Target-of-Opportunity, Monitoring & Fast-track Service Programs

The so-called Nordic service nights were originally introduced to execute the fast-track service programs. With time, and the increase of the number of ToO and Monitoring observing programs (typically adding up to 40+ nights in total in any given semester) that are executed throughout the semester, these nights have more and more been used to fit in observations for these programs. With the introduction of the new rules for the allocation of observing time and user contributions, we now also offer full compensation of time lost due to observations for ToO or Monitoring programs during regular observing runs. In particular, the compensation observations and a fair fraction of the Monitoring programs are executed through the same system that manages the Fast-track programs, and the number of Nordic service nights have been increased over the last few semesters for this purpose.

As users contributions are now required, properly managing the ToO, Monitoring & Fast-track Service Programmes have become more and more of an issue. A new software suite has been developed for this purpose which includes features such as a stand-alone interface for reporting program execution and a sophisticated tracking system that allows the PI to keep a detailed record of observations. From a management point of view, the system allows for a precise bookkeeping of the time spent for each program. This system will be further upgraded when all observations can be managed through the Observing Block generator, and the use of Observing Blocks will be obligatory.

The specific scheduling of the different Monitoring programs is now managed through a data-base system. The information in the data-base is used as input to our operational schedule, for checking of scheduling conflicts and for displaying the monitoring-schedule information for the observing staff (which include reminders to the staff by email).