Herschel Observing
Introduction and Overview
The Herschel Space Observatory (aka Herschel) is a space observatory facility available for the worldwide astronomical community. Herschel is designed to provide 3 years of routine science operations. The observing time available consists of Guaranteed Time (GT) and Open Time (OT), the fraction GT is 32%, the remainder is OT. The GT is owned by contributors to the Herschel mission, mainly the science payload consortia.
The OT will be awarded in a standard competitive proposal procedure in response to Announcements of Opportunity (AO) issued by the Herschel Science Cente (HSC). All observing time proposals will be reviewed and graded by the Herschel Observing Time Allocation Committee (HOTAC) and checked for technical feasibility by HSC staff.
Announcements of Opportunity
Currently there is no active 'Announcement of Opportunity' (AO). The initial AO for Herschel observing time was issued on 1 February 2007, and concerned 'Key Programme' (KP) proposals only. The KP time allocation process by coincidence resulted in exactly the same number of KP guaranteed time (GT) and open time (OT) programmes; in both cases 21 programmes have been awarded observing time. The contents of these programmes are briefly described under Key Programmes where also links (where available) to their own dedicated websites are provided.
The next AO for Herschel observations will take place in the early 2010 when inflight performance is in hand and has been captured in the AO documentation. The current approximate date for the release of the AO for OT proposals is the end of April 2010, with submission deadline 2 months later. This will preceded by the allocation of GT proposals. Exact dates will be provided no later than 3 months in advance.
Observing planning
For the planning of (potential) Herschel of observations use the various links provided under the heading 'Herschel Observing' on the left, here the most up-to-date manuals and tools are available. The reading of the various 'Observers' manuals' will provide a good picture of the current best understadning of the capabilities and of the science payload and the observatory. The HSpot observing planning tool and its 'Users' Guide' will enable actual observation construction to be performed.
The HSC will organise observation planning workshops in connection with the AO, providing information about the observatory and the observation planning tool HSpot. The material presented in the Herschel observation planning workshop held at ESAC on 20-21 September 2007 and the Herschel Open Time Key Program Workshop held in ESTEC, Noordwijk on 20-21 February 2007, can still be helpful but it must be remembered that this material represents that status at the time.
Reserved Observations
The approved Key Programmes contain approximately 11650 'Astronomy Observation Requests' (AORs). These constitute reserved observations which may not be duplicated, however, they also constitute potentially useful templates for other observations.
The reserved observations in any area of the sky can by easily found by using the 'Herschel Reserved Observations Search Tool' (HROST). The corresponding AORs can be downloaded into the observing planning tool HSpot from inside a HSpot session, where they can be updated for similar observations.
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