Telescope Allocation Committee

This activity acquaints the students with the telescopes and instruments available at an astronomical observatory: McDonald Observatory.Astronomers apply for observing time on research telescopes. They must communicate their research objectives clearly and concisely to members of the McDonald Observatory Telescope Allocation Committee. Based on an astronomer’s research proposal, the TAC will decide who observes on what telescope at what time.

Note: We strongly recommend that students do “Astro-Madness” before “Tic TAC”.

What Students Do

Students create a research proposal evaluation rubric, write letters to fictious researchers to explain why their proposals were rejected, and write a critique about how they would improve their evaluation rubric.