VLA/VLBA Student Observing project(s)

Proposing observations: The Process

1. Come up with awesome idea (YOU)

2. Write an irresistible proposal (YOU)

3. Get telescope time awarded (us)

4. Prepare the observations (YOU)

5. Get them observed (us)

6. Receive observed data & indulge yourself in data reduction (YOU)

7. Write and publish an awesome paper :)

The nitty-gritty of our process

Ad 1. Ideas → what do you want to observe and why?

— talk to your fellow students
— talk to your mentor
— talk to Vivek :)
— talk to your Uni supervisor/tutor
— perhaps you already have some great idea
— if you don't know where to start, for examples and inspiration see previously accepted proposals on the VLA/VLBA science program website

— proposals: need to convince those who award time that your idea is almost the next Nobel prize worthy ;)
— normally you would prepare and submit the proposal through the myNRAO system my.nrao.edu, but for the purpose of our summer observing projects we will do informal proposals

— proposal format (total 1-2 pages), please include the following:

1. engaging but informative title
2. names of proposers
3. abstract
4. science case, including science goals (1-2 paragraphs)
5. technical jutification (1 para is OK), which should include:

(a) which instrument do you need (VLA or VLBA?)

(b) what frequencies do you want to observe?

(c) what type of observing would you like to do? (you can pick any general observing mode, e.g. which one would you like: continuum, spectroscopy, polarisation? single or multiple pointings? you will need the latter if your source is larger than the field of view of the configuration/frequency set-up you will choose)

(d) what bandwidth would you like to cover? For spectroscopy say explicitly which lines you are after, do you want the continuum with it?

(e) state the needed resolution

(f) what sensitivity/rms do you want to achieve in your final images?

(g) state the exposure time. Now, this links directly to the sensitivity above, use the exposure calculators to find out how much time you need on VLA: VLA exposure calculator, or VLBA: EVN exposure calculator (whichever instrument you chose for your project)

(h) make sure you can actually see the source you picked! check your target elevation with a visibility tool. The best way to do this for VLA is to log into your my.nrao.edu account, from there go to the Obs Prep tab and into OPT (via link under Obs Prep tab). Once in the OPT you can create test projects and test catalogues, add your target(s) and check what elevation they rise to at the VLA site. If you would like some help with this, let me know. For VLBA, you may peek around the SCHEDuilng tool.

(i) and check your target LST too, again you can do it at the same time as you are checking the target elevation as described in step h above (also, the pressure histogram for current semester which I explained last time is here)

— VLA: Observation Preparation Tool (OPT) via my.nrao.edu, plus tutorial
— VLBA: SCHED