Starting in 2009A, the SMARTS 1.5m telescope will be run in service observing mode. The instruments available are the RC Spec and the Echelle, which are mounted simultaneously. Only a limited number of RCSpec gratings will be available. These will include 26, 47 and one low resolution grating (9 or 35). Please make sure to request one of these gratings (perhaps as a backup) or your program may be unable to be scheduled.
In the 2009A semester (February-July), no more than 2 hours per night during the time 9 < LST < 19 can be used by any one program. Users are strongly discouraged from visiting the telescope during the A semester. In semester B, time will be allocated as heretofore, except that in August (and January), time at the beginning (end) of the night will be limited - thus late night objects should not be requested in January, and early night objects should not be requested in August. January time (currently unassigned) will be allocated along with the other time in 2009A.
Starting in 2008B, CPAPIR is no longer available.
Starting in 2006B, the SMARTS 1.5m telescope will be run in full queue mode for two instruments: RC Spec and CPAPIR. NOAO proposers should follow the normal NOAO proposal procedure. Note that the RC Spec and CPAPIR instruments will each be on the telescope roughly 50% of the time in 4-6 week stretches.
last updated 15 September 2008