Semester 2009A Instruments
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Semester 2009A Instruments |
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Instruments Available for Semester 2009A
For detailed information about the instruments, please check the Instruments Home Page
Keck 1 Instruments are:
HIRESb (blue x-disperser)
HIRESr (red x-disperser)
NIRC
NIRCs (speckle)
LRIS will not be available during February. Please see below.
LRIS-ADC (red and blue, with ADC)
LRIS (red and blue, without ADC)
LRISp (polarimeter, without ADC)
LRISp-ADC (polarimeter, with ADC; see below.)
MICHELLE & NIRI at Gemini North and T-ReCS at Gemini South (see below)
Suprime-Cam and MOIRCS at Subaru (see below)
Keck 2 Instruments are:
DEIMOS
ESI
NIRSPEC (without AO)
NIRSPAO-NGS (NIRSPEC with Natural Guide Star AO; see below.)
NIRSPAO-LGS (NIRSPEC with Laser Guide Star AO; see below.)
NIRC2-NGS
NIRC2-LGS (see LGS note below)
OSIRIS-NGS
OSIRIS-LGS (see LGS note below)
Suprime-Cam and MOIRCS at Subaru (see below)
Combined Keck 1 and Keck 2 Interferometer: Visibility science, Nuller science.
Please note that Keck I and Keck II have different eastern and western telescope limits. This affects the times that objects will be available for observing.
Visitor Instruments: WMKO will not support any visitor instruments during semester 2009A.
Keck I
LRIS:
LRIS will be off-line during February of semester 2009A for the LRISr (red side) detector upgrade. The March and April LRIS runs will be considered shared-risk.
A new I-band filter is now available for use with LRIS. Please check the LRIS News for information regarding the new I-band filter as well as updates concerning the availability of other LRIS optics.
Observers who use LRISp should review the ADC-polarimeter instrument technical note KITN0010 LRIS: Polarimetry Comparison with and without the ADC to assess the impact of the ADC on polarimetry data. In most circumstances, it is beneficial to use the ADC with LRISp (higher throughput) and therefore this observing mode is the default for polarimetry. Observers wishing to use LRISp without the ADC should provide scientific justification in the special requests section of the coversheet.
HIRES: Observers will again be asked to specify a proprietary period for HIRES data that are automatically ingested into the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA). Please see the KOA proprietary period policy for more information.
NIRC: Because of limited requests for NIRC during recent semesters, we will restrict NIRC to campaign mode of one block of nights during semester 2009A. The date will depend on scientific requests.
NIRCs: (NIRC speckle) While this instrument configuration is the same as NIRC, this category will help alert us to the need for good primary mirror phase.
LWS: LWS is no longer available. Mid-IR observers are urged to apply for MICHELLE or T-ReCS time.
MICHELLE and NIRI at Gemini North, T-ReCS at Gemini South: MICHELLE is a mid-infrared (8-25 micron) imager and spectrometer at GEMINI North. T-ReCS is a similar instrument at Gemini South. NIRI is a Near InfraRed Imager and low resolution spectrograph at Gemini North. Through an exchange with the GEMINI Observatory, up to five nights may be available to observers who would like to use MICHELLE, NIRI, or T-ReCS. Scheduled nights will be executed classically with the support of GEMINI US (tier-1). MICHELLE is expected to be available for a limited time, most likely mid-June to late July. T-ReCS is anticipated being available during May, June, and July. NIRI may not be available in July. NIRI will be available in the non-AO mode and in NIRI+Altair, natural guidestar mode (but not laser guide star mode) for the Keck Community. Please watch the Gemini web site for further details and updates on instrument availability for all three instruments.
Keck II
ESI: Because of limited requests for ESI during recent semesters, we may restrict ESI to campaign mode (possibly two or three blocks of nights) during semester 2009A. This will depend on scientific requests. Observers should be prepared for their allocations to possibly be a month earlier or later than the requested dates.
NIRSPAO: NIRSPEC may be available in the AO mode (NIRSPAO) for a maximum of one run during semester 2009A, depending upon science demand. We will need a minimum of three allocated nights for the AO mode before we will offer this capability. We anticipate the NIRSPAO run may be in May or June, depending upon the science demand. On all NIRSPAO nights, NIRC2 is also available for use. Please note that for NIRSPAO-LGS, backup programs are required. Backup programs may use NIRC2 or NIRSPAO in NGS mode. NIRSPEC without AO is not available when NIRSPEC is in the AO configuration.
OSIRIS: On all OSIRIS nights, NIRC2 is also available for use. Please note for OSIRIS-LGS, backup programs are required. Backup programs may use NIRC2 or OSIRIS in NGS mode. NIRSPEC without AO is generally also available for backup.
Suprime-Cam and MOIRCS at Subaru: Through an exchange with the Subaru Observatory, up to six nights may be available to observers who would like to use Suprime-Cam or MOIRCS. Suprime-Cam is a wide-field optical imager with a 34'x27' field. MOIRCS is an IR imager and multi-object spectrograph. As Subaru time will be traded for time on both telescopes, TACs will need to determine which telescope's time they will be trading when awarding Subaru time. The time will be up to four nights on Keck II and up to two nights on Keck I depending both on the Keck and the Subaru requests. Neither Keck nor Subaru will support Target of Opportunity (ToO) observations during the exchanged nights.
LGS-AO: NIRC2, OSIRIS, or NIRSPAO with laser guide star adaptive optics will be available. Up to 70 nights may be awarded as laser guide star nights during this semester. A more detailed set of guidelines for these nights and information on the capabilities of the system may be found on the the LGS-AO page. Backup programs for LGS proposals are essential. Backup programs for LGS may be either NGS programs or non-AO (seeing limited) NIRSPEC.
Combined Keck I and Keck II
Interferometer: For 2009A up to seven nights will be available to the community for visibility science and/or nuller science with the Keck Interferometer (KI). More nights will be considered at the Director's discretion. The nuller is fully available for science proposals in semesters 2009A and B. We expect to offer increased wavelength coverage (L-band) and spectral resolution (R ~ 1800) for shared-risk proposals in this call. Please see the MSC web site for important details concerning planning for interferometer observations and for the sensitivity and efficiency information. All science observations with the Keck Interferometer are taken in service observing mode and may be scheduled in campaign mode.
For detailed information about the instruments, please check the Instruments Home Page
This page last updated 04-Aug-08. bas.