README web version of /home/usg/OPS/MTS/readme_xml/readme_82505500

Principal Investigator Email Address

• emason@eso.org

Estimated Total Execution Time (hours, including overheads)

• 01:40 ... skipping 3 presets (6 min each as per UM), 1:58 otherwise

General Description

• Spectroscopic monitoring of a recurrent nova in the LMC
  
  The program consists on 6 epoch, 3 of which belong to part A (THIN and seeing 1.2)
   
  and 3 to part B (CLR and seeing 1.0). 
  
  2  OBs have  to  be executed  at  each epoch:  DIC1  346+580 and  DIC2 437+760.
    
  The acquisition of the second setup should be  executed with  preset=F  to save
  time (not accounted in the total execution time).
  
  Each epoch has different exposure time, hence THE OBs MUST BE SELECTED
  AND EXECUTED  IN THE  RIGHT SEQUENCE (starting  with epoch1  OBs, and
  finishing with epoch3 OBs -- part A of the program). 
  
  The program  is a  time critical one:  please check the  time critical
  section for the  execution constraints.  The first epoch  OB should be
  executed  AT THE  SOONEST, VIRTUALLY  Feb 12!!!  "about simultaneously"
  with Swift observations!! --- DONE THANK YOU!!!
  
  Please check the time critical section for the optimal/suggested scheduling 
  of epoch 2 and 3 of this part of the program.

Waiver Requests

• epoch  5 6  and 7  require (41min)x2  to (70min)x2  execution  time. A
  waiver has been submitted for that.

Critical Observing Condition Constraints

• Constraints are relatively relaxed. 
  But later epochs require CLR sky for proper relative flux calibration between the
   two DIC setups. 
  The seeing should be up to 1 in order to have a decent SNR, at the target magnitude.
  
  Epoch1, 2 and 3 OBs belong to PART A of the program which has more relaxed constraints
   (THIN and seeing 1.2). 
  This because the early decline of the nova is faster than the late one and is better
   to catch the spectra than anything else. The seeing could be even overriden, as
   soon as the OBs are repeated a sufficient number of times.

Time-Critical Aspects

• The nova has already declined  by several magnitudes since the time of
  the  proposal submission  and should  be  at mag  ~14 at  the time  of
  writing (Feb  11). Hence  the exposure time  of the early  epochs have
  been revised with respect to the proposal.
  
  
  The sequence of OB is  aimed ad monitoring the spectroscopic evolution
  of the nova during decline. Hence:
  
  Epoch1: ASAP, possibly on Feb 12 --- DONE GREAT!
  Epoch2: ~ 1 week after epoch 1 -- Feb 16-23
  Epoch3: ~ 1 week after epoch 2 -- Feb 25-Mar 3
  
  Epoch4: ~ 2 weeks after epoch 3 -- Mar 10-20
  Epoch5: ~ 2 weeks after epoch 4 --  Mar 30-Apr 10
  Epoch6: ~ second half of April 
   
  Any missed epoch,  should be executed at the  soonest. However, for no
  any reason  two epoch should  be executed on  the same night.  Any two
  epoch of Part A of the program should be separated by at least  5 days.

Special Execution Requirements

• Please always execute the  DIC1 and DIC 2 OB on the  same night .. and
  take care of the time critical  aspects. Use common sens or contact me
  in case  the suggested  schedule is no  longer valid/applicable  or in
  case of doubts.

Special Calibration Information

• NA

ToO Information

• this is not a ToO

ToO Activators List

• NA

Do all your OBs comply with the instrument-specific requirements listed
 on the instrument-specific Phase 2 web page ?

• YES

Do all your finding charts comply with both the general and instrument-specific
 Phase 2 Web Pages ?

• YES

If you submitted OBs for standard stars, did you specify the magnitude
 and spectral type of all standard stars in the OBs ?

• N/A

Have you specified the S/N ratio at given wavelength in the User Comments
 field of each OB?

• N/A

Have you included OBs for any calibrations that you need but which are
 not part of the Calibration Plan ?

• N/A

If you are observing Moving Targets, have you attached suitable ephemeris
 files to your OBs?

• N/A

If you have preferences which OBs should be executed first, did you make
 use of the User Priority field in the OBs ?

• YES

If this is a run that requires coordinated observations with other facilities,
 did you give proper instructions in the Time-Critical Aspects Section ?

• YES

If you need secondary guiding, are there suitable objects within 30 arcsec
 from your target ?

• N/A