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Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) is a network of astronomical observatories run by a
non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
private operating
foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
directed by the technologist Wayne Rosing. Its offices are in
Goleta, California Goleta (; ; Spanish for "Schooner") is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated populated area in the county. As of the 2000 c ...
. The telescopes are located at both northern and southern hemisphere sites distributed in longitude around the Earth. For some astronomical objects, the
longitudinal Longitudinal is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Longitude ** Line of longitude, also called a meridian * Longitudinal engine, an internal combustion engine in which the crankshaft is oriented along the long axis of the vehicl ...
spacing of telescopes allows continuous observations over 24 hours or longer. The operating network currently consists of two 2 meter telescopes, nine 1 meter telescopes, and seven 40 cm telescopes, placed at six astronomical observatories. The network operates as a single, integrated, observing facility, using a software scheduler that continuously optimizes the planned observing schedule of each individual telescope.


History

Rosing incorporated Las Cumbres Observatory in 1993 with the goal of aiding universities, observatories, and individuals in the acquisition and improvement of telescopes, optics, and instrumentation. He also set the objective for the organization to build and implement a global telescope system. In 2005, Rosing established the global telescope version of Las Cumbres Observatory. LCO initially acquired the two Faulkes 2 meter telescopes. Faulkes Telescope North (FTN) located at Haleakala Observatory, on Maui, Hawaii, and Faulkes Telescope South (FTS) at Siding Spring Observatory (SSO), in eastern Australia. LCO also purchased the company that built the Faulkes telescopes, Telescope Technologies Limited of Liverpool, with the intent of installing additional 2-meter telescopes at different sites to form a robotically operated network. Over the next few years, Rosing and the LCO staff came to understand that a network composed of many smaller telescopes would provide greater observing capacity. The organization designed its own 1 meter telescope with a plan to locate several of these at each chosen site. An even smaller 40 cm telescope was also developed primarily for use in education projects. During 2012 and 2013, nine 1 meter telescopes were constructed and deployed to
McDonald Observatory McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The facility is located on Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, with additional faci ...
at Fort Davis, Texas; Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO) in Chile; South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), near Sutherland, South Africa; and SSO in Australia. During 2015 and 2016, seven 40 cm telescopes were deployed to CTIO, Haleakala Observatory, SSO, and to
Teide Observatory Teide Observatory ( es, Observatorio del Teide), IAU code 954, is an astronomical observatory on Mount Teide at , located on Tenerife, Spain. It has been operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias since its inauguration in 1964. It bec ...
on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. After completion of the construction and installation of these telescopes, LCO began its transition to operating a global observatory. In 2013, a Board of Directors was established and a President was hired to lead the organization. Full science scheduling began on 1 May 2014, with the two 2 meter and nine 1 meter telescopes operating as a single, integrated, observatory. The 40 cm telescopes were added to this system as they were commissioned. The National Science Foundation made an award to LCO in 2016 through its Mid-Scale Innovations Program, purchasing access to the LCO network for all astronomers at U.S. institutions. The goal of this program is to prepare this community to carry out effective research following discoveries being made by current and future time domain astronomy surveys.


Telescope network


Sites

LCO operates its network at seven sites. The operating sites are all professional astronomical observatories. In the southern hemisphere: * Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO) in Chile *
South African Astronomical Observatory South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. It was established in 1972. The observatory is run by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The facility's funct ...
(SAAO), near Sutherland, South Africa * Siding Spring Observatory (SSO), in eastern Australia In the northern hemisphere: *
McDonald Observatory McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The facility is located on Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, with additional faci ...
at Fort Davis, Texas * Haleakala Observatory, on Maui, Hawaii *
Teide Observatory Teide Observatory ( es, Observatorio del Teide), IAU code 954, is an astronomical observatory on Mount Teide at , located on Tenerife, Spain. It has been operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias since its inauguration in 1964. It bec ...
on Tenerife in the Canary Islands The Ngari Observatory in
Ngari Prefecture Ngari Prefecture () or Ali Prefecture () is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region covering Western Tibet, whose traditional name is Ngari Khorsum. Its administrative centre and largest settlement is the town of Shiquanhe. History Nga ...
, western Tibet, China was added as a node to the network. LCO also operates an identical 1 meter telescope at its headquarters in Goleta for engineering development and a 0.8 meter telescope at Sedgwick Reserve near Santa Ynez, California.


Telescopes

The 2 meter telescopes are the two Faulkes telescopes built by Telescope Technologies Ltd. They are f/10 Ritchey-Chrétien optical configurations on alt-az mounts. The 1 meter telescopes are f/7.95 Ritchey-Chrétien optical systems on equatorial mounts. They have a 50 arcminute-diameter fully corrected field of view. The telescopes use the optics and tubes from Meade 16 inch RCX telescopes. The mount has been replaced by a scaled-down version of the LCO 1 meter telescope mount.


Instruments

The 2 meter telescopes are instrumented with optical imagers and low-resolution optical spectrographs (FLOYDS). The 1 meter telescopes are instrumented with “Sinistro” optical imagers that have a 26 arcminute square field of view. During 2017, a set of high-resolution (R = 50,000), high-stability spectrographs (NRES) were deployed to four of the LCO sites to be coupled by optical fibres to the 1 meter telescopes. The telescopes are equipped with SBIG STX-6303 optical imagers.


Operation

The global telescope network operates as a single observatory. Users request observations only for a generic class of telescope/instrument and the software scheduler determines an optimum observing schedule for each telescope. The scheduler revises the observing schedules for all telescopes as necessary and updates can be provided within 15 minutes. The rapid-response request mode bypasses the scheduler and can begin an observation within a few minutes after submission. Each telescope carries out a nightly calibration program and adjusts its pointing and focus several times per night. The telescopes are all instrumented uniformly to facilitate the combining of data from multiple telescopes or sites. Data are returned to LCO headquarters, where they are processed to remove instrumental signature and ingested into an archive. Users have immediate access to their observations and all data are made public after 12 months.


Usage

The network is available to researchers at institutions that are members of the LCO science collaboration. Institutions that operate the sites hosting the LCO telescopes and a few institutions that have contributed resources to help build the network are members of the collaboration. The entire U.S. astronomical community gained access to the LCO network in 2016 as a result of an award from the National Science Foundation's Mid-Scale Innovation Program. The program is administered through a peer-review proposal process run by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. Several science teams and individuals also purchase time on the LCO network.


Research

The design and operation of the LCO global telescope network provide the unique capabilities required for time domain astronomy. The LCO network offers the ability to observe objects or events continuously and the ability to obtain data rapidly upon the discovery or announcement of an event. The LCO network has been used to study supernovae and other explosive transients;
exoplanets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
, through observations of both transits and microlensing;
asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
; and AGN variability. In 2017 LCO played a critical part in two major discoveries: first visible counterpart of a gravitational wave event, and a new type of supernova with successive explosions.


Education

Since the beginning of LCO, education has been one of its core missions. In 2017, for the first time in LCO's history it issued an open call for education partners, Global Sky Partners—groups who could use their robotic telescopes to inspire diverse audiences with educational and outreach projects that they support. In 2019 there are 20 LCO Global Sky Partners based in the US, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Australia, or running entirely online programs, for students, teachers, and the wider public. In 2019 the reported direct impact of the program was 13,000 individuals exclusively using the LCO 0.4-meter network, predominantly school children and teachers. The LCO education team also maintains in-house educational programs to trigger observations and make use of data from the LCO network. These programs are designed to inspire anyone with an interest in astronomy to explore science using robotic telescopes. Recent successful programs include Asteroid Tracker, Agent Exoplanet, and Serol's Cosmic Explorers.https://serol.lco.global


See also

*
List of astronomical observatories This is a list of astronomical observatories ordered by name, along with initial dates of operation (where an accurate date is available) and location. The list also includes a final year of operation for many observatories that are no longer in ...
*
Lists of telescopes This is a list of lists of telescopes. * List of astronomical interferometers at visible and infrared wavelengths *List of astronomical observatories *List of highest astronomical observatories *List of large optical telescopes * List of largest ...
*
Time-domain astronomy Time-domain astronomy is the study of how astronomical objects change with time. Though the study may be said to begin with Galileo's ''Letters on Sunspots'', the term now refers especially to variable objects beyond the Solar System. This may be ...
* RoboNet


References


External links


Las Cumbres Observatory official website
{{Authority control Astronomical observatories in California Astronomical observatories in Hawaii Astronomical observatories in Texas Buildings and structures in Maui County, Hawaii Non-profit organizations based in California Telescopes