FAQs: GO 3

Please see the Cycle 3 Call for Proposals for more information regarding Cycle-3.

***General Cycle Information

Q:   When will the Cycle-3 Call for Proposals be issued?

A:   The Cycle-3 CP will be issued on November 1, 2005, along with a slew of other updated documentation. Proposals are due February 16, 2006. For future dates for these sorts of events, consult the science schedule.

Q:   How much time do I have left to submit a proposal?

A:   See this page.

Q:   How do I tell what objects have already been observed, with what instrument, and to what sensitivity?

A:   At any time, you can use Leopard to search by position for your favorite objects, and/or you can use Spot to download entire programs. (All the GO abstracts are online, if you wish to search by topic or PI.) You might also be interested in exactly what constitutes a duplicate observation, because the observation you are planning may not actually duplicate an existing observation.

There are also other tools to check and see if your target has already been observed -- there is a plain text ROC, and new for Fall 2005, from within Spot, you can choose "Search programs" under the "file" menu to search for other AORs near your target.

Q:   I'm not a U.S. citizen, and I work in a different country. I don't normally have access to telescopes like Gemini. Can I still apply for a joint proposal using these other telescopes?

A:   There are no restrictions on who can apply for the time at the other observatories. You still can't get funding, however, unless you work at a US institution.

Q:   Can I apply for a joint proposal using 2 or more other observatories in addition to Spitzer?

A:   Yes, submit a single proposal and put as many observatories (up to four, HST, CXO, NOAO and/or NRAO) as you need into the appropriate window in Spot.

***Formatting Questions

Q:   What is the preferred format for Spitzer Proposals?

A:   You MUST use the Proposal Templates, and you can choose from LaTeX and Word format.

Q:   How do I make a PDF file on [my platform]?

A:   Please see the document entitled "How to make PDF files" for instructions on how to generate a PDF file from several platforms, with or without the Adobe products.

Q:   Do I have to prepend the coversheet info to my proposal PDF file before I submit my 'scientific justification' PDF file?

A:   No, proposers should NOT prepend the coversheet information to their scientific justification file that they submit to the SSC. This feature is for users who may want to create an electronic copy of a 'complete Spitzer proposal' for their own use. The SSC will generate a coversheet from the latest, final coversheet information you submit with your proposal and prepend it to your final scientific justification PDF file for our use.

Q:   Do I have to append the AORs themselves into my proposal PDF file before I submit my 'scientific justification' PDF file?

A:   No, ALL of the AORs in your Spot AOR window are sent along with your proposal by the Spot proposal tool. Be sure that all of the AORs in your window are ones you want as part of your proposal (no test AORs, etc).

Q:   What is the maximum size for the PDF part of the proposal?

A:   The maximum size is 10 MB. To get your file size down, be sure that your figures are all black-and-white, and that the resolution is no more than 300 dpi.

Q:   What is the mailing address for the hard copies of the institutionally endorsed cost plan?

A:   Please see the CP, section 10 for our address.

Q:   So do I really, really, really HAVE to use the proposal templates??

A:   If we can't tell that you're using a different template, as long as you've got the same margins, fonts, and headings, you can use what you want. No fair using different fonts, margins, two columns, embedded figures, all of that stuff. Make it look just like you had used the template, and we won't notice.

Q:   Can I propose for observing time and archival research at the same time, with the same proposal?

A:   If you want money for working on archival data, that must be submitted as an archive (AR) proposal. If you want telescope time for new observations, that must be submitted as an observing (GO) proposal. So alas, you will need to submit 2 proposals, one focussing on the new observations, the second focussing on the archival data.

Q:   Are archival proposals funded for one year? If not, how long is the possible funding period?

A:   AR/TR proposals can apply for one year's worth of funds. They have two years to spend it from the date of the contract issuance.

For comparison (and clarity), GOs get 3 years from the start of the Cycle to spend their money, regardless of when the funds are provided and when their data is taken.

Q:   I'm having trouble getting Latex to handle my figures properly. Can you help?

A:   Here are some things to try..

Put a \clearpage before the tables and figures section, and right after it.

If you're trying to put a second figure on the same page, then yes, it can be finicky about how many figures it will let you put on the same page. You may very well have to reduce them until latex is happy with their sizes. But, you can fake it out. Latex only knows about the bounding box on the ps file. I personally have had some problems when the plotting program that produces the ps creates excessive margins around the relevant bit -- e.g., the ps bounding box is 10cm wide, but the plot only takes up 6 or 8 of those 10 cm. So latex is trying to make space for the excess white space, which then looks funny on the compiled product. I've had some luck using a program like gimp to crop down the ps into a new version of the ps with less margin. Another solution I've used is to use gimp (or similar program) to put two figures next to each other and saving them as one file -- latex then just sees one figure, but your caption can now refer to "left" and "right" or "a" and "b" and have two figures occupy the vertical space previously occupied by just one.

Q:   How do I merge PDF files, like my coversheet to the rest of the file, or my cost plan to my science justification?

A:   If you have the full version of Acrobat, then under the "documents" menu, you can choose "insert pages" in order to merge the budget PDF file and the PDF from the main proposal template file into one big pdf file.

If you don't have the full version of Acrobat, then if you google "merging pdf files", you get more than 5 million hits, the first several of which look (a) free, and (b) like they might work on any unix platform.

Q:   I am a grad student (or postdoc) at an institution that won't let me handle the money. Can I be the "Scientific PI" of the proposal, and have my advisor be the "Administrative PI"?

A:   We do accept proposals from graduate students as the PI. If your institution requires a faculty member to be the administrative PI and handle all the funding, we support that. The grad student (or postdoc) can be the PI and in the 'financial contact' section you should list who the administrative PI should be.

Q:   Is it OK if each institution sends in their signed budget directly to SSC/JPL, or must my co-I institutions send their budgets to me so that I can send everything together in one package?

A:   Yes, each institution can send their endorsed cost plans directly to the SSC. Just be sure to clearly mark proposal to which it refers!