Your own telescope proposal - anjavdl/PHY517_AST443 GitHub Wiki

The final lab is the full process for an observational astronomer: you will write a telescope proposal, we will hold a Time Allocation Committee to rank all proposals, and your group will observe your top-ranked project.

Proposal Writing

Come up with an idea for a project to take and analyze data from Mt. Stony Brook. To fulfill the SBU Physics lab requirements, the lab has to be distinct from the previous labs. Some ideas:

  • Check the AAVSO alert notices and observing campaigns. Transient events make great, scientific targets for small telescopes such as ours. Your data might even contribute to a journal paper! However, make sure that there is a measurement aspect to your project (i.e. not just plotting a lightcurve). You can choose to add archival data (e.g. lightcurve data from AAVSO) to your own data to facilitate this.
  • Other resources for transient events include ZTF, the Transient Name Server, and this list of recent supernovae.
  • For ideas specifically for spectroscopy, check this forum.
  • Think back of the concepts taught in your basic astronomy course. There are "standard" labs such as constructing color-magnitude diagrams. Make sure you have a quantitative science goal!
  • Imaging analyses often acquire deep exposures of targets. It is straightforward to combine a set of exposures with the {\tt scamp} program.
  • For the data analysis, you can combine your data with external data. A list of resources can be found here.
  • Browse the current astronomy news. Is there something unique happening in the sky where you can measure something interesting? (Again, make sure you have a quantitative science goal.)

Your proposal has to be distinct from your lab-mates, so be sure to check with them. They will automatically be Co-Investigators on your proposal.

Figure out the technical aspects of your project. When is your target observable? What filter or grating do you need? What should the exposure times be? Use your experience from the previous labs, and the manuals of the instruments as guides.

Use the latex template provided below to write your proposal. Note that at most 1 page can be used for the scientific justification. The other pages may be used for figures, tables, and object list. You have to use an 11-pt font, 1-inch margins, and single spacing, otherwise your proposal will be disqualified! Make sure to submit your proposal by the deadline - late submissions cannot be accepted!

The proposal review will be blinded - for the PI and CoIs, list only your SBU IDs, no names!

LaTeX template file
LaTeX style file
Reference file for template
Figure for template
PDF of template

Time Allocation Committee

For the Time Allocation Committee (TAC), you will be asked to read and evaluate all other proposals. You will be primary referee for one proposal, and secondary referee for another. The primary and secondary referee will lead the discussion of each proposal; we will then assign final scores by secret ballot.

Conducting the Lab

From the final ranking of proposals, your group will conduct the project that was ranked highest. E.g. if your proposal ranked 5th, and your lab-mates ranked 2nd and 7th, you all will do the project that was ranked 2nd.

Example proposals

Here are four successful example proposals: