The Spitzer Reserved Observations Catalog V13.0
Issued: 02 April 2012

Leopard is the best, easiest way to search the ROC for targets.

What is the ROC?
Search the ROC
Download the ROC
Pictures of and stats on the ROC
How and when to use the ROC
Notes on the ROC
Information regarding IERs in the ROC

The Spitzer Reserved Observations Catalog (ROC) is defined to be the set of of detailed approved observations for Spitzer for all program types.

In general the Spitzer Science Center will not allow a duplication of observations listed in the ROC. Refer to Spitzer Observing Rule #2 for details on what constitutes a candidate for duplication of observations.

The ROC is dynamic, representing the set of planned and executed observations at any time. Leopard is better to use for ROC searches because it accesses the real-time database of planned and executed Spitzer observations.

Search for targets in the ROC using Leopard .

Leopard is available for download as part of Spitzer Pride. Once you have Leopard running, select "By Position" from the "Query" menu or type Ctrl+U. 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. 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.".

Each pointed observation is itemized on one line. These are plain text files with pipe-delimited fields (useful for loading into Excel if desired).

Note: These files represent a snapshot of the database and do not contain any observations added or modified in the database after the files were created.

Only IRAC Ch. 1 and 2 Observations:
Warm Fixed Targets
Warm Moving Targets

All Instruments at All Wavelengths:
Fixed Targets
Moving Targets

There is still a list of the full program titles and principal investigators (Plain Text, 324 KB).

Graphical representations of the ROC
From the 02 April 2012 ROC:

Red=MIPS, green=IRS, blue=IRAC
Click for a larger version

Statistics on the ROC
Statistics on the database as of April 2012 (includes all science observations):

Note: The GTO and Legacy categories include GTO and legacy programs from all cycles.
* Note: The GO6 category includes all Cycle 6 two-year Exploration Science Programs.

How to use the Spitzer Reserved Observations Catalog (ROC)

Remember, the ROC is a dynamic list, consisting of the set of planned and executed Spitzer observations.

Both Spot and Leopard can search the ROC. Leopard provides more flexibility and is the preferred tool, but Spot is what you use for observation planning, so quick checks for a given target/mode can be done easily via Spot.

Example 1: Has someone already planned an observation of X?
Search for targets in the ROC using Leopard.

Leopard is available for download as part of Spitzer Pride. Once you have Leopard running, select "By Position" from the "Query" menu or type Ctrl+U. 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. 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."

The list of the full program titles and principal investigators (Plain Text, 324 KB) can be useful if you want to search by topic or PI; the abstracts are also avalible in ADS. Leopard can also bring up a list of PIs.

Example 2: Downloading programs into Spot, part 1: how to do it
You can view all of the approved programs via Spot or Leopard, but to view all of the contents of a specific program, you need to know the program name or number. These are both provided via a Leopard or Spot search. To load a program in Spot, choose "View Program" from the File menu and enter the corresponding name or number. Or, in Leopard, search by program and enter the program number.

If you want to find all of the Legacy AORs, see the Legacy Programs page to get the P.I. For the Exploration Science AORS, see the Exploration Science Programs page. All of the First Look Survey AORs are listed under P.I. Soifer (because the FLS is Director's Discretionary Time).

Example 3: Downloading programs into Spot, part 2: why you would want to do it
The "download program" feature is incredibly useful for two primary reasons. (1) When learning how to use Spitzer, it is useful to see what options other investigators chose. Using the online abstracts, you might find a program similar to your planned observations, and you can then see if their AOT options will work for your purposes. (2) Some of the maps can be quite big, and the date on which it was observed (or the range of dates in which it might be observed) can be important. To see if your target is already observed, Leopard (or Spot) will return a range of possible hits; Leopard can also easily visualize the AORs for the specific date and time on which it was observed (if it has been observed). You should load and examine programs (using either Spot or Leopard) for nearby targets and see if the existing map covers the region you want.

When to use the ROC

The ROC should be used to determine if any observations you are planning to do with Spitzer are in conflict with those already reserved by any of our approved programs. In general the SSC will not allow a duplication of observations listed in the ROC. Refer to Spitzer Observing Rule #2 for details on what constitutes a candidate for duplication of observations.

In general, the specified position of an observation in the plain text ROC will be at the center of any requested map. Observers should take map center offsets into consideration when searching for possible duplications. The mapped area columns in the ROC indicate the approximate area on the sky and do not imply that depth coverage is the same throughout the map.

Observations tagged as GENERIC can 'move' up to 2 degrees. See the Warm Spitzer Observers Manual for more information about Generic targets.

A note about Guaranteed Time Observations and the title Principal Investigator (PI): All Spitzer Programs must have a Principal Investigator. Many of the Spitzer GTOs are collaborating on various observing programs, contributing some of their time allocation to form Shared Time Programs. There are over two dozen of these Shared Time Programs within the ROC. In the case of a Shared Time Program the PI need not be a GTO and in a few cases a non-GTO was chosen to be PI of the Program.

There are duplications within the ROC. In some cases these are due to requested return visits to targets for temporal studies. In other cases the investigators split up observations into multiple AORs to work around the maximum time duration per AOR restrictions. Also, a few Shared Time Programs return to some targets to increase integration times or for temporal studies. These are not considered conflicting duplications since one of the contributing GTOs in the Shared Time Program is PI of the apparent duplicate observation.

Several GO and instrument calibration programs (mostly IRAC) have used Instrument Engineering Requests (IERs) to obtain observations. Below is a list of all GO programs that have used IERs. The central positions and some other basic information (eg. the program's abstract) for these IERs can be found in Leopard or in the ROC (starting with Version 9.1). IER entries in the ROC can be indentified by an AOT field equal to "irs", "irac", or "mips". Because an IER does not, by definition, conform to our AOR standard, it is not possible to display detailed information about the observation within Spot or Leopard. The best way to determine what data were taken in the IER is to download the data and examine them.

The IERs from program 30594 span a large area of sky. Because it is not possible to convey the extent of their coverage in the ROC, nor is it possible to use "Overlay AOR" feature within Leopard/Spot to examine the coverage, we are providing the overlay mapping files for these AORs. To use them you will first need to display an image of the region--you can get the central coordinate of the IER using Leopard or the ROC (only AORs can be displayed in the Observations tab of Spot). Then select "Overlays"->"Read AOR Overlay Mapping File..." and choose the .pts file that corresponds to the IER you would like displayed.

For individual mapping files click here. For a gzipped tarball of all 120 pointing files click here.