In light of continued Federal restrictions in Mexico due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the LMT Collaboration is unable to safely restart the maintenance and scientific operation of the telescope on the timescale we had originally planned.

March 25, 2021 – LMT announcement of delay to start of 2021-S1 LMT observing season

In light of continued Federal restrictions in Mexico due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the LMT Collaboration is unable to safely restart the maintenance and scientific operation of the telescope on the timescale we had originally planned. The telescope remains closed and as a result the next scientific observing season (2021-S1) will not begin on March 2021 as was originally specified in the 2021-S1 Call for Proposals.

At this time we do not know when conditions will allow our return to the telescope, however the LMT Collaboration continues to develop and optimize the plan to restore the telescope to a status of scientific operation as soon as possible.

We are carefully monitoring the situation and we recognize the strong community desire for the LMT to resume scientific observations whilst ensuring that the health and safety of the LMT staff and visiting researchers is our first priority.

The technical review of the submitted proposals for the 2021-S1 observing season has been completed and the proposals are currently being evaluated by the scientific review panels. The LMT Collaboration recognizes that the preparation and review of these proposals represents a significant effort for the LMT’s user communities. Therefore the LMT will adopt the following policy in regard to these proposals:

  • The scientific review panels will identify the highest-rated projects that will automatically be carried over to the next observing season (2021-S2) if they could not be attempted or completed in 2021-S1.
  • All projects that do not receive a “carry-over priority” should be resubmitted in May 2021 if they wish to be considered for the following 2021-S2 season.
  • The time allocated for prioritized projects carried over into the next season will be consistent with the distribution of observing time to the LMT user communities.

We note that this policy is specifically addressing the special circumstances of the delay of a return to scientific operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not anticipated that this policy will become a part of future LMT proposal reviews and observing time assignments.