NIRSpec APT Templates

A JWST observing program that uses the NIRSpec instrument is designed by using one of the NIRSpec templates in the Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT).

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NIRSpec offers 4 observing modes: multi-object spectroscopy, IFU spectroscopy, fixed slits spectroscopy, and bright object time-series spectroscopy. Each mode has its own APT template.


Step-by-step in APT

The step-by-step instructions for using the NIRSpec observing templates in the APT are provided in the following articles:

Additional information on all available options and restrictions for NIRSpec templates are available in NIRSpec Templates articles at the Proposal Parameters Documentation outside JDox.


Creating an APT observation

Words in bold are GUI menus/
panels or data software packages; 
bold italics are buttons in GUI
tools or package parameters.

To create a new NIRSpec observation in APT, create a new Observation Folder or choose an existing Observation Folder in the tree editor and click Add in the active GUI window. This will add a generic observation to the folder and open an observation form. The observation can be assigned a unique number (or remain the default number provided) and a text label (which does not need to be unique). Select NIRSPEC from the Instrument drop-down parameter field. This populates the Template drop-down field with the NIRSpec templates; select one of them to continue working on the specifics of the observation by following the step-by-step guides in the above mentioned articles.



Notable updates
Originally published