Estimate When Observing Run Will Occur?

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Sun, 04/02/2023 - 09:38

Hello! Just curious. I've submitted two proposals. One has been accepted and one allocated.

    Is there a way to estimate as to when the observing runs will occur? Thank you and best regards.

Mike

(code: hmh)

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
when will proposal run?

Hi Mike,

Allocated means that the plan to observe a project has been created.  After that, you are dependent on the "weather gods".  Most BSMs are in typical continental locations, where observing takes place about twice per week.  So if the plan is on just one telescope, it may take a few days before you start seeing data.  There are always exceptions - the American Southwest has a monsoon from mid-June to mid-September, when it can be weeks without starlight; the American midwest can have cloudy winters, etc.  The moon can get in the way of your field.  Some other project has higher priority and keeps your target from being observed for a few nights.  The best way to estimate is to go to the proposal form and click on the "observing" tab.  That shows you how often each site is observing.

If an object is time-critical, then be sure to mention this in your proposal to give it more priority.

Arne

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Mike/Arne,

Thanks for this!…

Mike/Arne,

Thanks for this! I've been wondering the same thing. I have 2 proposals allocated but haven't received any photometry yet. Now that I understand the situation better I will just wait for results.

Dave (HDHA)

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Allocated vs. Committed?

Hello! My projected was accepted and allocated 4 months ago. I see that other projects have been committed while mine has not.

    What is there difference between "accepted", "allocated", and "committed"? Can projects be "accepted" but not "allocated? And "allocated" but no "committed"?

    Thank you and best regards.

Mike

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
See proposal 295 comments

Mike:

As indicated in the proposal comments, I committed the plan to 4 nights on MPO61 that were likely to have eclipse. The plan was not run on those nights (weather or schedule conflict?).

I was expecting that you would propose specific additional time intervals that would be visible from MPO61. No additional comment/request was received.

Frankly, this type of proposal is tough to set up and schedule, and more importantly get scheduled/run by ACP.

If you provide another ephemeris list, we can try again but no promises that it will get correctly scheduled/run by ACP?

BTW, "new" means the proposal you submitted was received, "accepted" means the proposal was approved by the Telescope Allocation Committee (TAC), "allocated" means the ACP plan file was created from the proposal info, and "committed" means the plan was sent to the cloud/telescope for future execution.

HTH, Ken

 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Thank you for the feedback…

Thank you for the feedback. I did not know that the run had been scheduled or that the weather had aborted it. I thought it as still pending.

    For future projects, is there a way to tell what dates a run is scheduled to occur on? That way, the submitter can keep tabs on the project to be ready for data or to help with rescheduling if that is needed

    What would I need to do in order to make the run as appropriate and as easy as possible to move forward, both for the current proposal and for possible future proposals? Best regards.

Mike