JCMT - Service Observing for the Canadian Astronomical Community (CANSERV)

Why we have CANSERV

Canada has a 25% share in observing time on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, a 15-m diameter telescope on the premier site of the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The JCMT is dedicated primarily to observations at sub-millimetre wavelengths. Because observing conditions in this wavelength band are critically dependent on the weather, all observations are flexibly scheduled to make the best use of prevailing conditions.

Regular proposals, allowing observing time requests of any length, may be submitted at any time, but are evaluated and scheduled only on a 6-monthly cycle, and are subject to critical review through the Panel for the Allocation of Telescope Time (PATT) process established for the JCMT partners. Such submissions require significant preparation and there can be as much as a year between the preparation of a successful PATT proposal and the actual observations.

For short programs seeking more immediate return, a service observing program oriented to the needs of the Canadian community is in place. CANSERV offers a simplified plain-text application form that may be submitted at any time and, usually, a much faster turn-around time between proposal and observations than the PATT process allows. It is intended for short, time-critical programs, and the application process specifically provides for extra assistance for those astronomers who are not experienced sub-mm observers but who require limited amounts of JCMT data. For those contemplating using the JCMT for the first time this can be a good way to get one's feet wet!

Policies for CANSERV

URGENCY: A CANSERV proposal should have an element of urgency. Otherwise, it may be more appropriate to submit the application as a short PATT proposal. A CANSERV application should generally fall into one or more of the following categories:

  1. targets-of-opportunity
  2. requests for small amounts of data needed to finish a project or a thesis.
  3. observations that are intended to serve as a feasibility study for a future ALMA proposal.

AVOIDING CONFLICTS: In fairness to the observing community, the JCMT Board has stated that CANSERV time cannot be used for observations already approved in PATT time for another observer. Nor may CANSERV time be used for observations that merely supplement or extend PATT time already awarded to the applicant. These restrictions apply regardless of whether the PATT time is in the current or following semester. Questions on the application of the policies can be addressed to the CANSERV Coordinator (see below).

TIME LIMIT: Individual CANSERV time requests are limited to a maximum of 4 hours, including all estimated observing overheads. Proposals making use of SCUBA-2 are limited to 1 hour.

Each semester the CANSERV Coordinator will request that CanTAC reserve a block of time for new CANSERV proposals. Although there is no formal limit to the number of proposals that may be submitted, the total time allocated for new CANSERV proposals in a given semester cannot exceed the amount of time reserved by CanTAC.

EVALUATION: The Canadian Time Allocation Committee (CanTAC) will evaluate each CANSERV proposal to verify that it meets the above criteria and to assess its technical feasibility. CanTAC may contact the PI at this point to resolve any remaining technical questions. Finally, the scientific content of the proposal will be evaluated by two CanTAC members who will assign the proposal a grade. To be accepted, the proposal must be assigned a grade high enough that the observations are likely to be completed by the end of the following semester.

ACCEPTANCE: If the proposal meets all the above criteria, the PI will be notified that it has been accepted. Once observing scripts are prepared (see below) the program will be placed in the Canadian observing queue.

LIFETIME: A successful CANSERV program will remain in the observing queue until completed, withdrawn by the PI, or until the end of September 2014.

AFFILIATION: Following the usual custom for membership in the Canadian community, the first author of a CANSERV proposal must be funded by Canadian sources at the time of application.

Submitting a CANSERV proposal

  1. Copy the "Application form for Canadian Service Time on the JCMT" text or download the blank CANSERV proposal form (Note: This is a simple text file. Please do not convert it to HTML, RTF or any other more complicated format) into an e-mail message and insert the information requested. Once the form is complete, send it to canserv@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
  2. Please provide complete contact information for yourself. For the science case it's better to be succinct, focussing on the issues pertinent to your proposed observations, why they are necessary, and what you hope to learn from them.
  3. Try to be complete and accurate regarding the technical information you provide. Details of the telescope, receivers, and spectrometer(s) are available on the JCMT web pages. Please contact the CANSERV Coordinator (see below) if you need further information.
  4. Completed Proposals should be sent by email to the CANSERV Coordinator at NRC at canserv@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

APPLICATION FORM FOR CANADIAN SERVICE TIME ON THE JCMT

1. Name(s) of Applicant(s)

2. Institution(s)

3. Address, telephone and fax numbers of Principal Investigator

4. Email address of Principal Investigator

5. Title of Program

6. Brief Abstract

7. Scientific Description of Program (1 page or less)

8. Date of Requested Observations

9. Receiver(s) Required

10. Weather Band(s) Requested

11. Details of the Observations

a) List sources in decreasing order of priority, with names and either 1950 or 2000 equinox positions (please specify!)

b) For spectral-line observations, list atomic or molecular transition and/or frequency. Indicate the preferred method of observing, i.e., position switching, beam switching or frequency switching and provide details, if possible, such as the off-source position for position switching. Indicate the bandwidth, if appropriate. For continuum observations, indicate the type of scanning required (daisy, pong3600, pong1800, pong900)

c) Further details you should try to provide are expected strengths, LSR velocities, linewidths, mapping parameters, sample intervals, number of points, etc. These will help ensure the data obtained meet your requirements.

d) Total time requested (please limit to 4 h or less for spectral line, to 1 h for SCUBA-2), unless otherwise specified in the accompanying announcement of availability).

12. Special Considerations (if any)

13. Preferred data format (ASCII, FITS, SPECX, CLASS, etc.)

What happens next

While CANSERV staff will try to respond immediately to let you know your proposal has been received, you should allow at least 2 weeks for your proposal to be assessed and graded before observations can begin.

When and if your proposal is approved, you will receive notification by email giving its approximate ranking, contact information for your support scientist and a password to the project in the Observatory Management Project (OMP) database at the JCMT.

Observations using the JCMT are queue-scheduled. The parameters of all observations are organized into Minimum Schedulable Blocks (MSBs) that are stored in the OMP database. Preparation of the MSBs is done using the JCMT Observing Tool (JCMT-OT), which you should fetch from the JAC and install on your home machine.

You are encouraged to prepare your own MSBs, or at least to check the MSBs carefully after they have been entered into the OMP database. Assistance with the preparation of MSBs can be requested from your support scientist at the JAC, or from other experienced NRC astronomers (see below).

When observations for your program are carried out, you (the PI) will be notified through the usual OMP mechanism, which also provides access to the raw data and all associated calibration and quality information. Because the observations are queue-scheduled, they may be spread over several observing sessions.

All data are distributed through the JCMT Science Archive (JSA) at the CADC. This requires that at least one of the applicants on the proposal (normally the PI), should have an account at the CADC so that he/she can download the data. These accounts are free and last indefinitely. Applicants who do not already have such an account should choose a user ID, register it with the CADC and inform the JCMT Associate Director (Doug Johnstone) at the JAC of the new CADC user ID, so that we can make the necessary connection to provide access to the data to the applicants while the data remain proprietary.

Both raw and reduced data products are available through the JSA. All raw data taken with the JCMT are run through an automatic data reduction pipeline that generates a set of basic reduced data products, mostly in the form of FITS files. These products will often be good enough for immediate scientific use. Raw ACSIS data are available in two forms, as the original raw data and as minimally processed data cubes that can be read into other data reduction systems for further processing.

Assistance

For assistance with any aspect of your CANSERV proposals, please contact Dennis Crabtree.

For assistance in preparation of MSBs, contact your support scientist. If you intend to ask for assistance in entering the MSBs, it is especially important that your proposed observations be as simple as possible and that you take extreme care to ensure that all the observational parameters are entered correctly in the application. Take particular care in entering coordinates since these will likely be copied with a cut-and-paste into the MSBs.

There is no obligation on the part of the applicant(s) to collaborate with the CANSERV Coordinator or support scientists who provide assistance as part of the program.