The call for proposals for NASA Keck time in observing semester 2024A (February 1 – July 31, 2024) is now open for professional research using the NASA allocation for telescope observing time at the W.M. Keck Observatory.
The opportunity to propose as a Principal Investigator (PI) for the NASA time on the Keck Telescopes is open to all U.S.-based astronomers, i.e. those with their principal affiliation at a U.S. institution.
Application Procedure
The NASA Keck TAC uses a Dual Anonymous Proposal Review (DAPR) process. Proposers prepare two documents: an anonymized Science Program and a non-anonymized Expertise and Access document.
Highlights for 2024A:
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NASA is soliciting large
Key Strategic Mission Support (KSMS)
proposals in 2024A.
Proposed projects may support past, present, and/or future missions. Required but non-binding Notices of Intent (NOIs) to submit a KSMS proposal must be submitted to NExScI by Wednesday, August 16, 2023 by 4 pm Pacific. The PI and Co-I names and proposal title should not change once the NOI is submitted since we will use this information to select an appropriate review panel. After the NOI submission deadline, co-Is may be added to the proposal only with approval of the NASA Selecting Official.
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This is an advance notice that the JWST Cycle 3 Call for Proposals will include the opportunity to propose for
joint programs requiring JWST and NASA Keck observations.
This does not affect this 2024A NASA Keck Call for Proposals. Click
here
for complete information.
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Mission Support Proposals:
Mission Support and Key Strategic Mission Support (KSMS) proposals no longer require letters of support from either the supported flight project or NASA HQ. However, if you want your proposal to be considered for Mission Support status, it must demonstrate that the proposed program meets one or more of the criteria in
Section IIb.
We have added a section in the
anonymized Science Program
template for this purpose.
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Change in Period of Exclusive Use for NASA Keck Data:
As of semester 2023A, the default period of exclusive use for NASA Keck data is reduced from 18 to 12 months. Requests for extensions to this 12-month period must be included in the appropriate section of the
Expertise and Access document
and meet one or more of the criteria in
Section V.
Extensions will be approved or denied by the NASA Keck selecting official.
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Semester Notes and Considerations for Keck/Subaru
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Read the
2024A Keck instrument page
for complete information some of which is highlighted below.
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Keck Planet Finder (KPF)
will be unavailable for 3 weeks in February for servicing. We anticipate quarter night requests for KPF observations throughout the semester and
encourage all other Keck I PIs to consider proposing for 0.75 time allocations if feasible for their target visibility.
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NIRSPEC
will be unavailable from February 1 - March 9 for servicing.
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Keck II AO
(NIRC2, NIRSPAO):
will be unavailable for 3 weeks in late February – mid March.
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DEIMOS:
Please see
https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/deimos/detector_issues.html
for the latest DEIMOS detector performance status.
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NIRC2:
The
vortex coronagraph
in LGS mode is not available.
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SUBARU exchange:
The SUBARU-KECK exchange will continue as in previous semesters with the number of exchanged nights to be determined based on the demand from each community.
Subaru may support half night allocations, but whole night allocations are preferred. Queue observing is the default observing mode for HSC, applicants who desire classical mode must justify their request.
Check the
HSC queue mode website
for more details.
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Notes regarding Subaru facility and
instrument availability in 24A:
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From 2024A, Subaru will charge 30% of weather factor for the allocation of HSC queue mode programs, to increase the average completion rate of the programs.
This means that 1 night is defined as 7 hours (including overhead) in the case of HSC queue mode.
Accordingly, the requested time in HSC queue mode should not exceed 3.5 nights. HSC programs requesting classical allocation do not need to consider this weather factor.
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There may be 14-27 nights of downtime due to the inspection of the hydraulic system of the telescope and dome drive system renewal (most likely in June-July).
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As usual, proposals requesting PI-type instruments/devices must include the relevant instrument PIs in the proposal. CHARIS, FastPDI, VAMPIRES, and MEC can be used together at the same time as the modules of SCExAO.
Useful Links
(last updated August 11th, 2023 14:23:31)
