Planning for 4MOST: toward the 4MOST survey programme

9-10 and 13-14 July 2020

4MOST is a state-of-the-art, high-multiplex, fibre-fed, optical spectroscopic survey facility currently under construction for ESO’s 4-m VISTA telescope. During the first five years of operations 4MOST will be used to execute a comprehensive, integrated programme of both Galactic and extragalactic Public Surveys. The 4MOST survey programme will consist of both Consortium Surveys and Community Surveys, ideally with a high degree of complementarity, both scientifically and in terms of observing efficiency. The process of selecting the Community Surveys was initiated by ESO in November 2019 by requesting "Letters of Intent for Public Spectroscopic Surveys" (LoIs) from the ESO community. Successful applicants will be invited by ESO to submit full proposals in December 2020.

ESO and the 4MOST Consortium are now jointly organising an online workshop to take place in the period 9-14 July 2020. This workshop is open to all team members of successful LoIs, both for Participating and Non-Participating Surveys, and ESO strongly encourages at least some representation at the workshop from all invited surveys.

The purpose of this workshop is to support the teams behind the successful LoIs in preparing their proposals, and to facilitate a well-matched and efficient joint 4MOST survey programme.

Specifically, the goals of the workshop are:

  • to provide the invited teams with up-to-date information regarding the selection process
  • to provide the invited teams with an opportunity to present their operational requirements and to discuss their integration into the 4MOST operational model
  • to provide the invited teams with an introduction to the available tools to prepare their proposals (e.g. 4FS)
  • to foster scientific collaborations and to prepare for the integration of potential Participating Community Surveys into the 4MOST Science Team.

Due to the current situation, the workshop will be held entirely online. The workshop will be split into four sessions, each lasting for approximately 4 hours, to be held on 9-10 and 13-14 July 2020. The timing of the sessions will take into account the different time zones of the participants to the extent that this is possible.

 

Separate sessions on Science Team Policies

Upon selection, all Participating Community surveys will become part of the 4MOST Science Team. Teams proposing for a Participating Survey thus need to be familiar with the Policies governing the 4MOST Science Team. To address any remaining questions regarding this document two online “town hall” meetings will be organised. These will be detached from the main workshop because they only concern Participating Community Surveys. The following two time slots will be offered:

  • June 23rd, 2020: 13-15 CEST
  • June 25th, 2020: 09-11 CEST

Note that these two slots are offered as alternatives to provide more flexibility and to accommodate the different time zones of potential attendees.

To properly prepare these online sessions we would like to invite you to send to 4most-loc@eso.org any questions you may have on this document and that you would like to have addressed during the online sessions.

 

Additional available information.

To enhance the efficiency and productivity of the workshop, a certain familiarity with the 4MOST instrument, its operational concept, and the 4MOST Consortium Surveys will be presupposed. The following resources are available to help participants prepare for the workshop: 

To further aid the preparation of the workshop, participants are encouraged to send the questions and discussion points they would like to see addressed at the workshop to  4most-loc@eso.org in advance of the meeting.

 

 

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