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Conditions for the next winter session

Based on our experience in carrying out configuration changes in winter conditions with limited access to the observatory, we plan to schedule four configuration changes next winter. We therefore ask investigators to submit proposals for any of the 4 primary configurations of the six antenna array.

A preliminary configuration schedule for the winter period is outlined below. Adjustments to the provisional configuration planning will be made according to proposal pressure, weather conditions, installation of the 2mm receiver band and other contingencies. Due to the installation of the new generation receivers last fall, the C configuration was not available in December, and this spring not all of the projects requesting the C configuration could be worked off. These projects are now postponed for the C configuration to be scheduled at the end of the summer semester and at the beginning of the upcoming winter. We therefore may again have less time available in C configuration this winter than in regular previous years. The configuration schedule given below should be taken as a guideline, in particular when the requested astronomical targets cannot be observed during the entire winter period (sun avoidance circle of radius 45$^\circ$.).

Conf Scheduling Priority Winter 2007/2008
C December
A December - January
B February - March
C March - April
D April - May


We strongly encourage observers to submit proposals for the new set of AB configurations that include 730 and 760 meter baselines. For these proposals we ask to focus on bright compact sources, possibly at high declination.

We invite proposers to submit proposals also for observations at 3mm. When the atmospheric conditions are not good enough at 1.3mm, 3mm projects will be observed: in a typical winter, 20-30% of the time used for observations is found to be poor at 1.3mm, but still excellent at 3mm.

Proposals requesting the 2mm band should be submitted on a shared-risk basis only.

All applications under this call for proposals will have to take into account that the new receivers cannot be operated simultaneously at more than one frequency band. Investigators will therefore have to make it clear whether a request is made for one (e.g., 3mm) or more (e.g., 3mm and 1mm) frequency bands.


next up previous
Next: Proposal category Up: Call for Observing Proposals Previous: Call for Observing Proposals
Jan Martin Winters 2007-07-12