PATAG Time Allocations

Teachers and students from schools and colleges within the UK may apply for access to the Liverpool Telescope (LT) via the National Schools Observatory.

A limited amount of telescope time is also available to amateur or semi-professional astronomers through the PATAG program. This is allocated at the discretion of the observatory Director. Moreover, the LT group does not guarantee that data will be acquired. Professional research astronomers should NOT apply for telescope time through the PATAG program (see instead the Phase 1 link on the sidebar).

Note also that only a limited amount of support is available to users. Data are automatically distributed as FITS format pixel data for manipulation in a variety of astronomical imaging packages, e.g., DS9 or GAIA and also as preview JPEGs.

Those wishing to request observations under the PATAG programme are invited to submit a request to the LT Astronomer-in-Charge, via the LT Phase1 email account. Emails should be in plain text only. Do not use any postscript template files and please ensure any necessary plots and figures are a suitable size for email attachment; no large images. Applications must include the following information:

  • Your name
  • Your email address
  • A list of targets with their coordinates
  • A reason why you would like the proposed observations (500 words maximum)
  • Optional: A note about the instrument or instruments you are interested in. Include here any special observing requests (300 words maximum)
  • A brief description of how the data will be used, e.g., research, educational purposes, promotion of the LT, etc. (100 words maximum)
  • Optional: Links to external web sites that include examples of your work, references, etc.

PATAG proposals may be submitted at any time, though note that observing time is allocated on a semester by semester basis (see below). Semester A runs from 1 January to 31 August each year; semester B runs from 1 July to 28 February.

The LT group and Liverpool John Moores University also reserve the right to use data obtained for a PATAG programme however they please. Usually this means that we may post an image on our Facebook or Flickr pages, or use it for other outreach purposes (e.g., in talks, posters and university press releases). Proposers will be acknowledged wherever possible.

Please remember that the LT is an expensive facility to operate and is designed for serious scientific investigations. Proposals which seek images for no other reason than 'I'd like to have a go' or 'the images will look nice' will probably be rejected. Requests for more than an hour or two of telescope time are also likely to be rejected.

Finally, despite all the dire warnings above, we do not want to discourage non-frivilous applications. A lot of serious and exciting astronomical research is done all over the World by non-professional observers and their contribution is much valued.

Programmes that have been awarded PATAG time in current and previous semesters are listed below.

Semester22A 4 hours awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank Time
Allocation
XAZ22A01 AZ22A01 Filipp Romanov Z 4

 

Semester21A 4 hours awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank Time
Allocation
XAL21A01 AL21A01 Filipp Romanov B 4

 

Semester 20A 1.5 hours awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank Time
Allocation
XAL20A01 AL20A01 Guy Wells C 1.5

 

Semester 19A 0.5 hours awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank Time
Allocation
XAL19A01 AL19A01 Harold Heaton C 0.5

 

Semester 15B 4 hours awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank Time
Allocation
XAL12B02 AL15A01 Nick Howes C 4

 

Semester 15A 4 hours awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank Time
Allocation
XAL12B02 AL15A01 Nick Howes C 4
XAL15A02 AL15A02 Claire Houghton C 0.5

 

Semester 14B 3 Hours Awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank Time
Allocation
XAL12B02 PL14A01 Nick Howes C 3

 

Semester 14A 4 Hours Awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank Time
Allocation
XAL12B02 PL14A01 Nick Howes C 3
XAL14A01 AL14A01 Richard Myrie* C 1

*Federation of Astronomical Societies Prize Winner, 2013

 

Semester 13B 6 Hours Awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank MUF
%		 Time
Allocation
XAL12B02AL13B01Nick HowesC 6

 

Semester 13A 9 Hours Awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank MUF
%		 Time
Allocation
XAL10B01AL12B01Simon Coggins-HillC503
XAL12B02AL12B02Nick HowesC 6

 

Semester 12B 6 Hours Awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank MUF
%		 Time
Allocation
XAL10B01AL12B01Simon Coggins-HillC503
XAL12B02AL12B02Nick HowesC 3

 

Semester 12A 3 Hours Awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank MUF
%		 Time
Allocation
XAL10B01AL11B01Simon Coggins-HillB503

 

Semester 11B 12 Hours Awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank MUF
%		 Time
Allocation
XAL10B01AL11B01Simon Coggins-HillB503
XAL11B01AL11B02Nick HowesC759

 

Semester 11A 3 Hours Awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank MUF
%		 Time
Allocation
XAL10B01AL10B01Simon Coggins-HillB503

 

Semester 10B 3 Hours Awarded
Programme Proposal Principal
Investigator		 Rank MUF
%		 Time
Allocation
XAL10B01AL10B01Simon Coggins-HillB503