Proposal preparation

Phase I Checklist

A number of common errors are made by PIs when creating phase I files writing their technical justifications. The PI should consider the following checklist when writing the Phase I proposal.

• Guide stars:
  • Did you checked the feasibility of Guide Stars for your targets using the Observing Tool?
    The Phase I tool provides a percentage for the likelihood of finding a suitable guide stars for GeMS/GSAOI (i.e. the percentage indicates whether a guide star is available or not). The Phase I tool DOES NOT provide information about the spatial distribution of the guide stars ("asterisms") or information about the Strehl ratio (required as an input parameter in the GSAOI ITC). Therefore, PIs MUST use the Gemini Observing Tool (OT) to verify the feasibility of CANOPUS WFS guide stars and off-axis PWFS1 star for focus sensing. Detailed information about how to setup the guide stars in the OT can be found in the GSAOI OT Details web page.
  • Are the selected guide stars brighter than the guiding limits?
• Instrument configuration:
  • Are the filters specified in the proposal instrument resource list?
  • Did you choose the appropriate filter?
  • Did you choose an appropriate readout mode?
  • Will the baseline calibrations be sufficient. If not, has sufficient observing time been requested for additional calibrations?
• Observing time:
  • Did you confirm the exposure time and S/N using the GSAOI Integration Time Calculator?.
  • Are overheads included in the time requested in your proposal?
  • Have overheads been included for additional calibrations, if needed?
  • Is time included for off-source sky measurements, if needed?