RPS provides a facility for filling the ASCA Observation Request forms. Electronic submission of forms is required. Scientific justification must be submitted electronically. Hard copies of proposals are NOT required. See the NRA Appendices for full details of the files required, the method of use, and outputs. Short descriptions of each form and field are below. This file is ordered by form (Cover, General, Target, Constraint). Fields in this file are listed in the same order as found on the hardcopy forms, mosaic forms, and the E-mail talker forms.
This help file was last modified July 2, 1998
Your personal details (name, address, telephone number, etc.) and the proposal
name and number of targets.
Your title (Dr, Ms, Mr, etc.) - up to 12 characters. This does
NOT refer to one's job description (ie: "postdoc").
Your first name. 17 characters long at a maximum. Required.
You may add another name or initials - up to 12 characters allowed.
Your family name. Up to 27 characters are allowed. Required.
Your department at your institute, up to 60 characters of it.
Your institute up to 60 characters. Required.
The first line of your institute address, e.g., 3-1-1 Yoshinodai.
Up to 60 characters.
Your City. Up to 32 characters.
The name of the prefecture of the institute. Up to 32 characters.
Your postal code. Up to 10 characters.
The default is 'JAPAN'. Up to 10 characters. Required. Below is the list of
accepted country abbreviations:
ARGENTINA FINLAND KOREA SPAIN
AUSTRALIA FRANCE LATVIA SWEDEN
AUSTRIA GERMANY LITHUANIA SWITZ
BELGIUM GREECE MEXICO TAIWAN
BRAZIL HONGKONG NETH TURKEY
BULGARIA INDIA NORWAY UK
CANADA IRELAND NZ UKRAINE
CHILE ISRAEL PERU USA
CHINA INDONESIA POLAND
CZECH IRAN PORTUGAL
DENMARK ITALY RUSSIA
ESTONIA JAPAN S AFRICA
If your country is not on this list, please send email to
paul@astro.isas.ac.jp
Your telephone number, plus any extension. 24 characters allowed. Required.
Your Fax number, if available. 24 chars.
Your Electronic Mail Network, either INTERNET, SPAN, or BITNET. 10 chars.
Default is INTERNET. Required.
Your Email address. Up to 60 chars. Required. An Email receipt will
be sent to this address within 24 hours of the electronic submission
of your proposal.
Indicates the preferred distribution method for the PI's data.
Options are 2.5GB8MM and 4GBDAT.
The type of objects(s) to be viewed in the Proposal. Required. Enter one of the
following categories:
STARS
CATACLYSMIC VARIABLES
X-RAY BINARIES
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS AND GALACTIC DIFFUSE EMISSION
NORMAL GALAXIES
AGN
CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES AND SUPERCLUSTERS
COSMIC X-RAY BACKGROUND, DEEP SURVEYS, AND OTHER
The title of the proposal up to 120 characters. Required.
800 characters maximum. Abstracts exceeding this limit will be truncated.
Required.
For Details of any collaborators, etc. Up to 10 Co-Investigators are
allowed. If your browser has problems displaying the fields, the
order is First Name, Last Name, Institute, Country, E-Mail Address.
Indicate type of proposal. Options include:
JAPAN TIME ONLY
COLLABORATIVE US/JAPAN TIME - US Co-Investigator included.
NO PREFERENCE
Flag indicating if the first CoI listed is also a contact person
in cases where the PI cannot be reached. The default is N.
Telphone number of the CoI Contact. 20 chars.
Network address for the CoI Contact. 60 chars.
If the columns for Co-I data are misaligned, click on Options at top of
browser. Choose "Language Encoding". Then click on "Western".
First Name for each Co-Investigator. 20 chars. Required.
Last Name for each Co-investigator. 20 chars. Required.
Institute for each Co-investigator. 20 chars. Required.
The default is 'JAPAN'. Up to 10 characters. Required.
Below is the list of accepted country abbreviations:
ARGENTINA FINLAND KOREA SPAIN
AUSTRALIA FRANCE LATVIA SWEDEN
AUSTRIA GERMANY LITHUANIA SWITZ
BELGIUM GREECE MEXICO TAIWAN
BRAZIL HONGKONG NETH TURKEY
BULGARIA INDIA NORWAY UK
CANADA IRELAND NZ UKRAINE
CHILE ISRAEL PERU USA
CHINA INDONESIA POLAND
CZECH IRAN PORTUGAL
DENMARK ITALY RUSSIA
ESTONIA JAPAN S AFRICA
If the country is not on this list, please send email to
paul@astro.isas.ac.jp
Complete e-mail address for each Co-investigator. 60 chars. Required.
The details that need to be filled in for each different target.
The number of the target. Since the number is used to indicate the observing
priority of one target relative to another, you may wish to change these
around. However, the final proposal must contain a sequence of target
numbers from 1 to the total number of primary targets. If specifying
alternate targets, see below.
The normal name for the object. Up to 20 characters. Required. Please use
commonly accepted names for objects (ie: NGC xxxx)
Epoch for target coordinates. Either 1950 or 2000. Default is 2000.
The Right Ascension of the source. If the user enters 1950 for the epoch,
then the coordinates will be precessed to J2000. The standard format is
HH MM SS - hours, minutes, seconds, separated by spaces. Optionally, it
may be entered as degrees (DDD.DDDDDD), in which case it will be converted
to sexagesimal during verification. The seconds may be entered as a real
value with tenths (ie SS.S). Required.
The declination of the source. If the user enters 1950 for the epoch,
then the coordinates will be precessed to J2000. The standard format is
#DD MM SS - degrees, arcminutes, arcseconds, separated by spaces
( # indicates an optional sign). Optionally, it may be entered as degrees
(DDD.DDDDDD), in which case it will be converted to sexagesimal during
verification. If no sign is given it will be assumed to be positive. Required.
The preferred duration in Kiloseconds for the observation. This is the
TOTAL Observation time, so for monitoring observations, this is the sum
of all pointings. For example, for two observations of 40 ksec each,
specify 80 ksec as the Total Observation Time and 2 for the
Number of Observations. The minimum time for a proposal is 20 ksec. The
minimum time for one pointing is 10 ksec. Required.
Number of observations of the target. This will be one unless
constraints are set or for a raster observation. For monitoring
observatiaons this will give the number of parts into which the
total exposure will be divided. If a raster is being requested,
provide details in the REMARKS section.
Logical value indicating whether the observation is constrained.
Mode for the GIS can either be P for pulse height (PH), M (MPC), or O (other).
Default is P which is appropriate for most sources.
Indicates if you want the target offset from the center of the 4 CCD chips
comprising the SIS. Default is Y. For an observation of an extended
source, or a group of discrete sources, the proposer may prefer to specify
the pointing location. In this case enter "N".
Estimated SIS count rate is the expected number of counts per SIS detector,
in counts per second. For variable sources, supply the maximum expected
count rate. This will allow for consistency checking of requested
observation mode(s), or for selection of observations modes if none have
been requested. Based on this value, RPS will recommend values
for the Sis.Data.Mode, Sis.Clck.Mode, and Sis.Bit.Rate.
Data Mode for Sis. Options are either H (High Speed also referred to
as Fast), B (Bright) or F (Faint) mode. The differences between these modes
are explained in the ASCA Technical Description.
Clock Mode for SIS. Options are either 1,2 or 4 CCD mode. The
differences between these modes are explained in the ASCA Technical
Description. Due to various manifestations of radiation damage, SIS 4-CCD mode
is effectively unusable. Observations which would have been done in 4-CCD mode
earlier in the mission can still be performed using 2-CCD mode with longer
exposures. Proposals specifying 4-CCD mode will not be accepted unless the
proposers can demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the instrument and
the special need for 4-CCD mode. Details in Appendix E of the NRA.
Preferred bit rate. Options are either H (High), M (Medium), or L (Low)
bit rate.
Flag indicating that there are remarks for this target. Default is N.
Any relevant comments you wish to make regarding the Target.
Up to 200 characters.
This section contains the details for any time critical observation. The
types of constraint are:
Coordinated: In a fixed time-windo
Monitoring: Samples at a given interval
Phase dependent: Samples at a given phase
Indicates if the observation is linked with other simultaneous
observations, making the exact time important. The start and end
times must be given in UT (year, month, day, hour, minute). See
the AO document for the anticipated dates for the AO period.
Default is N.
The year to start for time critical observations. Enter 4 digits (i.e., 1997)
The month to start during for time critical observations.
The day to start on for time critical observations.
The hour to start at for time critical observations.
The minute to start at for time critical observations.
The year to end for time critical observations. Enter 4 digits (i.e., 1997)
The month to end in for time critical observations.
The day to end on for time critical observations.
The hour to end for time critical observations.
The minute to end for time critical observations.
Indicates whether the observation is to be made in several parts at fixed
intervals but with no fixed starting time. The number of parts is
specified on the Target Page in the "Number of Observations" field.
Default is N.
Minimum interval between monitoring observations.
Maximum interval between monitoring observations.
Indicates that the observation is to be spread over a number of intervals
with a fixed interval between them and a given reference date. The Epoch
is the reference date given in MJD and the Period is the interval in days.
The Minimum and Maximum Phase are the minimum and maximum orbital phase.
Default is N.
For Phase Dependent observations, the reference date (MJD). The observations
will be made at an integral number of Periods from this date.
The period in days between phase dependant observations.
Minimum orbital phase to be observed. Values must be between 0 and 1.
Maximum orbital phase to be observed. Values must be between 0 and 1.