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College of Arts & Sciences
Division of Natural & Mathematical Sciences

LBT OSURC Member Observing

Project Registration Form

LBC OSURC members use this form to register new LBT observing projects preparatory to creating and uploading observing files.

Overview

Project submission requires two steps:
  1. Fill out this Project Registration Form to register your project. This form creates a project ID code for your program and creates a blank instructions ("readme") file template to fill in.

  2. Create your observing files, fill out the readme file template with your observing instructions, and then pack everything into a single gzipped tar file and submit it to the observing queue using the Observing File Submission Form.
This form is the first step in the observing program sumbission process. All programs, new and old, are required to fill out this form, including PEPSI. Users of PI instruments that allow operation during OSURC blocks with prior arrangement (e.g., SHARK-Vis and eventually SHARK-NIR and iLocater) will also use this form to upload README files and target information for the queue.

Instructions

Please read the following before using the form below.

We now require that all programs specify the lunar brigthness conditions required (dark, gray, or bright time) to help with observing planning.

We are asking that all observing progams provide the following information:

  1. PI Information: Your name, member institution, and email address

  2. Project Information:
    Title is a brief descriptive title for your program, 40 characters max. (e.g., Near-IR Spectra of SDSS QSOs)

    Name is a short, unique, single-word name for your program, 12 Characters MAX. Examples: monitor, lbqso, etc., with NO spaces, dashes or underscores. Please keep it short, simple, and easy for observers to type. If the program name is your name, use only your last name for brevity.

    NOTE:
    Your member institution code will be automatically prepended to create the "Project ID" code for your observing program. For example, if your member institution is "Virginia" and your project name is "asteroids", the form will create the Project ID "UVa_asteroids" for your program. If doing mixed-mode observing (e.g., LUCI imaging and spectroscopy), these must be submitted as two separate programs.

    IMPORTANT:
    This Project ID code must also be used as the value for the PROPID keyword in your LBC OBs or the PROP_ID keyword in your LUCI and MODS scripts.

  3. Instrument is the instrument configuration to be used. Mixed instrument programs (e.g., LUCI and MODS components) require separate program IDs and submissions at the present time. PEPSI only has a single configuration option for this form.

  4. Contact Information (name, email, phone, and times contacts are available). A project contact agrees to be available at the email or phone number specified at the specified times, and they may be contacted by the observers if problems arise with the project. Please specify if the phone number is home (H), cell (C), or office (O). Fill in these fields completely even if the Contact and PI are the same. If your phone number is outside the United States, please include the correct country code (e.g., +49 for Germany, +39 for Italy, etc.)

  5. Observing Conditions Required:
    Moon Brightness is the lunar illumination desired. We define Dark, Gray, and Bright time using the Fractional Lunar Illumination (FLI), following the formula adopted by ESO:
    Dark Time: FLI<0.4
    Gray Time: 0.4<FLI<0.7
    Bright Time: FLI>0.7

    Desired Seeing is the worst (largest) seeing your project can tolerate.

    Photometric? asks if your program requires photometric conditions.

    Minimum Object-Moon Angle is an optional way to explicitly define a minimum angle between your targets and the moon. If omitted, a default moon angle limit is applied based on the wavelength regions of your observations as follows:
    UV (U & B bands): 180°
    Visible (V Band): 90°
    Red (RIY Bands): 45°
    Infrared (JHK Bands): 5°

    You can compute estimates of the fractional lunar illumination (FLI) and object-moon angle at midnight for your targets using the Target Visibility Calculator.

On hitting the "Submit" button, you will be given a link to a template readme file to be filled in with the program details and submitted along with your project files using the Observing File Submission Form.

The Project ID code for your program will appear on this form, and on the page with the link to your blank readme file. This Project ID code must be used as the value of the PROPID (for LBC and MODS) or PROP_ID (for LUCI) keyword in all observing scripts generated with the OT or other tools (like modsTools). It must NOT be used in any part of the names of your observing script files (e.g., you must use short names like "ngc1234.obs", not "OSU_MyProject_ngc1234.obs").

Observing Project Registration Form

PI Information:
Name:
Institution:
Email:

Project Information:
Title:
Name:  (12 characters MAX)
The project name will be automatically prefixed with your member institution ID (UM_, OSU_, etc.). You want to enter something short and descriptive (e.g. "Monitor") and then we attach your institution for bookeeping (i.e. "OSU_Monitor").

Instrument Configuration:

Contact information:
Name:
Email:
Phone: [Please include your country code if outside the US]
Times Available:

Observing Conditions Required:
Moon Brightness: 
Desired Seeing: 
Photometric? 
Minimum Object-Moon Angle:  ° [Optional]

   

Updated: 2025 March 2 [rwp/osu]