The next closing date for observing time on the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) at the National Solar Observatory, Sacramento Peak is 15 February 2017, for the 1 April 2017 – 30 June 2017 allocation period.
The DST hosts a number of world-leading instruments for high-cadence imaging and spectroscopic studies of the solar atmosphere, including ROSA and HARDcam which have been funded by STFC, Queen’s University and the Royal Society. Details of these may be found at the Queen’s websites:
https://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php/public/research_areas/solar_physics/rosa
and
https://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php/public/research_areas/solar_physics/hardcam
while information on other DST instrumentation is available at:
http://nsosp.nso.edu/instruments
Due to the provision of ROSA and HARDcam on the DST as common-user instruments, there is guaranteed time on the telescope for proposals with a UK-based PI. In addition, there is an STFC-funded ROSA/HARDcam Support Facility at Queen’s, providing advice and support on DST observations from proposal preparation to the production of reduced (image reconstructed) data.
UK-based PIs thinking of applying for DST time are strongly advised to contact either Dr David Jess (d.jess@qub.ac.uk) or Prof Mihalis Mathioudakis (m.mathioudakis@qub.ac.uk) in advance of proposal preparation.
Note that applicants may apply for a block of observing time (in which case Queen’s will provide support if required at the telescope during the complete observing run), or apply for time in service mode (in which case Queen’s staff will undertake the observations for the applicants). In both cases Queen’s staff will also undertake initial reduction of the raw data, in particular the application of image reconstruction algorithms to improve the spatial resolution, to provide applicants with reduced data.
The observing proposal form, and guidelines on its submission, may be found at: