Step-by-step guide to preparing a Phase II proposal for the Hubble Space Telescope.

Phase II Proposal Roadmap

This is a high level step-by-step guide to writing a Phase II Proposal. Complete HST Phase II Proposal Instructions are also available.

There is also a Phase I Roadmap. It assumes that you already have (from Phase I): Targets identified, instrument configurations selected, exposure times calculated, and a visit strategy in mind.

Changes: If anything needs to be changed in what was requested in Phase I (targets, filters, apertures) you will need to talk to your Program Coordinator and/or Contact Scientist (lookup your PC/CS). If the change is major (instruments, orbit allocation) you will need to apply to the Telescope Time Review Board for the change. If you need to add or delete a Co-I please contact the HST Help Desk.

Contents

Read the e-mails
You should have received two important e-mails: The award letter from the STScI Director contains your Program Coordinator's contact information, the proposal's Phase II Proposal ID number, TAC approved allocation, and TAC comments. A few days after the award letter you should get an e-mail from your PC. Please read both letters.
Install the latest version of APT
The version of APT that you used in Phase I needs to be replaced with the current release. Please download and install the latest version of APT for macOS, Linux, or Windows.
Get set up to view training movies
While most of the documentation for APT is available in both flash movie and text form, the movies are better for learning how to use APT the first time. The APT Training Materials page helps you get set up to view the movies.
Get familiar with APT
Here is some good general getting started documentation:
- Annotated Snapshot of the GUI features
- General Overview of APT GUI: Movie (6 minutes) or Text equivalent
- Edit with the Tree Editor: Movie (3 minutes)
- Getting started in Phase II: Movie (9.5 minutes) or Text equivalent
- Reviewing diagnostics: Movie (4.5 minutes) or Text equivalent
- FAQ and Bug list
Start APT and load your Phase I proposal
- You can retrieve your proposal from STScI within APT by using File > Retrieve from STScI
- Or you can start with your own copy of the submitted proposal
Convert your Phase I proposal to Phase II proposal
- Click on your proposal to select it
- Push the button that says Phase I->II
- When prompted, decide if you want to copy over the Phase I target coordinates.
- The converted proposal will contain title, abstract, investigator list, and target list
Fill in the remaining Proposal Information
- In APT, click on the Proposal Information folder
- Fill in the Phase II ID (if you started with a local copy of the Phase I)
- Fill in observing description (this may be copied from your PDF attachment and edited with any changes in strategy)
Update the Target Information
In APT, open the targets folder and fill in the remaining required information for each target.
(You can use APT's context sensitive help to take you to the appropriate reference for each field, you can click on the links here to get an html version of the appropriate section, or you can bring up the PDF version of the P2PI and navigate to the appropriate section.)
Note that if you have GSC1 coordinates (from an old proposal), you will need to convert them to GSC2 (ICRS); there is a simple web-based conversion tool available to do the conversion. DSS images from the Phase II download site already have the GSC2 (ICRS) world coordinate system in place, so coordinates measurements will be in the GSC2 (ICRS) reference frame.
- Fixed Target instructions: P2PI Chapter 3.1
  - Phase 2 Target Coordinate General Guidelines
  - Please consider Required Accuracies of Target Positions (P2PI section 3.1)
  - Information about the Guide Star Catalog Reference System is in P2PI section 3.1
  - For long lists of fixed targets there is a flat file export/import mechanism. Note that the process is similar to Phase I, only there are more fields available.
- Solar System Target instructions: P2PI Chapter 3.2
- Generic Target instructions: P2PI Chapter 3.3
Pattern Specification
You may need to create pattern specifications if you:
- Need to dither (see section 7.4 in the ACS Handbook, 11.3 in the STIS Handbook, or 6.12.1 (UVIS) or 7.10.1 (IR) in the WFC3 Handbook)
- Need to create a mosaic (or alternatively use the Mosaic capability: Movie (8.0 minutes) )
If you do need to create pattern specifications:
- In APT, select the Patterns folder and click on "New Pattern Specification"
- Use APT's context sensitive help or go to Chapter 7 of the P2PI
- Also see the APT training material on creating patterns: Movie (3 minutes) or Text equivalent
Define a Visit
- In APT, select the Visits folder and click on "New Visit"
- Helpful information about visits:
  - When is a new visit required? (Phase II Proposal Instructions, Chap. 4)
  - Recommendations on visit size
  - Use APT's context sensitive help or go to Chapter 4 of the P2PI for an explanation of the fields
- Input the necessary visit level special requirements (see P2PI Chapter 6)
  - Requirements from Phase I were not copied so reenter those
  - Add Phase II specific scheduling requirements
Enter one Exposure
- In APT, open the first Visit's folder and select the first exposure
- Helpful information about exposures:
  - Use APT's context sensitive help or go to Chapter 4 of the P2PI
  - Optional Parameters are instrument specific
  - Exposure level special requirements are in the exposure folder (table "Supported Formats for Exposure-level Special Requirements")
- Instrument specific information in the P2PI
  - ACS is in Chapter 10 of the P2PI
    - WFC ACCUM mode optional parameters
    - SBC ACCUM modes have no optional parameters
  - COS is in Chapter 11 of the P2PI
    - FUV ACQ/SEARCH mode optional parameters
    - FUV ACQ/PEAKXD mode optional parameters
    - FUV ACQ/PEAKD mode optional parameters
    - FUV TIME-TAG mode optional parameters
    - FUV ACCUM mode optional parameters
    - NUV ACQ/SEARCH mode optional parameters
    - NUV ACQ/PEAKXD mode optional parameters
    - NUV ACQ/PEAKD mode optional parameters
    - NUV TIME-TAG mode optional parameters
    - NUV ACCUM mode optional parameters
  - FGS is in Chapter 9 of the P2PI
    - POS mode optional parameters
    - Trans mode optional parameters
  - STIS is in Chapter 8 of the P2PI
    - CDD ACQ mode optional parameters
    - CCD ACQ/PEAK mode optional parameters
    - CCD ACCUM mode optional parameters
    - MAMA ACCUM mode optional parameters
    - MAMA TIME-TAG mode optional parameters
  - WFC3 is in Chapter 12 of the P2PI
    - UVIS ACCUM mode optional parameters
    - IR MULTIACCUM mode optional parameters
Patterns
If this exposure will use a pattern specification you have defined you need to create a pattern container
- In APT (with the exposure selected) click on the button that says New Pattern
- Drag the exposure into this container. If more than one exposure will be done at each pattern point, create the next exposure while the container is selected.
- Alternately, with the exposure selected, right click and select Group then New Pattern. This will put the exposure in a Pattern Container. You will then need to select the name of the pattern. Note that you can select multiple exposures and place them all in the same Pattern Container at one time.
- Use APT's context sensitive help or go to Chapter 7 of the P2PI
- See the APT Training materials: Creating patterns: Movie (4.5 minutes) or Text equivalent
Parallels
If this exposure will have one or more coordinated parallel exposures, you will need to create a parallel container.
- In APT (with the exposure selected) click on the button that says New Parallel
- Drag the primary exposure into this container. Create the parallel exposure while the container is selected.
- Alternately, with the exposure selected, right click and select Group then New Parallel. This will put the exposure in a Parallel Container. Note that you can selected multiple exposures (e.g. the Prime and Parallel exposures) and place them all in the same Parallel Container at one time.
- Information on coordinated parallels is in Chapter 5 of the P2PI
- See the APT Training materials: Creating coordinated parallel observations: Movie (2 minutes) or Text equivalent
- Coordinated parallels must have been approved by the TAC in Phase I.
Non-Interruptible Sequences
If this exposure and the following ones must be done without interruption, you will need to create a Non-Interruptible Sequence container.
- In APT (with the exposure selected) click on the button that says New Sequence
- Drag the exposure into this container. Create the next exposure while the container is selected.
- Alternately, with the exposure selected, right click and select Group then New Sequence. This will put the exposure in a Sequence Container. Note that you can selected multiple exposures (e.g. all the exposures you want in the sequence) and place them all in the same Sequence Container at one time.
- Information on non-interruptible sequences is in section 6.3.2 of the P2PI
- See the APT Training materials: Creating non-interruptible exposure sequences: Movie (3 minutes) or Text equivalent
Complete the rest of the exposures in the visit
- If some exposures are similar, note that there are "Duplicate" and "Multiple Duplicate" options under the "Edit" menu.
- See the APT Training movie on Editing with the Tree Editor (3 minutes)
- If you are creating many duplicates but with changes to each, note that there is a text proposal format export and import capability
See how the exposures fit in orbits
- In APT, click on the Orbit Planner tool
- See the APT training material on running the Orbit Planner:
  - Annotated Snapshot of the Orbit Planner features
  - Running the Orbit Planner: Movie (6 minutes) or Text equivalent
  - Changing orbit numbers & actual durations in sub-exposures: Movie (7 minutes) or Text equivalent
  - Using the Auto-adjust feature for orbit packing: Movie (4 minutes) or Text equivalent
See how the visit schedules
- In APT, click on the Visit Planner tool
- Note that you may see minor discrepancies with Phase I Visit planner (which was an approximation)
- See the APT training material on running the Visit Planner:
  - Annotated Snapshot of the Visit Planner features
  - Running the Visit Planner: Movie (4 minutes) or Text equivalent
Review your completed visit specification
- In APT, click on the PDF Preview tool
- How to read the Phase II PDF proposal preview
Perform Bright Object Checking
If there are exposures in one of the photon-counting UV detectors (ACS/SBC, COS/FUV, COS/NUV, STIS/FUV-MAMA, or STIS/NUV-MAMA), you will need to perform bright object checking on both the primary science target and all objects in the detector macroaperture.
- for the prime target, use the appropriate Exposure Time Calculator (ETC)
- for the field objects, use the Bright Object Tool (BOT) in APT and, if necessary, the ETC
- See the APT training material on running the Bright Object Tool:
  - Running the ACS/STIS BOT: Movie (10 minutes) or Text equivalent
  - Running the COS BOT: Movie (12 minutes) or Text equivalent
Graphically preview your visit against an image (optional)
1. In APT, click on the Aladin interface tool
2. There is text documentation for how to use Aladin available under the Help menu
3. You can find additional documentation on Aladin on the APT training materials Page
Make the rest of the visits (and process and review them)
- If your visits are similar, remember that there are "Duplicate" and "Multiple Duplicate" options under the "Edit" menu
- See the APT Training movie on Editing with the Tree Editor (3 minutes)
- If you are creating many duplicates but with changes to each, note that there is a text proposal format export and import capability
- If your proposal is large you should read and consider this advice about building big Phase II Programs.
Make target confirmation charts (Fixed targets only)
If you have fixed targets, generate target confirmation charts to confirm the coordinates of your objects; note that the charts can also be used to verify proper motion values (if supplied).
- - Select the targets you wish to make charts for. You can select one target, multiple targets, or all targets.
  - Click on the Target Confirmation tool
  - See the APT training material on creating confirmation charts (Movie (4 minutes) or Text equivalent).
Submit
- In APT, click on the Submit tool
- Click on the Submit Phase II button
- If there are remaining warnings (but you understand them) or there are remaining errors (and your PC says they are OK) please type a short explanation in the pop up box and the submit button on the pop up box will become active.
Give us feedback

This roadmap was created in response to feedback from our users. If you found it helpful, or have suggestions for making it better, please let us know. You can also provide feedback on other aspects of APT or its documentation. You can send your comments to your PC or to the STScI Help Desk.