How easy is it to get telescope/observatory time?
Students often develop observing time proposals (and go observing) with their advisors for national and private telescopes, which is a good way to learn how to write a successful proposal! Faculty in the department observe often with the Hubble Space Telescope, at the nearby Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, and with a range of optical and infrared telescopes in Chile and in Hawaii. They also do some radio astronomy with the Very Large Array (VLA), in the northern end of New Mexico. Students can also lead their own telescope proposals. Many students use the NMSU 1.0m telescope and the ARC 3.5m telescope, both at Apache Point Observatory. These telescopes can be controlled remotely by computer from the department. This is pretty nice, even though APO is just a two hour drive east from Las Cruces. We have our own telescope allocations committee (TAC) which allocates the time on the 1.0m (solely for NMSU members) and on the 3.5m telescope (about 15% for NMSU members, with the res
