1.2 New and Important Features of Cycle 19

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During Servicing Mission 4 (SM4, see Appendix B.1.7 of the HST Primer) in May 2009 Space Shuttle astronauts installed two new instruments, Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), together with other flight hardware. WFC3 has replaced Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) as the on-axis instrument; COS has replaced COSTAR. In addition, during SM4 astronauts repaired the electronics on the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The ACS Wide Field Camera (ACS/WFC) and the ACS Solar Blind Channel are operating nominally. The ACS High Resolution Camera (ACS/HRC) could not be recovered during SM4 and is not operational.

•	Cycle 18 observations will end on September 30, 2011, and Cycle 19 will extend from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012.

•	We will accept proposals for the following instruments in Cycle 19: two cameras on ACS: the ACS/WFC and the ACS/SBC, NICMOS, COS, FGS, STIS, and WFC3.

Proposers to Cycle 19 should be aware that the instrument complement offered is subject to change. Please consult the Cycle 19 Announcement Web Page for up to date information on the status of HST instrumentation.

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Proposers wishing to use the unique capabilities of NICMOS in Cycle 19 should assume that NICMOS will operate nominally.  All submitted NICMOS proposals will be judged on their scientific merit alongside other Cycle 19 proposals received in this Call. Because of  observatory power and scheduling constraints in future cycles, this is the last planned call for new NICMOS proposals. The NICMOS Cooling System (NCS), which is required to maintain NICMOS at its nominal operating temperature for science observations, is currently disabled.  In order for the NCS to be brought back on line, it will be necessary to purge the cooling system of its Neon coolant and replenish the system with fresh Neon from an onboard reserve. There is no guarantee that this sequence of events will result in successful NCS operation. However, the procedures for purging, refilling and restarting the cooling system have been developed and are in place to be used if  there is a compelling science demand for NICMOS observations. The Cycle 19 Time Allocation Committee recommendations will factor strongly into the decision about whether or not to attempt the recovery of the NCS. Any updates on the status of the NICMOS or NCS will be posted on the "Late breaking news" section on the Cycle 19 Announcement Page and the NICMOS web site.

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The COS Science team has been allocated 555 orbits for Guaranteed Time Observations. Most of these orbits were included in the Cycle 17 and 18 observing plans, but some of the visits have yet to be executed. GTO programs are protected against duplication by General Observers (GOs), as described in Section 5.2.1. Individual observations can be checked for GTO duplications using tools provided by the HST Data Archive (See Section 1.4.7). COS GTO data have a 12 month proprietary period. A summary of the GTO programs that will be implemented in Cycle 19 can be found at http://www.stsci.edu/hst/proposing/docs/COS-GTO

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Target of Opportunity programs are divided into two categories: disruptive ToO programs, which are rapid-response observations that require revision of an existing HST observing schedule; and non-disruptive ToOs, which can be accommodated within the standard scheduling process. Disruptive ToOs typically require observations within 2-3 weeks of activation. Implementation of disruptive ToOs demands significant resources, and their number is limited to 8 in Cycle 19. Proposers should refer to Section 4.1.2 for more information on the ToO policy and to the ToO webpage for specific examples.

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Investigator address information is necessary for completing an APT Phase I proposal. A new web based application - ProPer - is available for updating address information and for requesting a new person to be added to the STScI address database. Access to the application is available at http://gms.stsci.edu/proper/profile. The ProPer Application will replace use of the addr-chg@stsci.edu  email address for submitting investigator address changes.

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Up to 60 hours of time on the Spitzer Space Telescope will be awarded for joint HST-Spitzer programs in Cycle 19. Proposed projects must be of a fundamentally multi-wavelength nature, and both HST and Spitzer observations are required to meet the science goals. Proposers may request up to 20 hours of Spitzer time for any Regular HST program and up to 50 hours for any Large proposal.

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Proposers submitting Theory or Regular Archive (AR) or Legacy proposals are no longer required to provide a numerical estimate of the required budget. Rather, the proposals should be identified as SMALL if the expected budget is less than $60,000; MEDIUM if the expected budget is between $60,000 and $120,000; and Legacy if the expected budget exceeds $120,000. As in past cycles, Legacy programs will be assessed by the TAC. The final budget for accepted programs will be assessed by the Financial Review Committee.

The following features also deserve special mention, but have not changed since the last cycle:

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STScI experience with scheduling Large and Treasury Programs in Cycles 11 through 16 has shown that some programs can introduce substantial difficulties in developing an effective and efficient long-range observing schedule. Proposers submitting Large and Treasury Programs are asked to include additional technical details (e.g., orient constraints, tiling strategy for large mosaic programs and time constraints) in the “Description of the Observations” section (see Section 9.2) to provide information on the scheduling aspects of their program.

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The HST pointing control system and the HST scheduling systems were not designed to support observations of objects as close as the Moon. Nonetheless, observations are possible under gyro control in three-gyro mode. Planning and scheduling such observations place strong demands on the available resources. Consequently, while GO proposals to observe the Moon can be submitted for consideration by the Cycle 19 TAC, these proposals must use observing strategies that have been used in previous HST lunar observing programs (see the Lunar Observations User Information Report).

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In addition to the proposal categories that have existed for many cycles, STScI continues to solicit proposals in the categories of ‘Treasury Proposals’ (see Section 3.2.5), ‘Theory Proposals’ (see Section 3.4.4) and ‘Legacy AR Proposals’ (see Section 3.4.2), all of which were started successfully in Cycle 11. Also, it remains possible to request observing time on Chandra (see Section 3.5) and NOAO telescopes (see Section 3.6) in combination with requests for HST observations.