AfAS Workshop 2026
The workshop and its exercises are intended to give you a feeling for handling proposals with the various SALT Proposal Tools by showing you the basic functionality of these applications. You will use the SALT tools to plan and submit a Phase I proposal. Due to the limited time available during the workshop, kindly ensure the software is installed beforehand. If you encounter any issues during installation, please contact the SALT helpdesk at salthelp@salt.ac.za.
Before the workshop
Before you can start planning the proposal, you need to set up some software on your machine.
Installing Java
Most of SALT’s proposal tools are Java-based, and hence you should install Java on your machine first, if you haven’t done so already. We recommend using the Java offered by Azul. Please choose Java 8 or 11 for the workshop. Do not use the latest version, as this may cause problems when running the software later on.
You can check that Java is installed by running the following command in a terminal:
java -version
Downloading and running the software tools
In order to plan your proposal, you need the Visibility Tool as well as the simulator for the instrument of your choice.
You might be able to launch any of these tools by double-clicking the downloaded file. If that isn’t supported on your machine, you can launch a file app.jar from a terminal:
java -jar app.jar
In case you are a macOS user, please see the respective notes below.
Downloading and running the PIPT
SALT proposals are created with the Principal Investigator Proposal Tool (PIPT). There is a special PIPT version for this workshop:
Please don’t use this version outside the workshop, as it uses a test database.
You launch the PIPT in the same way as the other software tools, either by double-clicking the file or by running the following command in a terminal:
java -jar PIPT-AfAS-Workshop2026.jar
In case you are a macOS user, please see the respective notes below.
Notes for macOS users
macOS may warn you that the application cannot be opened as it is untrusted. The solution is to right-click on the file icon and choose Open from the menu. macOS asks you whether you really want to open the application, and you should confirm this. You should only have to do this once; double-clicking the file icon should work afterwards.
Another macOS gotcha is that files and directories might not show in a file open or save dialog in the application. This is caused by the security settings, and you might have to give java or the JarLauncher app access to all files and folders in the privacy and security settings.
Scientific justification
You have to add a pdf with your scientific justification to a proposal in the PIPT. Examples are provided for the workshop projects (see below) are provided:
Example scientific justification for the RSS project
Example scientific justification for the HRS project
If you’d rather create your own scientific justification, you should use the relevant template for your type of proposal.
Creating a SALT user account
You can create your SALT user account in the SALT Web Manager, which has a special version for the workshop:
Please note that signing up on this Web Manager creates a user account for the workshop only.
Your SALT account credentials allow you to log into the Web Manager and the PIPT.
During the workshop
Exercise 1: Choose a project
Choose one of the following example projects.
RSS project
You are to submit a SALT proposal requesting long-slit spectral observations of a star with a Blackbody temperature of 15 000K (RA = 17:48:24; Dec = -45:35:50). The star has a V magnitude of 16 mag. You need to observe the star with the PG1800 grating under grey lunar conditions to get wavelength coverage of 5985 7257 Angstroms. A slit width of 1.5 arcseconds and order blocking filter pc04600 is required. Please select an exposure time in such a way that the final signal-tonoise ratio per pixel of the continuum at the center of the wavelength range is a minimum of 100. Create a proposal for this observation.
HRS project
You want to obtain a high-resolution spectrum of a bright star (V = 8; Temperature = 10 000K) in the Milky Way in order to obtain its spectral classification (position of target is RA = 15:24:47; Dec = -60:49:27). For this, you want to observe your target with the HRS using HR mode. Your observations require a minimum signal-to-noise per pixel of 100, estimate the minimum exposure time.
Exercise 2: Plan the instrument configuration
Use the correct instrument simulator for your chosen project to check the instrumental requirements. Save your simulation as a file using the menu item File | Save.
Exercise 3: Check the visibility
Use the Visibility Tool to check when your target will be accessible with SALT and find out what the maximum block length would be.
Exercise 4: Create the proposal
Use the PIPT to create a Phase 1 proposal for your chosen project. Include the simulation you saved in Exercise 2. Submit the proposal and check the submission in the Web Manager.