Community information
Observing opportunities
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
The initial Announcements of Opportunity (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 planning date for the release of the AO for OT proposals is
20 May 2010, with submission deadline 2 months later on 22 July 2010.
This will be preceded by the allocation of time for GT proposals. The dates
will be confirmed 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.
Herschel Science Team
The Herschel Science Team was formed in 1998, its membership comprises people from the instrument consortia, a number of Mission Scientists representing the astronomical community `at large', the Optical System Scientist, the Mission Manager and Project Scientist from ESA. The Herschel Science Team has as its overall objective to safeguard the scientific interests of the Herschel mission by providing advice to the Project Scientist.
Herschel Users' Group
A Herschel Users' Group (HerschelUG) is currently being set up. It will
be a new independent advisory group directly representing the Herschel
user community. It is foreseen that this group will provide a forum for
(potential) general users of Herschel to provide input to the operations
of the observatory as an astronomical facility on various matters
affecting its scientific productivity and user friendliness. The
HerschelUG directly interfaces with the Herschel Project Scientist as
described in its Terms of Reference.
|
