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The last meeting of the Calar Alto Time Allocation Committee was held on October, 21/22 2004 at the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. In total, 102 proposal for the spring semester 2005 had to be reviewed. They split of in 68 proposals (28 German, 34 Spanish, 8 International) for open time at the 3.5m telescope and 34 proposals (17 German, 13 Spanish, 4 International) for open time at the 2.2m telescope. The oversubscription was ~2.1 at the 3.5m telescope, while it was almost exactly 1 at the 2.2m telescope. As in previous semesters, the oversubscription was similar for Geman and Spanish time. Compared to the last semesters, a similar number of proposals was submitted for the 3.5m telescope albeit the much lower oversubscription rate. This is due to the on average less number of nights per proposal applied for and may be a consequence of the high oversubscription (~3-4) we have seen in the last semesters. The practically nonexistent oversubscription for the 2.2m telescope is somewhat worrysome and may reflect the the need for more attractive instrumentation for this particular telescope. It should be emphasized here that the joint working group on Calar Alto instrumentation consisting of member from the IAA and MPIA is currently discussing and evaluating potential upgrades. Further information can be obtained from the chairman of the working group ( Josef Fried). In order to work more efficient and in order to judge the proposals close to the cutoff line even more in detail, a new evaluation procedure was adopted for the proposals submitted for the 3.5m telescope. As explained in the last newsletter ( The Calar Alto Time Allocation Committee - how it works ), 2 referees evaluate a proposal before the meeting and provide comments and preliminary grades, which are circulated among all TAC members. Based on this preliminary grades, the lowest ranked 25% of all proposals (except those with a KO proint) were identified and initially rejected. This was the case for all proposal with an initial grade of 1.95. Then the remaining proposals were discussed one by one. However, if any of the TAC members wanted a discussion of an initially rejected proposal this was done then (and happened in a few cases). During the final discussion at the end of the meeting it became apparent that this new strategy is a very good way to select the best proposals out of the traditionally huge "gray area", where most of the proposal lie. This procedure is not new, though. The TACs of the HST and the Spitzer telescope, for example, work very similar. In the end, 31 proposals (11 German, 17 Spanish, 3 International) were accepted for the 3.5m telescope and 32 proposals (15 German, 13 Spanish, 3 International) were accepted for the 2.2m telescope. The cutoff was 1.45 for the 3.5m telescope and 2.05 for the 2.2m telescope. Both, the MPIA and CSIC made full use of their guaranteed time at the 3.5m, which is now taken as up to 1/6 of the available open time per partner (after subtraction of DDT, technical time and international time). For the 2.2m telescope, only one guaranteed time proposal had to be scheduled. Remarkably, more proposals from Spain as from Germany were accepted this time, which simply reflects the high quality of the Spanish proposals. Looking back over the last semester an increase in the quality of observing proposals from Spain (both, in terms of the science and the way they are written) is obvious! For the final schedule of the 3.5m telescope, however, a few changes had to be made. Many proposals were accepted for the March period (initially, March was overbooked by a factor of 3), causing serious scheduling problems while May and June were hardly oversubscribed. Luckily, most but not all of the accepted March proposals could still be incorporated by e.g. shifting them into other months for 1/2 nights observations. Scheduling problems were also seen for January. Quite a few proposals asking for observations in Perseus and Orion during the first half of the night in January were submitted and many of them initially accepted. It was impossible to schedule all of them. As a consequence, the TAC will be check in the future the seasonal coverage of the targets which shall be observed in more detail and will eventually be more strict to refuse proposals asking for non-optimal nightly coverage. The next TAC meeting will be held on April, 28/29 2005 again at the MPIA in Heidelberg just after the Calar Alto Colloquium which will be held from April, 27/28 2005. To make the Calar Alto Colloquium more attractive especially for interested Calar Alto users from Spain (which may suffer from travel grants to attend the meeting) and to promote German-Spanish collaboration, the Calar Alto directiorate has decided - based upon a recommendation by the TAC - to offer travel grants for up to ~30 Spanish CAHA-users (prefereably young researchers) to attend the next CAHA Colloquium. An announcement for the Calar Alto Colloquium and the procedure of how to apply for grants will be made in early 2005. This should allow early (and thus cheap) booking of flights. We hope that this will led to a well-packed and stimulating Calar Alto Colloquium with strong interaction between Spanish and German astronomers. This newly incorporated funding option shall also be offered in the future, i.e. for the Calar Alto Colloquium to be held in spring 2006 in Granada grants will then be available for German astronomers. Hope to see all of you next April in Heidelberg! Jochen Heidt |