Telescope time!

I met with Dr. Evan Kirby last week (http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~enk/), and he very nicely spent an hour explaining to me various facets of the telescope time acquisition process! Here are some highlights of what I learned from him:

When Keck telescope was built, the costs were divided between the UC system and Caltech. Caltech paid the bulk of the initial costs, but the UCs were to pay for maintenance. Over the course of many, many years, this will eventually even out, so each institution was initially given a half stake in the telescope. The University of Hawaii also received a stake (10%) in the telescope, because the telescope was built on Hawaiian land.

What a ‘stake’ in a telescope means is that out of all the nights of the year, that institution will receive that many nights for their scientists. So, a higher stake means that the institution will have more observing time – which is a good thing! For Keck, this meant that the UC system and Caltech each had equal shares. However, you might notice that Caltech has FAR fewer people vying for this time than the entire UC system – indeed, this means that it is far easier for Caltech scientists to get telescope time. There are also some Keck nights each year available to anyone in the country. Getting time on these nights is extremely competitive, since there are professors and professional scientists from across the country who perhaps have no other way to get the telescope time they need.

Caltech has stakes in other telescopes as well. It operates Palomar telescope here in California. The access that Caltech scientists have to it is actually quite amazing – did you know that grad students can apply for time on Palomar?? That’s pretty awesome.

Wait – so who exactly can apply for time to telescopes? And how do you apply?

To get telescope time, applicants must write a proposal, which is reviewed by a panel of scientists (this panel changes – Dr. Kirby has been on this panel before). Proposals are due each semester, for the following semester of observing time. These proposals take a lot of work, and they must be submitted by someone who has access to the telescope. For example, an undergraduate cannot write and submit a proposal. However, an undergraduate CAN write a proposal and convince someone (a professor, postdoc) with access to the telescope to submit it for them.

At most institutions, there are strict limits to who can apply for telescope time. For example, grad students are not generally allowed to apply for telescope time, and even postdocs cannot apply in most places. At Caltech, there are certainly such limits, although they are less strict than at other places. Either postdocs or Professors can apply for Keck time here, but grad students, postdocs and Professors all can apply for Palomar time.

The national ratio for proposals submitted to proposals accepted is roughly 10 to 1. The UC system’s average is roughly 5:1, and Caltech’s is much, much lower than that!

I never knew just how good Caltech’s access to telescopes is. It is inspiring to know that if you had science you wanted to do, at Caltech you’d be able to actually do that science! It makes me want to write my own proposal…