October 31, 1997 marked the release of NASA Research Announcement (NRA 97-OSS-14) for AXAF Cycle 1 General Observers. Proposals are due by 5:00 PM (EST), February 2, 1998. The first two months following the AXAF launch are scheduled for activation and on-orbit calibration. The AXAF team is working to make this interval as short as possible. All calibration data obtained on-orbit are non-proprietary and will be available for the general scientific community to peruse and analyze immediately. The next two months on-orbit are 100% Guaranteed Observer (Instrument Principal Investigators, Telescope Scientist, and Interdisciplinary Scientists) time, and the following 9 months are 30% GTO and 70% General Observer time. These 2+9 months comprise AXAF Cycle 1.
The AXAF Cycle 1 NRA can be found on the World-Wide-Web at:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oss/
by clicking on Research Opportunities and then NRA 97-OSS-14. At this web-site, one can find details of the NRA including AXAF Observing Policy, and various Appendices and Forms which can be downloaded along with the NRA in a variety of formats.
From the NRA or by entering the URL
users can reach the ASC homepage. There they can find the AXAF Proposers' Guide and AXAF Observatory Guide (which can be read on the Web, downloaded electronically, or requested in hard copy), along with a suite of proposal planning and submission tools and a list of GTO targets for Cycle 1. We encourage potential proposers to visit these sites early and often - the power of AXAF as an astronomical observatory is accompanied by some complexity in planning scientific proposals. The ASC User Support Group is also available to answer questions and assist potential proposers (most easily reached via on-line Web contact forms or e-mail to: usupport@cfa.harvard.edu ). The ASC staff also gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the MSFC Project Science Team and the AXAF IPI teams in generating the documents and tools provided with this NRA.
Since this is the first GO Cycle for AXAF, we expect there to be a few ``rough edges" and ask for your patience in dealing with such when you encounter them. We welcome feedback on all of the documents, forms, tools, etc so that we can fold in your comments and improve the package for subsequent cycles.
Harvey Tananbaum