IRTF: Getting Observing Time

Before I entered graduate school, I had no idea about the complexity of research proposals, especially those in astronomy/astrophysics.

All telescope time for which I have applied has been peer reviewed.  This means that my proposal is read by fellow astronomers/astrophysicists and evaluated against some scoring method.  It is my responsibility, as the proposer, to convince the committee that not only is my research interesting, but also doable from a technical perspective. 

The basic outline of the proposal process is thus:

1. Determine a facility that can do the type of science you need.  This often means locating a facility that first covers the wavelengths in which you are interested.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we hope to observe the appearance of CO lines in the infrared so we obviously need an infrared telescope.  Although it goes without saying, the facility needs to be in the correct hemisphere to observe your target.  Being quite new to research (presently I'm in the third year of my Ph.D.), I often go ask my adviser, Dr. Bob, or another professor in our department about instruments they have used in the past that might cover the wavelength region of intrest.
2. See if the research facility has an instrument that can take the data you need.  The next step is to look at the facility's instrument list.  IRTF has a nice list of infrared instruments that can be used for spectroscopy and photometry.  We wanted to observe the CO spectral lines in the ~2.5 micron region so SpeX, and CSHELL are good options (there are separate observations looking in the mid-infrared with MIRSI and BASS).
3. Next, we need to verify that the instrument can observe our target.  This involves looking at sensitivities, exposure times, and estimating signal-to-noise ratios based upon previously observed targets with similar properties (or a model of the machine's performance characteristics).  With eps Aur, we have no problems getting enough light and in the case of some instruments, eps is too bright to be observed  without very special pixel placement.
4. After we have the basics down, we need to start looking at the proposal schedule.  Some observatories offer yearly, bi-yearly, or quarterly proposal opportunities.  We need to choose a proposal time that permits our target to be observed (in our case, any time in the winter is good).
5. Now comes the hard part: paperwork.  There's a series of forms and check lists that must be filled out detailing our observations.  It is in this step that we start filling out a description and scientific justification for our observations for peer review.  Some telescope time comes with funds so you might have to fill out a budget and then run it by your institution's business department.  These budgets can be tricky as your hosting institution can get a considerable cut of your incoming funds.
6. Then comes the easy part: submit and wait.  Most research facilities are good about getting proposals processed in a timely fashion, taking a month or two to get back to you.  Some of them can take six or more months.  During this time the reviewers are processing hundreds, possibly thousands of applications in order to pick the ones that offer the most interesting science.
7. And the best/worse part.  Acceptance or Rejection of your proposal.  If your proposal was accepted, great!  If not... well, try again I suppose.  At the big research facilities, telescope time is very competitive and for the space-based telescopes, it is extremely competitive, especially if the observing time comes with funds.  I can't give you any details statistics, but getting a rejection letter is common.  Fortunately, the reviewers provide feedback which describes why your proposal wasn't accepted which can often help when you re-propose.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow in which I'll discuss how we prepared for our IRTF observing run.