The Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC)


POOPSY

Phase One Observing Proposal SYstem

Guidelines for CFHT

Applications

Requests for observing time on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope are made to the member agencies. There are two competitions per year - one for the first semester (February - July) and the other for the second semester (August - January). Proposals to the Canadian and French agencies must use the Phase One Observing Proposal System (POOPSY) operated by the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre.

The current proposal deadline for CFHT can be found here. Applications are first evaluated by the Time Allocation Committee for each agency and then the Joint Time Allocation Committee which meets in early May and in early November. Principal investigators are normally informed of the outcome of their application about 5 weeks before the start of the semester.

Scheduling Constraints

Proposers should be aware of minimum night rules which may affect the scheduling of instruments. Normally a CFHT instrument will not be scheduled for less than 8 consecutive nights. An instrument mode (for example placing the Fabry-Perot on MOS during a longer MOS run) requires a minimum of 4 consecutive nights. The minimum number of consecutive nights for a visitor instrument to be scheduled is four.

Page Limits

Page limits apply to most sections of the proposal. Proposers are allowed one page for the scientific justification, one page for references, one page for the technical justification and one page containing not more than four figures. If the program requires 5 or more nights in a single semester from one agency then two additional pages of "Experimental Design" can be appended to the proposal. Any material which extends beyond these limits will not be forwarded to the Time Allocation Committees.

Large Programs

Large program proposals grouping a significant number of scientific objectives and requiring 5 or more nights in a single semester from a single agency can be split into individual proposals - or at least a significant number of them - and a master proposal for the primary scientific objective submitted. This master proposal must indicate the PIs and titles of the individual proposals which fall under the master proposal and the total number of nights requested. Each individual proposal is subject to the same page limits as regular proposals. If the combined program requires 5 or more nights in a single semester from one agency then two additional pages of "Experimental Design" can be appended to the master proposal.

For more info, please contact the CFHT Directors