Director's Discretionary Time Submission Page

In the our continuing effort to streamline our systems and improve service to the science community, the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is developing and releasing, APT - The Astronomer's Proposal Tool as the new interface for Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Phase I and Phase II proposal submissions for HST Cycle 12 and beyond. APT, was formerly called the Scientist's Expert Assitant (SEA), which started as a prototype effort to try and bring state of the art technology, more visual tools and power into the hands of proposers so that they can optimize the scientific return of their programs as well as HST.

To be consistent with the normal HST Phase I submission process, we are asking Scientists wishing to request Director's Discretionary (DD) time to use APT to submit their DD programs and to provide us feedback on their use of this new tool via the Submission comments section of the APT Submission process. To download and install APT, as well as review the APT help documentation and "How to Submit" a Phase I program you can go to Phase I Roadmap. You will be providing the "Coverpage" information via the APT tool and you will attach your scientific justification and observation description as a PDF attachment to your submission. More detailed information is below as well as in the "How to Submit" documentation.

If you would like a template to use for your Scientific Justification go to the Current Cycle Announcement Page.

Upon completion of your DD submission, your DD program will be transferred to the STScI for processing by our DD team. If you run into problems submitting a DD Request, send mail to help@stsci.edu for investigation/resolution.

Please refer to the latest Call for Proposals for the policies regarding DD proposals.

Proposals for DD time must be sufficiently detailed for adequate evaluation. The required level of detail is the same as for proposals submitted for the regular observing cycles, as described in the latest Call for Proposals. Among other things, the proposed observations and the use of DD time must both be explicitly justified, there must be an adequate description of how the proposed observations relate to the current state of knowledge, and the proposed observations must be described in sufficient detail to allow technical evaluation.

Summary of APT DD Required Items

Coverpage Information:

• Title
• Abstract
• Category
• Cycle
• Primary orbits
• Parallel orbits
• Institution Identifying ID (This is the number that the PI's institution assigns as their internal identifying number. The PI would get this number from the sponsored programs office at his/her institution. )
• Proprietary Period (Generally zero for DD programs. )
• Scientific Category
• Science Keywords
• Justification PDF Attachment

Investigator Information: Full address for PI and limited for CoIs

Observations: Repeat for as many observations as required.

• Target Name, Coordinates, Magnitude
• Configuration
• Science Mode
• Spectral Elements
• Total Orbits
• Observation Flags

Proposal Justification Information PDF Attachment:

• Rationale for DD time: Explain why DD time is required; i.e., why the proposal was not submitted to the most recent TAC, or why the proposal cannot wait until the next TAC for evaluation.
• Scientific Justification: Provide a scientific justification to allow for scientific evaluation.
• Description of Observations: Provide a description of the proposed observations. Explain the amount of exposure time and number of orbits requested (e.g., number of objects, examples of exposure-time calculations and orbit estimations for some typical observations, etc.). Explicitly describe any non-standard calibration requirements and observations.
• Scheduling Requirements: Provide any special scheduling requirements (such as required and desired execution windows, special orientation or background requirements, and time links to HST or other observations) to allow for scheduling impact assessment. For minimum schedule disruption, STScI requires that all observing information be submitted at least 2 months prior to execution, in cases where this is possible.
• Related Proposals: List and discuss any HST proposals that you submitted as PI or CoI in the last 2 years (DD time included) on topics that are directly related to the subject of the present DD proposal. Please discuss whether these proposals were accepted or rejected; in the former case, discuss the status of the observations and interpretation.