• March 15, 24:00 GMT (midnight)
  for the autumn semester 2012 (July 1 through December 31)
• September 15, 24:00 GMT (midnight)
  for the spring semester 2013 (January 1 through June 30)

Earliest dates for submission are:

• February 1 for the autumn semester
• August 1 for the spring semester

Please note that deadlines for IAA or MPIA GTO proposals may differ from the above ones.

Proposers coming from European countries different than Germany and Spain are kindly asked to apply via NorthStar/Opticon. Travel funds are available for accepted OPTICON proposals. Please note the different deadlines!

If you would like to get an email reminder in the future to inform you about the start of the next proposal round, send an email to notice"at"caha.es with the subject line "CfP subscribe". In the same way you can unsubscribe from this list with the subject line "CfP unsubscribe".

• Visitor, Service A and Service B programmes
  CAHA will approve programmes in visitor and service mode. Service programmes will be executed as A (priority) and B (backup).
  1. Service A: Only for highly ranked proposals. The observations will be done in queue mode (exceptions see below) and buffer time is allocated to ensure that the obtained data set is complete.
  2. Visitor mode: Only for highly ranked proposals. The observations will be performed by the visiting astronomer in a fixed period. No buffer time will be reserved.
  3. Service B: These programmes are scheduled as backup, when all Service A programmes (including those for guaranteed time) have got their data or they cannot be executed. This implies that time for these programmes is allocated generally towards the end of the semester and only proposals whose objects have the appropriate RA can be considered, or when medium weather conditions are acceptable.
  
  
• Open time restrictions at the 3.5m telescope
  Due to the large amount of dark time needed by the CALIFA legacy survey and the guaranteed time programmes, there is no dark time available at the 3.5m telescope (+-5 nights around new moon). Please take this into account when writing your proposal.

  For the same reason the total number of nights offered for open time proposals is about 55. Please note that this number is a maximum and depends on the success of the service A observations (guaranteed, visitor and open time). Observations in Service B will only be performed after completion of Service A, visitor and GTO programmes, which will be mainly the case towards the end of the semester.
  

• Open time at the 2.2m telescope
  90 nights are offered for open time at the 2.2m telescope. As in the 3.5m telescope this is a maximum and depends on the completion of service A observations.

• Changes in the rules for open time service observations
  Programmes in service mode are generally performed during service blocks. Although tentatively observing slots are assigned for each programme, the observations will be performed in a kind of queue mode. This gives the observatory more flexibility to react on changing observing conditions, so that the programmes will benefit from higher efficiency.

  In contrast to other instruments, whose configuration can be changed quickly between one programme and another, PMAS, TWIN and MAGIC need more time for setup changes. This implies that the configuration cannot be changed during the night and thus a queue scheduling is difficult, if not impossible. For this reason (and only for these three instruments), the rules for observations in service mode are changed in the sense that

  • "Service mode" means "delegated service", i.e CAHA staff will carry out the observations, but on specific dates, without compensation for weather losses.
  • The TAC will approve only programmes requesting whole nights.
  • Programmes requesting few hours for several nights will not be approved. They should propose a secondary program (in the back-up section) for the rest of the night, which has to be approved by the TAC, and being above the cut-off.
  • If the requested observing conditions are demanding (good seeing, photometric, etc), a back-up programme should be included, just as in the case of the "Visitor Mode" programs. The back-up programme should be discussed and approved by the TAC.
  • For proposals requesting PMAS, we encourage the use of the gratings V500 and V1200 when feasible (CALIFA set-up). The need of any other grating should be justified.

  For instruments different to PMAS, TWIN and MAGIC, proposals requesting fraction of nights can be accepted as only as "Service mode". They should be exceptional and very well justified, and should receive a high grade by the TAC.

• CAFE - the Calar Alto Fiber-fed Echelle spectrograph - is ready
  CAFE replaces the FOCES spectrograph, which is property of the University of Munich and was removed from Calar Alto in 2010. The resolution of the new instrument is comparable with that of FOCES, the efficiency is even higher. Find details here:       http://www.caha.es/CAHA/Instruments/CAFE/
  
  
• OMEGA-Cass
  OMEGA-Cass is decommissioned and thus no longer available.
  
  
• Proprietary period for observing data
  All observing data will be made public by the Virtual Observatory (VO), Madrid, after a proprietary period of one year after the end of the observation. This does not apply for IAA and MPIA guaranteed time proposals.
  
  
• OPTICON funding only for the 2.2m telescope
  Please note that this semester no OPTICON funded nights are offered in the 3.5m telescope. For the 2.2m telescope 5 nights are available.
  Observers who intend to apply for funding have to submit their application via the NORTHSTAR tool:
  http://proposal.astro-opticon.org/
  Please note the different deadlines.
  
  
• DFG funding
  The deadlines for applications for DFG funding are as follows:
  • Spring semester: 15.11.
  • Autumn semester: 15.05.
  Please note: The proposal has to follow the current format of Sachbeihilfe/Individual Grant as described in the DFG Guidelines 1.02.
  
  

• Application procedure
• Application types