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Call for proposals for observations on the
French 2-m telescopes at OHP and TBL

Semester 2007A : 1 March 2006 - 31 August 2007

Prospective European users who plan to apply for time on the French 2-m telescopes at Haute-Provence and Pic-du-Midi through the OPTICON Trans-National Access program will find here the necessary information to prepare and submit their proposals.

Access criteria

Up to a maximum of 10% of the available nights on the 2-m OHP and TBL telescopes are open to European research teams, provided that the P.I. (and 50% of the Co-Is) not be affiliated with a French institute. The OPTICON Access program will provide financial support for astronomers from the European Union, and the access countries, whose proposals get accepted.

General principles and proposal selection

Information on the telescopes and their instrumentation can be found on the respective observatory home pages:
All proposals, either French or European (whether applying through the OPTICON Access program or not), are evaluated and selected according to scientific excellence by the existing French selection committees, which deal with different scientific topics (corresponding to the "Programmes Nationaux" thematic structure)

  • PNPS (Programme National de Physique Stellaire): stars (coordinator: plez@graal.univ-montp2.fr )
  • PNG (Programme National Galaxies): galaxies (coordinator: francoise.combes@obspm.fr. )
  • PCMI (Physico-chimie du milieu interstellaire): interstellar medium (coordinator: francois.boulanger@ias.u-psud.fr  and stephane.guilloteau@obs-u-bordeaux1.fr. )
  • PNC (Programme National de Cosmologie): cosmology (coordinator: charlot@iap.fr )
  • PNP (Programme National de Planetologie): planetology (coordinator: bruno.bezard@obspm.fr )

Selected European proposals will be communicated to the OPTICON Access for formal approval. The corresponding telescope operation costs are supported by OPTICON through INSU. Travel costs will also be supported (by a separate request from the observers to OPTICON).

Service Observations at OHP: 1m93 + SOPHIE
Users can apply for observations involving the monitoring of an object for a prolonged period (e.g., a number of exposures spread over a semester). Accepted programs will be carried out by other observers during their own runs with SOPHIE. They must be prepared in detail in coordination with the local staff (observation@obs-hp.fr) and the observer in charge. See the instrument page

Service Observations at TBL:
For large-sized programs using the Musicos or Narval spectrographs on the TBL, part of the observations can be carried out in the absence of the proposer. If so desired, this possibility must be first discussed with TBL staff before proposal submission and so indicated in the form. This observing mode, presently limited to a few weeks, should develop in the following semesteres.

A Statement from the PNPS (Stellar Physics) committee:
Primary criteria to rate the proposals on the 2-m telescopes are: scientific value, urgency, experience and results by the team. Combining different proposals, proposing key-programs, and observations made in support of large-size telescopes or of space observations are greatly encouraged. Proposals requiring a large number of nights but fullfilling those conditions may be supported.

Proposal submission

The proposals will be centralized by INSU and forwarded to the relevant thematic scientific comittee.

A given proposal is submitted to a single thematic committee (as indicated on the proposal). However, the very large programs that clearly concern several subjects will be considered in parallel by different committees. In this case (only), submit as many proposals as there are different subjects, ans indicate as the "number of nights" the number of nights required to this topic only, and clearly mention the other relevant topics.

Specific proposal forms are available. Proposers need to create a PostScript or PDF file and to name it as follows:

telescope_scienceprogram_name_initial_number.ps where:

telescope is ohp193 or tbl, scienceprogram is pnps, png, pcmi, pnc, or pnp (this determines the selection comittee according to the subject, see above), name is the PI's last name, initial is the PI's first name initial, number is the index in the case of more than one proposal for a given PI.(it can be omitted otherwise)

Please make sure that your file names follow this syntax and that you use only lower case.

Examples:
if John Doe deposits 2 proposals for TBL, to be examined byPNP (planetology), his 2 files will be named:
tbl_pnp_doe_j_1.ps and tbl_pnp_doe_j_2.ps,
and if he deposits one proposal for OHP193 it will be named
ohp193_pnp_doe_j.ps

The proposal postscript file or PDF file is to be uploaded by FTP to the INSU ftp site :

ftp ftp-sol.insu.cnrs-dir.fr
login: telescopes
Password:___________ (Please contact Sonia d'Agrain)
put telescope_programme_nom_initial_number.ps
bye

For privacy reasons you will not be able to read/see the content of this directory, so you will not be able to check that your file has arrived safely there. It is recommended to send and e-mail to the telescope director indicating that you have submitted a proposal.

The proposals will then be forwarded to the relevant selection comittee. Proposers will be informed whether they have been granted observing time or not by the telescope directors.

In case of incorrect file upload, please re-deposit a new file with the correct name, and inform Maryvonne GERIN with a brief e-mail clearly stating the wrong filename to be destroyed.

Deadline for proposal upload on INSU ftp site:
20 October 2006 at 14h (noon)
(No late proposals will be considered, whatever the reason)

In case of annexes, such as preprints, please send them by surface mail. They should be received before 20 October 2006 at:

INSU
A l'attention de Sonia d'Agrain
B.P. 287
75766 PARIS cedex 16

Please send two copies, with the name of the PostScript or PDF file sent to INSU

Maryvonne GERIN
Chargée de mission

SAI/Revised: 04.10.06