Call for Proposals for DECam Science Verification

Science Verification of the Dark Energy Camera on the Blanco 4m Telescope

DEADLINE: April 15, 2012, at 11:59pm Mountain Standard Time

Dark Energy Camera (DECam) [2] is the new high-performance, wide-field CCD imager for the prime focus of the Blanco 4-m telescope at CTIO.   The DECam imager contains 62 CCDs for science with 519 megapixels, and at the Blanco telescope's prime focus, will image 3 square degrees (2.2 degree wide field) at 0.27 arcsecond/pixel resolution.

DECam is expected to achieve first light in August 2012, and be commissioned during the August/September timeframe. Immediately after the engineering commissioning, which involves testing all of the components of the DECam system, we anticipate launching into a phase of Science Verification observations, which will be driven by a combination of staff and community proposals to fully test DECam as a scientifically productive system (including the camera hardware, control software, and data reduction and archiving systems).  More information about the capabilities and technical specifications of DECam, including the exposure time calculator, is available on the instrument webpage at http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/dark-energy-camera-decam [2].

With this call for proposals (CfP), we are announcing the opportunity for community involvement in the DECam SV process.  
Proposals are due April 15, 2012.  This SV process is complementary and parallel to shared risk proposals submitted through the normal 2012B CfP.

For more information on proposing for science verification observations with DECam, please see the full announcement at: http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/call-proposals-decam-science-verification [3]