- Read the e-mails
You should have received two important e-mails: The award letter
from Dr. Mountain contains your Program
Coordinator's contact information, the proposal's Phase II Proposal ID
number, TAC approved allocation, and TAC comments. A few days after the award letter
you should get an e-mail from your PC. Please read both letters.
- Install the latest version of APT
The version of APT that you used in Phase I needs to be replaced with
the current release. Please download
and install the latest version of APT for
Windows,
Linux,
Solaris, or
Mac OS X.
If you are at STScI, APT has already been installed on the unix
clusters. This may also be true for other astronomy department and
institutions (but please ensure that the version is current).
- Get set up to view training movies
While most of the documentation for APT is available in both flash movie
and text form, the movies are better for learning how to use APT
the first time. The APT Training
Materials page helps you get set up to view the movies.
- Get familiar with APT
Here is some good general getting started documentation:
- Start APT and load your Phase I proposal
- You can retrieve your proposal from STScI within APT by using File > Retrieve from STScI
- Or you can start with your own copy of the submitted proposal
- Convert your Phase I proposal to Phase II proposal
- Click on your proposal to select it
- Push the button that says
Phase I->II
- When prompted, decide if you want to copy over the Phase I target coordinates.
- Converted proposal will contain title, abstract, investigator list, and target list
- Fill in the remaining Proposal Information
- In APT, click on the Proposal Information folder
- Fill in the Phase II ID (if you started with a local copy of the Phase I)
- Fill in observing description (this may be copied from your PDF attachment and edited with any changes in strategy)
- Update the Target Information
In APT, open the targets folder 
and fill in the remaining required information for each target using
the Phase II Proposal Instructions (P2PI).
(You can use APT's context sensitive help to take you to the
appropriate reference for each field, you can click on the links here
to get an html version of the appropriate section, or you can bring up
the
PDF version of the P2PI and navigate to the appropriate
section.)
Note that HST operations have switched from the GSC1 reference
frame to the GSC2 reference frame. If you already have GSC1 coordinates
(from a previous program), there is
a simple web-based conversion
tool available. DSS images from the
Phase II
download site already have the GSC2 world coordinate system
in place, so coordinates measurements will be in the GSC2 reference frame.
- Pattern Specification
You may need to create pattern specifications if you:
- Need to dither (see section Appendix D.3.1
in the NICMOS Handbook,
7.4 in the ACS Handbook,
11.3 in
the STIS Handbook, or
6.10 (UVIS)
or
7.10 (IR)
in the WFC3 Handbook)
- Need to chop (see section Appendix D.3.2 in the NICMOS Handbook)
- Need to create a mosaic (Alternatives to patterns are many different targets
specifications or exposures with different POS TARG offsets. These are
necessary when the mosaic must be completed with multiple visits.)
If you do need to create pattern specifications:
- Define a Visit
- In APT, select the Visits folder
and click on "New Visit"
- Helpful information about visits:
- Input the necessary visit level special requirements (see P2PI table 7.1)
- Requirements from Phase I were not copied so reenter those
- Add Phase II specific scheduling requirements
- Enter one Exposure
-
In APT, open the first Visit's folder
and select the first exposure
- Helpful information about exposures:
- Instrument specific information in the P2PI
- Patterns
If this exposure will use a pattern specification you have defined you
need to create a pattern container
- In APT (with the exposure selected) click on the button that says
New Pattern
- Drag the exposure into this container. If more than one
exposure will be done at each pattern point, create the next
exposure while the container is selected.
- Use APT's context sensitive help or go to Chapter 8 of the
P2PI
- See the APT Training materials: Creating patterns: Movie (4.5 minutes) or Text equivalent , (ECF mirror copy of movie)
- Parallels
If this exposure will have one or more coordinated parallel exposures, you will
need to create a parallel container.
- In APT (with the exposure selected) click on the button that says
New Parallel
- Drag the primary exposure into this container. Create the parallel
exposure while the container is selected.
- Information on coordinated parallels is in section 6.3 of the P2PI
- See the APT Training materials: Creating coordinated parallel observations: Movie (3 minutes) or Text equivalent, (ECF mirror copy of movie)
- Coordinated parallels must have been approved
by the TAC in Phase I.
- Non-Interruptible Sequences
If this exposure and the following ones must be done without
interruption, you will need to create a Non-Interruptible
Sequence container.
- Complete the rest of the exposures in the visit
- See how the exposures fit in orbits
- In APT, click on the Orbit Planner tool
- See the APT training material on running the Orbit
Planner:
- See how the visit schedules
- In APT, click on the Visit Planner tool
- Note that you may see minor discrepancies with Phase I Visit
planner (which was an approximation) and that it takes more time to run than previous planners
- See the APT training material on running the Visit Planner:
- Review your completed visit specification
- Perform Bright Object Checking
If there are exposures in one of the photon-counting UV detectors (ACS/SBC,
COS/FUV, COS/NUV, STIS/FUV-MAMA, or STIS/NUV-MAMA), you will need to perform bright object checking on both the primary
science target and all objects in the detector macroaperture.
- for the prime target, use the appropriate Exposure Time Calculator
- for the field objects, use the Bright Object Tool (BOT) in APT
- See the APT training material on running the Bright Object Tool:
- Graphically preview your visit against an image (optional)
- In APT, click on the Aladin interface tool
- There is text documentation for how to use Aladin available under the Help menu
- You can find additional documentation on Aladin on the APT training materials Page
- Make the rest of the visits (and process and review them)
- Submit
- In APT, click on the Submit tool
- Click on the Submit Phase II button
- If there are remaining warnings (but you understand them)
or there are remaining errors (and your PC says they are OK)
please type a short explanation in the pop up box and the
submit button on the pop up box will become active.
- Give us feedback
This roadmap was created in response to feedback from several
users. If you found it helpful, or have suggestions for making it
better, please let us know. You can also provide
feedback on other aspects of APT or its documentation. You can send
your comments to your PC or to help@stsci.edu.
Phase II Proposal Roadmap
Fixed Target instructions: P2PI Chapter 3
Solar System Target instructions: P2PI Chapter 4
Generic Target instructions: P2PI Chapter 3.12
and click on "New Pattern Specification"
New Sequence
