FAQs: Planning Observations

There is also a step- by-step proposal submission guide.

Q:   Where do I start if I want to submit a Spitzer research proposal?

A:   Spitzer research proposals are, in general, submitted in response to a Call for Proposals issued by the SSC. The Spitzer science schedule indicates when future solicitations can be anticipated. The online Proposal Kit is a one-stop shopping mall for all of the documentation and tools needed to submit a Spitzer proposal.

At minimum, there are five documents needed to plan, prepare and submit a Spitzer observing proposal:

• Spitzer Observer's Manual (SOM)
• Current Call for Proposals (Previous Calls are still online too.)
• Spitzer Observing Rules
• Spot User's Guide
• Leopard User's Guide
• Spitzer Reserved Observations Catalog (ROC)

Also see the Performance Estimation Tool (the PET has sensitivities; there are other tools too), the Proposal Submission Guide, the Observation Planning Cookbook (includes specific examples with AORs!), and even more stuff listed in the proposal kit...

Q:   What tools does Spitzer provide to plan a proposal?

A:   The main tool you will need to plan your observation is: Spot. Spot is packaged with Leopard; together, this is Spitzer Pride. Spot is used for planning observations and submit your proposal. Leopard, the Spitzer archive tool is used to download your data. You can search the database of approved observations to see if your desired observations are already planned or done using either Spot or Leopard, but Leopard provides more flexibility in this search.

Other tools that might be of interest include The Performance Estimation Tool (PET) to check sensitivities for each Spitzer instrument. There is a plethora of other nifty tools to help you along the way.

Q:   How do I find out if my favorite target has already been observed?

A:   You should use Leopard to determine this. Leopard is available for download as part of Spitzer Pride, and there is also a User's Guide. Once you have Leopard running, click on the "Q" button, or select "Query Spitzer Archive" from the File menu. There you can enter the name of the target and any additional info, resolve the coordinates of the target using NED or SIMBAD, and click "OK". A list of AORs queried from the archive will then be loaded into the Leopard window, and you will be able to see the status of the observation, the date the data was released into the archive, and the date the observation was scheduled. You will be able to download the data if it is not proprietary. Note that the AOR Status field value of "available" means "available for scheduling," not "the data are available." If the data have been observed and released into the archive, the status is "nominal." If the data are publicly accessible, then Leopard will show you the wavelengths of data that are available for download.

Q:   How do I find out all of the, e.g., planetary nebulae that have been observed?

A:   Sorry, but there is no elegant way to search our archive just by object type. (I suspect that such a search would not be terribly practical in the following sense: any such search will turn up hits in pretty much all of the large surveys, at the very least GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL.)

There are a few different ways you can search for objects such as PNe in our archive.

You can construct your own list of PNe. Unless you trust SIMBAD (or NED) to resolve the coordinates from the names, you should tabulate the RA and Dec. When Leopard services come back up, then you can search by position for a whole list of objects at once.

Another thing to do is have a look at the list of titles and abstracts for all accepted programs. At the top of this page, there are links to abstracts (collected by program type) and titles (listed alphabetically by PI). By scanning the titles, you can find that the two GTO programs pid 77 and 68 look promising for PNe. Since Google indexes our whole site, you can search for keywords that way (click on 'search' from any page on our site). It will of course search our whole site, not just the abstracts. Searching on "planetary nebula" yields no hits, but "stellar ejecta" returns 24 pages, at least 4 of which are abstracts. You can download all of the AORs for each of these programs (Spot/File menu/"View program") and see exactly what these observers have planned. If the data are already public, Leopard will let you download the data too.

Q:   Will Spot tell me if I try to plan an observation for a target that is too bright or already in the ROC?

A:   Spot has an option to tell you if you are looking at or near a target that is too bright or already in the ROC. But this DOES NOT HAPPEN AUTOMATICALLY; you must choose to overlay 'bright objects' from the overlay menu, or the 'search programs' from the file menu. It is a potential observer's responsibility to check the ROC, to check for bright targets in a field of view (whether or not it is the science target), and to evaluate the background flux levels in the region of interest. Possibly useful web resources for these tasks also include the saturation limits as discussed in the instrument pages (IRAC, IRS, MIPS) and the page on infrared backgrounds from the Infrared Compendium (and references therein).

Q:   Will Spot tell me if I can detect a given target?

A:   No, it is the potential observer's responsibility to make estimates of the source flux at the wavelengths of interest and to use the sensitivity and saturation information provided on the SSC web pages to determine if the target will be detected and its significance. Possibly useful web resources for this task include the sensitivity and saturation information linked off of each of the instrument pages (IRAC, IRS, MIPS) and the online javascript Performance Estimation Tool (PET).

Q:   How stable is the ROC? Are there still changes ongoing?

A:   Major modifications to existing programs can be made according to the blackout schedule listed online. For more information, including the definition of "major" and "minor" modifications, please see Spitzer Observing Rule #4.

The Spitzer Reserved Observations Catalog (ROC) is technically no longer a static ASCII list. It is the set of all executed or planned observations in our database. The ROC should be searched via Leopard. In general the SSC will not allow a duplication of observations listed in the ROC. Refer to the Spitzer Observing Rule #2 for details on what constitutes a candidate for duplication of observations.

Q:   What if I've never done anything in infrared before?

A:   Fear not! You are not alone. You might start with the Infrared Compendium, a resource we developed for people just like you -- professional astronomers new to the infrared. Experienced infrared astronomers might also get something out of it.

Q:   Where do I go if I have questions?

A:   Questions should be submitted to the Spitzer HelpDesk at help@spitzer.caltech.edu. Your question will be forwarded to the proper SSC Office and an answer will generally be forthcoming within two days. Questions judged by the SSC to be of wide interest may become a future FAQ!

Q:   How do I determine how long it will take to execute an observation?

A:   The downloadable Spot software is an essential ingredient in planning any observation with Spitzer. It calculates execution times, creates Astronomical Observing Requests (AORs), and offers access to various sky visibility and astronomical planning tools. The SSC supports Unix, Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of Spot, any of which can be downloaded from the online Proposal Kit section of our Web site. Readers are urged to consult the Spot User's Guide and the list of documented bugs.

Q:   Can Spitzer observe targets within the Solar System?

A:   Yes. The Observatory is capable of tracking Solar System targets up to a rate of 1 arcsec per second. A special section within the online Proposal Kit is devoted to planning Solar System observations.

Q:   My moving target is in the database, so why can't I resolve the NAIF ID?

A:   For new moving targets that are not in the name resolving file for Spot (ephemeris_pairs.prop), Spot complains that the target has no name associated with it. However, you can still get visibility windows and AIRE estimates. You just have to click ok on those annoying Spot warning windows when they pop up saying there is no name associated with the target.

Q:   Can I propose for a target that is already in the ROC?

A:   Yes and no. Just because a target is in the ROC with IRAC doesn't mean you can't propose for MIPS. You can't propose to observe exactly the same target with exactly the same mode (same total integration time), UNLESS the target itself is likely to have changed between observations (which can indeed be the case for variable objects). For all the details of exactly what constitutes a duplicate observation, please see Spitzer Observing Rule #2.

Q:   My target is just off of an existing map in the ROC, and it may or may not be covered, depending on when the existing map is scheduled (e.g. depending on the map's rotation angle). What do I do?

A:   If you really want to observe this target, you should say exactly this in your proposal, that your proposed observation may or may not be a duplication, depending on exactly when the other observation is scheduled. We will inform the science panels and TAC of 'possible duplications.'

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