This page walks the proposer through the various parts of the Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT), the software through which HST proposals are developed and submitted. 

As described in HST Guidelines and Checklist for Phase I Proposal Preparation, a Phase I proposal consists of a completed APT proposal form and an attached PDF file. Here, the items that must be filled out in the APT proposal form are described; this information is also available from the context-sensitive help in APT (in the APT application, clicking on a keyword shown in dark blue text will display information about that item). Not every item described here needs to be filled out for every proposal. For example, some items are only relevant for observing proposals, while others are only relevant for archival proposals. APT will automatically let you know which items need to be filled out, depending on which proposal type you choose. HST Preparation of the PDF Attachment describes the items that must be addressed in the attached PDF file.

Overview of Layout

Once you have opened or started a new HST Proposal, there is a directory tree on the left hand side.  The top-most level will say 'Unsubmitted HST Phase I Proposal' until it is submitted.  Under the top-most level, there will be a tab for 'Proposal Information', with 'Team Expertise', 'Unnamed PI', and 'Unnamed CoI' underneath (the latter two will be replaced with the Investigators names). Depending on the proposal category, there may also be tabs for 'Targets' and 'Observations'.  Each of these tabs can be selected to find see their corresponding  subsections. 

Proposal Information

Title

The title of your proposal should be informative, and must not exceed two printed lines. Please do not use all upper case.

Abstract

Write a concise abstract describing the proposed investigation, including the main science goals and the justification for requesting observations or funding from HST. The abstract must be written in standard ASCII (LaTex and unicode are not supported) and should be no longer than 1700 characters. This limit is enforced by APT.

Proposal Phase

No action is required by the proposer at this time. When creating a new proposal, the Phase will automatically be set to ‘PHASE I.’ See HST Proposal Submission Policies for a description of the different phases in the HST proposal process.

Category 

Select one of the following proposal categories:

• GO—General Observer Proposal
• SNAP—Snapshot Proposal
• AR—Archival Research Proposal

Proposals for Director’s Discretionary (DD) Time submitted outside of the normal review cycles should select:
• GO/DD—Director’s Discretionary Time Proposal
     - then select the DD Type – "Time Critical" or "Discovery"

Additional flags (optional)

Table of the possible flags that can be selected by marking the corresponding checkbox and the proposal category where that flag is available.

Coordinated Telescopes

This item appears in the APT form only for GO Proposals when the Mulit-Observatory check box has been selected and HST is chosen as the Primary observatory.

The observatories that can be part of a Joint Observatory program, with HST as primary, are listed and the user can add the requested time for the joint observatories.

Cycle

For a Cycle 34 Proposal, select '34' (this is the default).

Target of Opportunity Number of Activations

For proposals containing Target-of-Opportunity observations, enter the number of times you will need to activate visits over the course of the program.  An activation is defined as a formal request to STScI to execute one or more visits in a specific turn-around time in reaction to a new target or event.  Enter the specific number of activations needed for Non-Disruptive, Disruptive, Ultra Disruptive, and Flexible requests in the corresponding boxes.  The appropriate box(es) will be enabled once a Target-of-Opportunity is specified in an Observation.  To learn more about Target-of-Opportunity observations, see the Target-of-Opportunity (ToO) Observations section.

Orbits This Cycle

This item appears in the APT form only for GO and DD Proposals.

Enter the total number of orbits requested for Primary observations under 'Primary Orbits', and under 'Parallel Orbits' the total number of orbits requested for Coordinated Parallel observations OR enter the total number of orbits requested for Pure Parallel observations. Only whole orbits can be requested, and only whole orbits will be allocated. In general, only the boxes for ‘This Cycle’ need to be filled out. However, Future-Cycle Proposals should provide a year-by-year breakdown of the orbits requested by also filling out the boxes for ‘Orbits Next Cycle’ (Cycle 35) and ‘Orbits Cycle Plus 2’ (Cycle 36).  These appear after selecting the 'Future Cycles' button.  See the Future-Cycle Proposals section of the HST Proposal Categories page for more important instructions on how to enter future-cycle observations into APT.

Proposal Size

APT will automatically fill in this box based on the number of orbits entered above.  This will appear for GO proposals only.

Total Targets

This item appears in the APT form only for SNAP Proposals.

Specify the total number of targets requested. Multiple visits to the same source should be counted as multiple targets. 

Exclusive Access Period

This item appears in the APT form only for GO, SNAP, and DD Proposals.

Select a requested override of the default exclusive access period (formerly known as a proprietary period), of either 0, 3, 6 (months), that will apply to all observations in the program. The default exclusive access period is 0 for Calibration, Large, and Treasury GO Programs, and 6 for SNAP, Very Small GO, Small GO, and Medium GO Programs. The default exclusive access period for all HRS and HPS Initiative proposals is 0. See Data Rights for more information. The benefits of or need for a non-default exclusive access period must be justified in the "Special Requirements" section of the proposal.

Scientific Category

Specify one Scientific Category from the list below. Please adhere to our definitions of these categories. If you find that your proposal fits into several categories, then select the one that you consider most appropriate. If you are submitting a Calibration AR Proposal, then choose the Scientific Category for which your proposed calibration will be most important. STScI reserves the right to re-assign proposals to categories to ensure the highest chance of the proposal being reviewed by the people with the proper expertise.

These Scientific Categories will be used for review panel assignment. Please refer to Appendix B: Science Keywords for a more detailed breakdown.

Alternate Category

If your science goals straddle two separate science categories, you have the option to add an alternate category which will allow keywords from both categories, thus providing more flexibility in where the proposal will be assigned for review.

Science Keywords

From the list of Science Keywords (see Appendix B: Science Keywords), please select those that best describe the science goals of the proposal. Your choices here are important. Based on the keywords that you specify, your proposal will be assigned to specific reviewers during the proposal review. Please give as many keywords as possible. Three to ten keywords are allowed.

Proposal PDF Attachment

List the location on your computer of the PDF file to be attached to your Phase I submission. This file should contain the items described in HST Preparation of the PDF Attachment.

Team Expertise

The next section is called 'Team Expertise', and is a subsection of the 'Proposal Information'. This section is available and should be completed by all proposal categories.

APT will not compromise the anonymous status of the proposal. It will keep the Team Expertise section, including the 'Team Expertise and Background' and investigator information, from the TAC and Panels until they are requested by an authorized person to be utilized for a sensibility check.

Team Expertise and Background

The 'Team Expertise and Background' is a free-format text box to enter the relevant information. See HST Anonymous Proposal Reviews for details on what information to provide here. Please note: the box supports only ASCII text. Special text markup and LaTeX characters will not display correctly.

Investigator Information

Under 'Proposal Information' in the tree on the left, select 'Unnamed PI' or 'Unnamed CoI'.  From anywhere in the 'Proposal Information' section, you can also select 'New' towards the bottom for a 'New Co-I'.

For U.S. PIs, the institutional affiliation is defined as the institution that will receive funding if the proposal is approved.

Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs) and Co-investigators (Co-Is) can be added in APT as necessary in Phase I; once a program is approved (Phase II), Co-PIs and Co-Is can only be added with prior approval. By default, APT will provide one blank Co-I template. Please add other Co-PIs and Co-Is or delete as necessary. There is a limit of 999 Co-PIs and Co-Is on any proposal.

Name Search

Enter the first and/or last name of the investigator. Please use standard ASCII. Entering the first few letters (at least two) and pressing enter or tab will bring up a window containing a list of matches from our proposer database. Clicking on your entry will supply APT with the address information.  Once a name has been selected, the 'Full Name' and 'Employer Institution' will be automatically filled.

If the investigator is not in the database, click on "Add a New Investigator". If one is in the database, but the address information is incorrect, click on "Update This Address." Both clicks will take you to the MyST tool so you can be added to, or update information in, the database. Once you have updated your MyST, you must redo the investigator Name Search to supply APT with the updated information.

US Admin CoI

This only appears on the PI page. If a proposal has a non-U.S. PI and one or more U.S. Co-Is, then you must select one of the U.S. Co-Is to be the US Admin Co-I, who will oversee the grant funding for U.S. investigators.

Co-Principal Investigator

This appears on the CoI pages.  Select the check-box if the CoI should be considered as a Co-PI.

Phase I Contact

Select this check box for any investigators that should serve as a Phase I contact.  Any person may be designated as the Phase I Contact, where the PI is selected by default, and you may select multiple Phase I contacts.

For Large and Treasury Programs, we will contact the proposer within 1-2 weeks of the submission deadline if we need to verify our understanding of the appropriate scheduling constraints. If a Co-Investigator is to serve as the contact for this verification, then the Phase I Contact box should be set accordingly.

Targets

This section will appear for GO, SNAP, or DD proposals. Your proposal can include observations of fixed targets (i.e., all targets outside the solar system whose positions can be defined by specific celestial coordinates), generic targets (i.e., targets defined by certain general properties, rather than by specific coordinates), and solar-system targets (i.e., moving targets). Targets that have not yet been discovered or identified may generally be included only under special circumstances, and should be given generic target names.

GO Proposals must include a list of all targets. For proposals with a large number of fixed targets, there is a capability to import a comma-separated text file with the appropriate target information. See the Target Ingest documentation for more details.

A complete list of targets is not required for SNAP proposals during Phase I.  See Snapshot (SNAP) Proposals for more guidelines on crafting SNAP proposals.

Target Number

Each target in your proposal will be assigned a unique number by APT. A different target must be defined when different coordinates or a different target description are required. Separate targets should be defined and listed if observations are planned at several points within an extended object. For example, acquiring spectra at three different locations within the Crab nebula requires each point to have its own target number, name and coordinates, such as CRAB1, CRAB2 and CRAB3. However, if you are proposing a large field mosaic with the same exposures at each point, you may define one target for the object. You should specify in the Description of Observations the exact number of fields you plan to observe.

Target Name

The target naming conventions for HST are defined in detail in the HST Phase II Proposal Instructions (there are special conventions for Moving Targets). Please adhere to these naming conventions throughout your proposal. For generic targets use a short text description either of the target location (e.g., RANDOM-FIELD) or of the target itself (e.g., NEXT-SUPERNOVA).

Provisional Coordinates

Supply the coordinates for fixed targets only. In Phase I, target positions with accuracies of ~1 arc minute are sufficient for the TAC and panel review (except in crowded fields where the identity of the target may be in question). However, in Phase II significantly more accurate coordinates will be required, and it is the responsibility of the proposers to provide these. See the STScI Phase II documentation for details.

V-Magnitude

A magnitude or flux should be specified for every target. Supply the V-magnitude for the entire target (galaxy, planet, etc.), if known. In the case of observations with ACS/SBC, STIS/MAMA, or COS, specify the V-magnitude of the brightest object in the field of view (this may not be the primary target). For variable targets, give the brightest V-magnitude expected during the observations. The configurations mentioned above have detectors with bright-object safety limits, and observations that violate those limits are infeasible. See the Bright-Object Constraints section of the HST Primer, or the respective Instrument Handbook for details. With the exception of the safety checks, this information is used only for scientific review, not for exposure-time calculations. It is not required to specify the V-magnitude or flux for generic targets.

Other Fluxes

For each target you should specify either a V-magnitude or another magnitude or flux.  For all MAMA (STIS and ACS) and COS instrument observations, a V-magnitude is required.

Supply the apparent total magnitude or flux in the relevant passband for the entire target (galaxy, planet, etc.), if known. For variable targets, give the brightest magnitude expected during the observations. This information is used only for scientific review, not for exposure-time calculations. The format is free text.

Observations

This item appears in the APT form only for GO, SNAP, and DD Proposals.

The "Observations Summary" (OS) in the PDF that the TAC reviews is generated from the information supplied in the Targets and Observations folders in APT. The OS lists the main characteristics of the observations that you propose to obtain. In general you must include in the OS all the configurations, modes, and spectral elements that you propose to use. Configurations or targets that are not specified in the Phase I proposal, but are included in Phase II, may delay the program implementation, and may be disallowed. Note the following:

• The APT Observations folder should only contain the observations corresponding to the current cycle. See the Future-Cycle Proposals section of the HST Proposal Categories page for more important instructions on how to enter future-cycle observations into APT.
• Parallel observations must be included in the OS, and marked as such using the relevant Flags (see the table below).
• Target acquisition observations need not be included in the OS, unless they are themselves used for scientific analysis.
• Normal calibration observations that are often or routinely taken (e.g, fringe flats) need not be included in the OS. However, the OS should include any special calibration exposures of internal sources or external targets. Special internal calibrations should be listed separately from external calibration exposures. When these special calibrations require additional orbits, that should be specified and the orbits included in the total allocation. The need for these calibrations should be justified in the "Description of the Observations" section of the proposal.

All exposures of a given target made with a particular instrument may be summarized in a single observation; observations of the same target with a second instrument (e.g., coordinated parallels) must be specified in a separate observation.

Observations are numbered sequentially in the APT Phase I proposal form. Each observation should include the items that are listed and discussed below in separate sub-sections.

To start a new observation, select 'New Observation' or 'New' towards the bottom of the page.

Number

Automatically populated by APT.

Target

Select the target from the pull-down menu. The menu will contain all the targets you have entered in the “Targets” folder.

Instrument

Select an instrument from the pull-down menu. The menu will contain all the available instruments. Only one instrument can be selected in each observation.

Instrument Setup(s)

Under “Instrument Setups” click on “Add.” This will bring up a pop-up menu which will allow you to select the parameters for an observation with the selected instrument (e.g., config, science mode, spectral elements).  Note that you can create multiple Instrument Setup(s) for this instrument in one Observation.

Number of Orbits

Enter the number of orbits requested (i.e., the sum of the orbits required for all the instrument setups in the observation). Consult Orbit Calculation Overview for instructions on how to calculate the appropriate number of orbits for your observations.

Number of Iterations

If you require multiple sets of observations, enter the number of iterations (for example, if you will reobserve at a different time or if you have a large mosaic).

Total Orbits

APT will automatically populate the total orbits based on the number of orbits and number of iterations.

Estimated Orbital Visibility

APT will automatically provide an estimated orbital visibility in minutes (or period) per orbit. This number is used to estimate how many orbits of HST time will be needed for a particular observation. Estimated orbital visibility is based on the target declination as well as flags and scheduling requirements that affect the visibility period. 

Flags

Use these flags/checkboxes to set special requirements, if applicable. The meanings of the check-boxes are indicated in the table below.  For SNAP observations, select only the 'duplication' or 'coordinated parallel' check-boxes.

Table:  Summary Flags for the Observations

Scheduling Requirements

With the exception of observations of solar system or generic targets, proposers must provide any additional scheduling information or constraints in the Phase I proposal. This information will help STScI understand and assess the scheduling implications of your program. Be sure to fill out the Description of the Observations and Special Requirements sections, as those are the primary places for describing your observing strategy, including any justification for special requirements. Some special requirements are used when running the Visit Planner and others show up as flags only.

The following requirements, described in detail below, must be specified in Phase I to be implemented in Phase II:

SHADOW, LOW SKY, SAME ORIENT, ORIENT RANGES, BETWEEN, AFTER OBSERVATION BY, AND PERIOD.

For Large and Treasury Programs, STScI will contact the proposer within 1-2 weeks of the Phase II submission deadline if STScI needs to verify its understanding of the appropriate scheduling constraints. As noted previously, if a Co-I is to serve as the contact for this verification process, the Contact Co-I keyword box should be set.

Next: HST Preparation of the PDF Attachment