14. Target of Opportunity (ToO) Observations

Targets of Opportunity (ToO) are transient phenomena whose exact timing and/or location on the sky are uncertain at the time of the proposal submission. They include objects that can be generically identified before the onset of such phenomena (e.g., recurrent novae, variable stars) and objects that cannot a priori be specifically identified (e.g., newly discovered comets, novae, supernovae, gamma-ray bursts). Requests for observations of these objects should be submitted through the normal General Observer proposal process. For this next Cookbook chapter, we design AORs for ToO observations. The AORs for this program can be downloaded as part of this cookbook. Because imaging with MIPS and IRAC have been covered thoroughly in earlier chapters (see §4, §5, §9 and §10), we will not spend any time on those aspects of these observations here; this chapter is meant primarily to give an example of planning ToO observations, using Spot to tell Spitzer how you want the observations carried out, and keeping track of observing overheads associated with ToO observations.