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| Keck 1 Instruments are: |
see 8 Sep. 2011 update below)
| Keck 2 Instruments are: |
see 8 Sep. 2011 update below)
| Combined Keck 1 and Keck 2: |
| Telescope Limits |
Please note that Keck I and Keck II have different eastern and western telescope limits. This affects the times objects will be available for observing.
| Special Notes for Semester 2012A: |
Visitor Instruments: WMKO will not support any visitor instruments during semester 2012A.
Keck I
OSIRIS: As mentioned last semester, we plan to move OSIRIS to Keck I beginning in January 2012. Recommissioning and integration with the Keck I laser guidestar system will take place in the spring. OSIRIS is expected to be available for shared-risk science on Keck I during June and July 2012.
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 2012A. 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.
NIRSPEC/NIRSPAO: NIRSPEC will have a service mission in February and early March 2012. It will be available after 8 March 2012 in both its standard, seeing limited mode and the AO mode (NIRSPAO). NIRSPAO may be scheduled for two or more observing blocks during semester 2012A, depending upon science demand. We desire a minimum of three allocated nights for the AO mode during a particular time frame before we will offer a separate observing block. Timing of the NIRSPAO runs will depend 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. NIRSPAO capability has been extended to include the filters residing in Filter Wheel 1, including the KL and M-Wide filters.
Suprime-Cam, FOCAS, HDS, MOIRCS, IRSC (with NGSAO with 188 elements), and COMICS at Subaru: Through an exchange with the Subaru Observatory, up to five nights may be available to observers who would like to use any of these instruments. Please check the Subaru web site for detailed descriptions of these instruments. 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. All observations will be executed in the "classical" observing mode.
As of this writing (early August 2011) Suprime-Cam, FOCAS, and the Cass auto-guider for MOIRCS and COMICS are not available. MOIRCS and COMICS are available for imaging with open-loop telescope tracking. While we hope all instrument capability will be restored for 2012A, we caution observers this may not be the case. We will keep the TACs informed so they may assign time accordingly. Subaru telescope may be unavailable for one to two months at the beginning of semester 2012A because of the commissioning of Hyper Suprime-Cam. Keck proposers for Subaru time should take this into account when preparing their proposals.
8 Sep 2011 update: As of today, we have word Subaru will also make laser observations available to the Keck community. Observers should specify Subaru-LGS in the special request section of their coversheet. Also from the Subaru Call for Proposals: "Due to the telescope cooling system incident, Suprime-Cam, FOCAS, and Cassegrain Auto Guider have been damaged, and are unavailable for observations at the moment. The damage assessment and the repair work of those instruments are still ongoing. FOCAS will be unavailable throughout S12A, while we expect we can restart open-use observations with Suprim-Cam and Cassegrain Auto Guider (for MOIRCS and COMICS) from the latter half of S12A semester (e.g., summer season of 2012) under a shared-risk mode."
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, on Keck II, non-AO (seeing limited) NIRSPEC. Non-AO (seeing limited) NIRSPEC is not available when NIRSPEC is in the AO configuration. OSIRIS will be available only in shared-risk mode on Keck I during June and July.
Combined Keck I and Keck II
Interferometer: Semester 2012A will be the last semester the Interferometer will be available. Up to seven nights will be available to the community for interferometer science. More nights will be considered at the Director's discretion. Depending upon science demand, these nights will be grouped in campaign mode into three or less periods. Please see the NExScI web site for important details concerning planning for interferometer observations and for sensitivity and efficiency information. Please note the Nulling and V2-KL modes cannot be mixed with the other modes in a given observing period.
The operational modes offered are:
Those proposing to use the interferometer should take special care to select the appropriate mode(s) for the instrument choice on the Keck Proposal Coversheet form.
Observers proposing for the shared risk modes are required to have a non-shared risk mode backup science program. These shared-risk modes will not be available for split-night science on the same night. The NExScI Keck Interferometer Reconfiguration Page details which modes may be used in the same night along with the reconfiguration time between modes. All science observations with the Keck Interferometer are taken in service observing mode and scheduled in campaign mode.
KOA (Keck Observatory Archive): Data from HIRES, NIRSPEC, and NIRC2 will continue to be archived in the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA). The default proprietary period for all data is 18 months. If observers desire a different proprietary period they may request this through the Keck coversheet. Please see the KOA homepage for information on the archive. Please also see the KOA proprietary period policy.
For detailed information about the instruments, please check the Instruments Home Page
(further observing information)This page last updated 8-Sep-11. bas
bschaefer@keck.hawaii.edu