Observing Proposals

The JCMT operates on a two-semester basis for PI time. Semester A running from February 1st to July 31st and Semester B running from August 1st to January 31st. The deadline for Semester A  proposals is typically mid September. The deadline for Semester B proposals is typically mid March. The Call for Proposals usually open one month before the deadline.

In addition to the biannual semesters of the “Regular” queue, an “Urgent” queue, specifically for science proposals of an urgent nature, remains open for submissions throughout the year.

Call for Proposals – for Semester 25B

The East Asian Observatory is now accepting proposals PIs for Semester 25B at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see

https://proposals.eaobservatory.org

This Call for proposals closes on April 26th, 00:00 UTC. The Hedwig system permits the submission (and re-submission) of proposals until this deadline.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should ‘Log in’ and generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their preexisting proposals, in order to simplify the process of proposal re-submission.

Proposers might be interested to note the proposal pressure in terms of RA and DEC. The figure below shows the distribution of target RA proposed in the past under Semester B. When allocating time the TAC is mindful to ensure that time is awarded across a range of RAs.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

25A Rapid Turnaround Call for Proposals for Heterodyne Instruments

The East Asian Observatory is now accepting proposals for the 25A semester Rapid Turnaround (RT) call for proposals that requests observing time with Heterodyne instruments at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). This special RT call for proposals requests observations of targets visible in April, it particularly welcomes proposals targeting R.A. ranges with gaps in the 25A Principal Investigator (PI) queue. Proposal submission is via the JCMT proposal handling system, Hedwig. For full details, and for proposal submission, please see:
The first cycle of the 25A Call for Rapid Turnaround (RT) closes on March 31st, 00:00 UTC.

PI eligibility for this Call has the same criteria as for the 25A PI call for proposals. PIs of PI observing proposals to JCMT must be from Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, China, South Korea, or from universities in the UK and Ireland that contribute to JCMT, or from the Expanding Partner Program regions (Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Brazil, and Argentina). For more information about PI eligibility and the Expanding Partner Program, please see:

Proposers should note the proposal pressure across Right Ascension (RA) for heterodyne instruments, as shown in the histogram. The bar represents the fractional number of hours allocated to the PI queue considering only heterodyne instruments. The JCMT welcomes proposals that utilize the full range of RAs available in semester 25A, and it particularly welcomes proposals targeting R.A. ranges with gaps in the Principal Investigator (PI) queue. These gaps, caused by the uncertain operational status of SCUBA-2, currently exist between 8 and 15 hours R.A.

If this is your first time using Hedwig, you should use the ‘Log in’ button to generate an account. There is a Hedwig ‘Help’ facility at the upper right corner of each page, and individual Help tags in many other places. Note that Hedwig also allows a user to create copies of their previous approved proposals that were not completed (‘Continuation Request’), in order to simplify the process of proposal resubmission.

Please contact us at helpdesk@eaobservatory.org if you have remaining questions about either of the above Calls for Proposals.

The following pages will help you prepare a proposal for submission:

or  – – if you are ready to go: login to Hedwig. Good Luck!

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