1. Introduction

Welcome to observing with the Spitzer Space Telescope! The purpose of this ``Observer's Cookbook'' is to provide complete, detailed, worked examples of how to set up observations for the Spitzer Space Telescope. As such, it is written as a ``How-To'' manual, based around the following concrete examples of typical observations one can do with Spitzer:

Small area, deep imaging:

See §4 for imaging from $3.6 - 8.0 \; \mu {\rm m}$ with IRAC, and §5 for coordinated $24 -160 \; \mu {\rm m}$ MIPS imaging (covering the same area, and the same position angle, with both instruments).

Wide-field, shallow imaging:

See §9 for $24 -160 \; \mu {\rm m}$ imaging, and §10 for coordinated imaging from $3.6 - 8.0 \; \mu {\rm m}$.

Staring mode spectroscopy:

See §6.

Spectral mapping:

See §7.

Moving object photometry:

See §11.

Peak-up Imaging:

See §8.

Spectral Energy Distribution:

See §12.

Time series observations:

See §13.

Target of opportunity observations:

See §14.

The structure of this manual is based around the worked examples listed above. Each detailed example is presented in a separate chapter. Each example observation is preceded by a short summary of how to design the program, both to provide a road map for observers to find the information they require later in the chapter, and to provide a unified, comprehensive overview of the program for observers who do not require the detail that follows. The overview is followed by an in-depth discussion about all aspects of the observation design process, as well as abundant screen captures of the observation planning software entry windows, hints, and detailed instructions.

Many of the details presented in each chapter are common to all of the observation programs developed here. Nevertheless, we have opted to repeat much of the information in each chapter (e.g., the target entry process within the Spot), so that each example can serve as a stand-alone document, with complete information on the observation design process.

Designing observations with Spitzer is easy! There is a custom-built software tool for designing Spitzer Space Telescope observations (``Spot''; see §2.3 and §2.4 for an overview). Spot is versatile, easy-to-use, and includes a host of convenient features, including the ability to resolve object names, calculate target availability (visibility windows), and visualize observations as an overlay on a user-specified image (which you can provide, or grab from the Digitized Sky Survey, 2MASS, etc).

We also include within this Cookbook some background information which might prove useful to Spitzer observers in general:

Overview of preparing Spitzer Space Telescope observations:

See §2.

Common Observation Planning Errors: See §3.

Best practices - A step-by-step guide to submitting your proposal:

See §15.

Observation Planning FAQs:

See §16.

Unit Conversion:

See Appendix A.

A few caveats:

1. What this Cookbook is NOT: a one-stop source of technical information about the Observatory, or its instruments. Several other good resources exist as definitive references (for example, the Spitzer Observer's Manual, and observatory web pages; see:
   http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/

   to get started). However, we have attempted to include some technical information with each worked example, where we felt it was particularly useful to develop the logic of the observations.

2. Updates to technical information: at the time of writing of this edition of this Cookbook, we are approximately three years into flight with the mission. For the most accurate and up-to-date information re: instrument sensitivity, performance, behavior etc we encourage observers to check the Spitzer website, particularly the instrument web pages. And feel free to contact the Spitzer Helpdesk (mailto:help@spitzer.caltech.edu) if you have any questions!

3. Spot version: Please do ensure you are running the latest version of Spot! (v15.0 available mid-November 2006) See §2.3 for information on obtaining Spot. You may notice slight differences between what appears on your screen and the screen-grabs that appear in this cookbook, since some of the screen-grabs were generated using an earlier version of Spot. You may also notice slight differences in Spot's estimation of the duration of the observations or in the instrument sensitivities from the values quoted in this document.

4. Notice anything weird?: Although we've done our best to make sure that this document is 100% correct at time of publication, undoubtedly there are small errors. If you notice anything, please let us know at the helpdesk (mailto:help@spitzer.caltech.edu) and we'll correct it in a future edition.

If you prefer to view this document in its entirety, we have prepared a monolithic postscript file, and a PDF version; the output might not look great on your computer screen, but it prints just fine. These are available from the SSC Observer Support webpage:

http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/ost/

So, without further ado, let's get to it! In the next chapter (§2) we provide some background information needed before we begin designing observations for the Spitzer Space Telescope.