Fill Out Proposal Information

After opening APT, select New JWST Proposal under the New Document pull-down menu just above the tree editor at the bottom-left of the top tool bar.  On the active GUI window for the Proposal Information entry in the tree editor, enter Title, Abstract, and Category of the proposal and kept Cycle number at its default value.  

Enter proposed Targets

See also: APT Targets

Target information is entered in the active GUI window by selecting on Targets in the tree editor. In this active GUI window, click on the New Fixed Target button. Enter STRONG21MICRON-MRS in the field for Name in the Proposal, and selected Unidentified for Category. Enter the coordinates for this source: RA = 23 23 36.0700, Dec = +58 50 08.16.  Near the Description field, click the "+/-" button, which opens a list of approved keywords and selected Infrared sources. This source is the one called FMK 1.  Do the same for the other targets, FMK2-MRS and FMK3-MRS, assigning them the coordinates RA = 23 23 29.1050, Dec = +58 50 26.71 and RA = 23 23 27.3400, Dec = +58 50 35.67, respectively.  These 3 sources were identified (and their coordinates found) by comparison of Figure 1 from Hurford & Fesen (1996) to WISE and Spitzer-IRAC 8 μm images. 

A separate target was created as the position for the MRS dedicated background. Give it the name CAS-A-BACKGROUND and the coordinates RA = 23 23 42.6778, Dec = +58 51 29.06. After adding the background position, go back to the entries for STRONG21MICRON-MRS, FMK2-MRS, and FMK3-MRS, expand the Background Target field, click the checkbox beside Observations of this target require companion background observation(s), and in the Target selection field, check 7 CAS-A-BACKGROUND. 

For the MRS observation, a target group was created.  A target group is a group of targets that will be observed the same way, and by observing them as a group, overheads can be reduced such that observing the target group takes less program time overall than observing the targets separately.  In the active GUI window for Targets, click the New Target Group button. For the MRS target group, give it the Name of STRONG-FMK2-FMK3.  In the Target selection field, click the +/- button and add numbers 1, 3, and 6, corresponding to STRONG21MICRON-MRS, FMK2-MRS, and FMK3-MRS.

Observations

See also: APT Observations 

In the active GUI window for the Observations entry in the tree editor, click on the New Observation Folder button to specify the observing parameters for the program. In the Label field, enter MRS Target Group - AB. Note that while this label is not required, setting it is useful for visually organizing your observation folders in the tree editor when potentially many targets and/or instrument setups are used. Then, click MRS Target Group - AB in the tree editor to open the observation template to be filled out. In the Instrument pull-down menu in the active GUI window, select MIRI, and then select the MIRI Medium Resolution Spectroscopy template in the Template pull-down parameters.  In the Target pull-down parameters, select the target group defined above, STRONG-FMK2-FMK3.

Do the same for the dedicated background for the MRS, giving it a Label of MRS Background - AB, and assigning it a fixed target of CAS-A-BACKGROUND.  Also do the same for the Long grating observation of the MRS target group and its dedicated background, labeling them MRS Target Group - C and MRS Background - C, respectively.

In addition, create NIRSpec IFU observations for each of the 3 FMKs. Within the previously-created Observation Folder in the tree editor, for the NIRSpec IFU observation of FMK1, click the drop-down parameters at the upper-left of the APT where it says New (just above the tree editor, at the bottom-left of the top tool bar), select New Observation. Select NIRSPEC from the Instrument pull-down parameters in the active GUI window, then select NIRSpec IFU Spectroscopy from the Template pull-down parameters. In the Target pull-down parameters, select STRONG21MICRON-NIRSPEC. Do the same for each of FMK2 and FMK3 in the Target pull-down parameters for these 2 observations.

Do the same for the dedicated background for the NIRSpec IFU, giving a Label of NIRSpec IFU - Background for the background to be used for the NIRSpec IFU observations.

Complete APT observation template for MIRI-MRS

See also: MIRI MRS APT Template, MIRI MRS Target Acquisition, MIRI MRS PSF and Dithering, MIRI MRS Simultaneous Imaging, MIRI MRS Recommended Strategies

As discussed in the parent article and the Step-by-Step ETC Guide, a set of observations will be taken using all 3 grating settings for MIRI-MRS: SHORT (A), MEDIUM (B), and LONG (C). Both short and long wavelength detectors for the MRS are used. TA is not chosen for either the target group MRS observation or the MRS background observation.

You want to use a dither pattern for the MRS observations. Click the Add button under the Dithers field, and a row with dither options appears. Above the Dithers field, in the drop-down parameters for Primary Channel, select ALL, so that the dither pattern will be optimized for all channels. In the row that appears in the Dithers field, under the Dither Type heading, select 4-Point. Under the Optimized For heading, select EXTENDED SOURCE because you are observing an extended source. Under the Direction heading, NEGATIVE is already selected because it is the only option. APT will refer to this dither configuration in the Exposure Parameters field as Dither 1.

Under the Mosaic Properties tab, enter 2 for both Rows and Columns, in order to create the 2 × 2 mini mosaic. The defaut Row Overlap and Column Overlap of 10% are used. Under the Special Requirements tab, click Add, then Position Angle, then PA Range. In the box that pops up, set the range to 100 to 100 (Degrees), then click OK. Also click Add, then Timing, then Group/Sequence Observations Link, and in the box that pops up, select observations 16 and 5, corresponding to the MRS target group observation and the MRS Background, respectively, and click the check boxes beside Sequence and Non-interruptible, then click OK.

After the Dithers Pane in the active GUI window, the Simultaneous Imaging drop-down parameters is set to YES. To the side of this, the Imager Subarray drop-down parameters is set to FULL.

The same as done so far in this section should also be done for the other MRS science target observation and its dedicated background (Observations 19 and 20, respectively).

For Observation 16, under the Simultaneous Imaging drop-down parameters menu in the Exposure Parameters panel, click Add 2 times, each corresponding to the 2 of the available MRS grating settings. One click of the Add button here brings up 3 rows: one for the MIRI imager, the next for the MRS long wavelength detector, and the other for the MRS short wavelength detector. Under the Wavelength Range column, for the first triplet of rows, the value is set to SHORT (A) for MRSLONG and MRSSHORT rows. For the second triplet of rows, the values are set to MEDIUM (B). Under the Filter column, in the imager rows, F1130W is selected. Under the Readout Pattern column, FASTR1 is selected. Under the Groups/Int column, the values are set to 31 for the Short grating and 48 for the Medium grating.  Under the Integrations/Exp column, the value is set to 1 for all rows. Under the Exposures/Dith column, the value is set to 1 for all rows.  Under the Dither column, the value is set to Dither 1 for all rows.  The rest of the entries on each row are determined by APT from the previous entries.

The same is done for the MRS Background - AB observation as for the MRS Target Group - AB observation.

For the MRS Target Group - C observation (Observation 19), the same is done as for the MRS Target Group - AB observation (Observation 16), except: only 1 triplet of rows is selected, and the value for the Wavelength Range column is set to LONG (C) for both MRSLONG and MRSSHORT rows; under the Readout Pattern column, SLOWR1 is selected; and, under the Groups/Int column, the values are set to 30.  And do similarly for the MRS Background - C observation (Observation 20).

Complete APT observation template for the NIRSpec IFU

See also: NIRSpec IFU Spectroscopy APT Template, NIRSpec Target Acquisition, NIRSpec IFU Dither and Nod Patterns

As discussed in the parent article and the Step-by-Step ETC Guide, observations will be taken using the G140H disperser and F100LP filter for the NIRSpec IFU for FMK1, FMK2, and FMK3. No TA is chosen, as the targets are all extended sources larger than the NIRSpec IFU aperture. The Dither Parameters drop-down options is set to CYCLING, and the dither SIZE is set to SMALL, with the Starting Point set to 1 and the Number of Points set to 4.  This is the same as the 4-point dither pattern, according to the NIRSpec IFU Dither and Nod Patterns page. This is done for all 3 FMKs.

Also, for the 3 FMKs, under the Mosaic Properties tab, enter 2 for both Rows and Columns, in order to create the 2 × 2 mini mosaic. The defaut row and column overlaps of 10% are used. For the NIRSpec IFU observation of FMK1 (Observation 6), under Special Requirements, click Add, then Timing, then Group/Sequence Observations Link, and in the box that pops up, select observations 6, 7, 17, and 21, corresponding to the NIRSpec IFU observation of FMK1, FMK2, the Background, and FMK3, respectively.  Click the check boxes beside Sequence and Non-interruptible, click Reorder?, enter 6,7,21,17 in the field beside Reordering (in order for the background to be observed last in the sequence), then click OK.

In the Gratings/Filters panel in the active GUI window for each FMK's observation, click Add. On the row that was added, select G140H/F100LP under the Grating/Filter column, and NRSIRS2 under the Readout column. Under the Groups/Int column, the entry for FMK1 is set to 8; for FMK2, it is set to 6; and for FMK3, it is set to 5. For all FMKs, the Integrations/Exp column is set to 1. The checkbox under Dither is checked, and AUTOCAL set to NONE. For each knot's observation, another row is added for a leakcal. The entries for the leakcal row are the same as for the science target row, except that the checkbox under the leakcal column is checked for the leakcal.

The same is done for the NIRSpec IFU - Background observation (Observation 17) as was done for the FMK1 observation (Observation 6).

Run Visit Planner

See also: APT Visit Planner

To determine the visibility window of the proposed observation, run the Visit Planner Tool.  First, click an observation in the tree editor. Then click on Visit Planner in the top tool bar, which changes the view in the active GUI window. Then, click the Run All Tools button at the right in the top tool bar. This shows the observing window(s) for this target over about 31 months.  APT assures us that all visits are schedulable.

Run Smart Accounting

See also: APT Smart Accounting

To minimize excessive overheads, run Smart Accounting from the Visit Planner page by clicking the Run Smart Accounting button. Upon completion, exposure time and overheads is properly calculated and the Charged Time field in the active GUI window of the Proposal Information page is updated.

According to APT 2024.5, the total charged time for this program after running Smart Accounting is 45.1 hours.