Seminars are empty, meetings are postponed, doors are closed, coffee pots are quickly drained and refilled. The Hubble Space Telescope Cycle 20 deadline is upon us (5pm PT, today).  

All around the world collaborators are sending drafts around, sentences are being carefully built, figures are being tweaked and packed with simulated data to demonstrate plausibility, scientific promises are being made.  People read their colleagues’ words with a critical eye — what sounds weak about this proposal that can be fixed?  What might a reviewer grab on as a problem or concern? 

Hubble time is so oversubscribed (by a factor of 7), that only the best, most carefully crafted proposals have a chance.  But a successful proposal means the data you need for your science, and the funding you need to make it happen.  

We’re lucky HST is still around, but it will not be serviced again, so these we are approaching its last days.  There will probably be another couple of cycles, but until JWST is operational this is still the premier optical telescope in (or above) the world.  Gotta make the most of it!