-NGS (imager only) will be available, and on Keck II, NIRC2-NGS will be available.  Please note that due to ongoing AO upgrades, there will be times in the semester when AO is unavailable for cadence observations.  Cadence program PIs are responsible for development of instrument scripts, providing documentation, and training of staff needed to make the cadence program a turnkey operation.

1.7 Large Multi-Year Projects 

UC LMAP observing projects with well-defined scientific objectives that require a large number of nights to bring to completion (normally 10 or more nights per semester). The UC LMAP program allows projects extending for more than one semester to be carried out with multi-year approval from the beginning. LMAPs should generally be directed toward obtaining a high quality, coherent, homogeneous data set that will allow scientific questions of major importance to be addressed in a thorough, systematic manner. Please consulthttps://www.ucobservatories.org/observatory/keck-observatory/keck-telescope-time-for-lmap-proposals/ for current policies regarding LMAPs.   Please note the additional requirement of inclusion of a Collaboration Management Plan listed at the top of section 1.2.

NOTE:  Changes for new LMAP proposals:   Once a proposal has been granted LMAP status, the team must submit a Collaboration Management Plan to the Director’s Office within 2 months. It is not the intent of this policy to require specific terms in CMPs, but  to ensure that collaboration policies are known to members and clearly defined. The plan should include:

• Publication Policy indicating how authorship and co-authorship is determined/merited.   This should include when this policy will no longer apply, ie. what will the publication policy be once the LMAP data collection is over or proprietary periods have expired.
• How collaboration leadership is structured, e.g. a single PI, committee, rotating spokesperson, etc.
• How membership in the collaboration is determined
• Code of Conduct for the collaboration members and how issues with code of conduct violations will be arbitrated.
• An acknowledgement that the policy has been shared with all members of the collaboration (including early career researchers.) 

This plan can mirror or reference other research organization’s plans/codes, e.g. SDSS, AAS, KSM; or can be entirely new.  The Collaboration Management Plan can take as many pages as required, but may be as short as 1-2 pages.   The UCO Director will appoint a group to review the Collaboration Management Plan (CMP) for completeness.  If clarification or changes are recommended by the review committee the LMAP team will have adequate time to respond before the next semester.  The final accepted CMP will be published on the UCO LMAP web pages.

1.8 At-Home (pajama mode) Observing

At-home observing will continue to be available to observers.  Please see https://keckobservatory.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/MOSD/overview for information about remote observing, including at-home observing.   

2.0 Notes on Instruments and Availability 

See the following web page for detailed notes on the availability of instruments for 2024B: https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/observing/instavail.html.  Please note that the cover-sheet has been updated with questions about providing KOA data access to observers and Co-Is.  Please contact Cover_Sheet (cover_sheet@keck.hawaii.edu) if you receive any reports of problems with the cover-sheet form.

SPECIAL NOTES AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR 2024B:  

KPF:  KPF will be unavailable for 4 weeks in November for installation of a thermal enclosure and mechanical cooling system.  Note that this time frame may be shifted somewhat as more information on delivery of these items becomes available.  

KPF: A new cover-sheet form should become available in the early April timeframe that will allow the option of providing supplemental KPF PRV target information. The target information would be used by the KPF cadence team to test an algorithm for suggesting the optimal distribution of KPF nights as a possible input to the scheduling process.

Keck II Pyramid WFS:  The Keck II Pyramid WFS is being retired in semester 24A and will no longer be offered for science use. 

KPIC: KPIC is being offered as a facility instrument in semesters 24B-25B. However, KPIC availability is contingent upon successful completion of an operations handover review to be conducted in June 2024. PIs should have backup NIRSPAO or NIRC2 programs planned if KPIC is not available.  Documentation for KPIC will be posted as soon as it is available. 

Keck II AO: Keck II AO (Nirc2 and NIRSPAO) will be unavailable for 3-4 weeks in mid/late August to mid-September. 

DEIMOS: Please see https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/deimos/detector_issues.html for the latest DEIMOS detector performance status.

ESI:  ESI will be scheduled in campaign mode to limit the number of reconfigs through the semester.

NIRSPEC/NIRSPAO:  Please note that Nirspec and Nirspao nights will be scheduled in campaign mode to limit the number of reconfigs into AO during the semester.  This may impact the ability to schedule certain date critical observations.

NIRC2:  The vortex coronagraph in LGS mode is not available. Please, see the NIRC2 manual (https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/nirc2/ObserversManual.html#Section5.2.2) for information about vortex operations.

Notes regarding Subaru facility and instrument availability in 24B:

There is no scheduled downtime for 24B.

• Starting from 24A semester, the allocation time of HSC queue mode programs will consider 30% weather factor. Accordingly, the requested time in HSC queue mode should not exceed 3.5 nights. In other words, we regard 7 hours of HSC queue observing time (including overhead) as 1 night exchange. In the case of classical request, users can request up to 5 nights.
• The laser guide star (LGS) system for AO188 will be operated with TBAD (Transponder Based Aircraft Detector) with a shared-risk policy. Please check the AO188 webpage for the latest information.
• The near-infrared wavefront sensor (NIR WFS) of AO188, which is a PI-type device, is open in shared risk mode, only for limited modes with IRCS and SCExAO/CHARIS. Please refer to the website of NIR WFS and IRCS for detailed information.
• Following Facility instruments are available for S24B:  FOCAS, HDS, HSC, IRCS(+AO188), MOIRCS
• Following PI-type instruments/devices are available for S24B. As usual, proposals to use visiting instruments/devices must include the relevant PIs as Co-investigators of the proposal.

1. CHARIS with SCExAO+AO188 (including spectro-polarimetric mode)
2. VAMPIRES with SCExAO+AO188 (cameras have been upgraded for improved sensitivity, speed and dynamic range. A new multi-band imaging mode is available.)
3. Fast PDI with SCExAO+AO188 (in a shared-risk mode)
4. MEC with SCExAO+AO188 (in a shared-risk mode)
5. REACH (combination of SCExAO and IRD for single-mode fiber spectroscopy)
6. IRD with AO188 (NGS-AO or LGS-AO, in a shared-risk mode)
7. NsIR Wave Plate Unit (a visiting device for IRCS/SCExAO polarimetry mode)
8. NIR WFS (a near-infrared wavefront sensor inside the AO188 instead of the visible wavefront sensor)
9. Note that CHARIS, FastPDI, VAMPIRES, and MEC can be used together at the same time as the modules of SCExAO.

• REACH can be used simultaneously with CHARIS with any dispersion modes, but the wavelength coverage of CHARIS will be from 1850 nm to the longest wavelengths shown in the CHARIS web site.
• Instrument switching between IRD, REACH, CHARIS, VAMPIRES, Fast PDI, and MEC in one or half observation night for one observing proposal is possible. Please check the official Subaru call for details.