The Scientific Justification section of your proposal should contain a concise description of the objectives of your experiment, any relevant scientific background, and exactly how your proposed observations will address the objectives. A general requirement is that the relevance of the proposed work and how it furthers our understanding be described adequately. Other important points to include in this section are how your observational sample was chosen and how the data you obtain will be analyzed.
The Experimental Design section of the proposal should include a discussion of why your observations must be made using the telescope you are requesting and why a smaller telescope would not be suitable. Your time request should be supported by a discussion of the integration time to achieve the signal-to-noise necessary to accomplish your scientific objectives (assuming good conditions) and the time for calibration and instrument set-up. Normally, programs should not include allowances for weather loss in the requested time. However, the TAC may assign more time than that requested, particularly for highly ranked proposals on the smaller telescopes. Proposals for time-sensitive observations, e.g. non-recurring phenomena, should highlight this issue.
In both sections, be sure to describe not only the observations to be done this term, but the scope of the entire program. Ongoing programs should estimate how many nights will be necessary in future terms to complete the program. Details of time allocations from past terms should be given in the ``Past Use'' section (§ 8.4), but it is appropriate to discuss the status and results of past allocations for the project in the justifications, e.g., ``In our 10 previous nights, we completed observations on 40 of our 60 candidates and found.....".
If your collaboration is requesting telescope time for this project from other institutions, whether on UAO telescopes or not, use the section entitled ``Summary of Time Requested and Awarded'' (§ 8.3.1) to discuss these proposals, including the number of nights and type of observations. Describe how the UAO request fits into the full context of the collaboration. Indicate whether there is a need for any specific coordination and whether the project's success depends on observations requiring capabilities not covered by the UAO telescope request.
The telescopes are often heavily oversubscribed. State your case clearly and completely. Do not assume that the TAC will have time to research poorly stated projects to find out what you really meant. Remarkably, the more poorly written proposals often do not state the following types of ideas: 1) how much signal-to-noise is needed to distinguish between two rival hypotheses; 2) why you listed only ten objects when it seems that you'll need 100; 3) why you want to observe 100 when 10 will do; 4) why you chose B and V filters; 5) whether you need spectra or spectrophotometry; or 6) why you want to observe in May when your object transits at midnight in February. Please be sure to quote the bandpass when quoting spectroscopic signal-to-noise ratios (i.e., S/N per pixel, per Å, per FWHM, or something else).