Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2004 11:47:22 -0800 (PST)
Subject: SIRTF: One week until the Spitzer proposal deadline


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Dear Spitzer Fans -

Well, it's one week to go!

We wanted to note one critical SPOT bug affecting dollar amounts submitted
as part of archival proposals.  Here is the excerpt from the SPOT bugs
list:

        If you create an archive proposal and save the cover sheet
        you will see the requested dollars in the keyword

        Proposal.requestedDollars= 12,345.00

        When Spot reads the file back in, if the amount is greater
        than $999, it will display 0.0 in the requested dollars field.
        We have an I/O problem with the comma in the dollar amount.

        Impact: Moderate

        Workaround:  There are two ways to work-around this problem.
        1. Edit your proposal.cs file to remove the comma from
        the dollar amount. For the above example, Spot will properly
        read in

        Proposal.requestedDollars= 12345.00.

        2.  If you don't edit your .cs file then just enter the dollar
        amount prior to submitting the proposal.


There was also a recent typo fix in the Spec-PET -- the typo was in LH
PSSL, 240s ramp duration, at 34 microns. Because we interpolate, this
affected sensitivity estimates for LH PSSL, 240s, between 31 and 36.9
microns.


There have also been many, many questions to the helpdesk about details of
the proposal format, from what goes into the PDF file to the sizes of the
margins, to extremely long target tables.  We're updating the FAQ area all
the time; see specifically this page:
http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/faq/go1.html
for details on these and other specifics of the proposal.


And, finally, one last tip: Because you can update your proposal during
the Call (see
http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/documents/propsubmission.html), and because
this process of getting your basic information into the database can take
several minutes during periods of extremely heavy load, it will make
things easier if you submit a preliminary proposal and get into the
database early on.  Submit your proposal early and often!

cheers,
Spitzer Observer Support