Proposal Preparation (Phase I)

Terzan 5 is one of the richest of the 150 globular clusters in our Galaxy and contains more than 30 pulsars detected by radio telescopes. (Credit ESO, S. Ortolani)

Proposal Procedures for NRAO Telescopes

Phase I of the observing process involves preparing an instrumental specification and science justification for the research you wish to carry out.

Proposals for VLA and GBT observing time must be submitted using the NRAO Proposal Submission Tool (PST), available from NRAO Interactive Services at http://my.nrao.edu. Proposals for the VLBA/HSA may now be submitted with the PST and observers are encouraged to use this method; although the LaTeX Template may still be used at this time.

Proposals for Global VLBI must be submitted using the LaTeX Template. Proposals involving only the EVN should be submitted through NorthStar.

A NEW VERSION of the NRAO Proposal Submission Tool (PST) was released on 12:00 EDT Friday May 16, 2008. The modifications include the ability to submit VLBA/HSA proposals. More details are available in the PST Release Notes, June 2008

Telescopes

In addition to the VLA, VLBA and GBT, the following options for observing involving NRAO telescopes and instrumentation are available:

• The High Sensitivity Array (HSA): By adding the GBT, phased VLA, Arecibo, and Effelsberg to a VLBA experiment the sensitivity can be increased by an order of magnitude. This capability opens up promising new avenues for scientific discovery (e.g., studies of low-power AGN, extragalactic masers, gravitational lenses). The aim of the High Sensitivity Array initiative is to facilitate the planning, scheduling, and calibration of observations making use of this array.
• The European VLBI Network (EVN): The EVN is a collaboration of major radio astronomical institutes in Europe, Asia and South Africa, used to provide observations with high angular resolution. VLBA correlators are sometimes used in conjunction with EVN observations.
• GLAST Collaborative Observing: Through an agreement with the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission, scheduled for launch in mid-2008, up to 10% of the total observing time o n NRAO telescopes may be allocated for collaborative observing with GLAST. GLAST is presently scheduled for launch in 2008 May, and its peer review for Cycle 1 proposals was held in 2007 December. There is little or no impact on our telescope time allocation for 2008-T1, but we expect some time allocations via the GLAST process in 2008-T3 and possibly 2008-T2. More information will be made available in our future news for proposers.
• Lunar Crater and Observation Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Mission: This opportunity was described in the October 2007 NRAO Newsletter (p. 29-30). NRAO will accept proposals related to the LCROSS mission for peer review at the 2 June 2008 deadline. More details are available at http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov