Most proposals submitted for the 30 m telescope underestimate the observing time needed to carry out the programme, even during excellent weather. Observing time estimates must take into account:
where
and
are the telescope forward and main
beam efficiencies,
is the system temperature above the atmosphere (in the antenna
temperature scale), B the
channel bandwidth, and t the total (ON + OFF) integration time.
should be estimated for an `average' winter humidity for
3mm, 2mm and 1.3mm observations (3mm of precipitable water, or
at 230 GHz), and for dry weather conditions
for the 0.8mm observations which will be scheduled in January (1.5mm
of precipitable water, of
at 350 GHz).
For additional help on this matter, please, contact IRAM Granada or IRAM Grenoble (Mrs. C. Berjaud). Several examples of observing time request estimates are at your disposal.