Sandy Seale | 28 Apr 2017
We have debugged the "Sky" slit positioning mode on FLOYDS. "Sky" mode allows you to fix the position angle of the slit. (The more commonly-used mode sets the slit at the parallactic angle.) The change will take effect with FLOYDS observations beginn
Sandy Seale | 12 May 2017
We have had to discontinue observations with the telescope in Dome C at our Chilean site (LSC). The Sinistro camera in that dome (fl04) appeared to have a steep drop in temperature on 2017-05-07. The drop was actually a symptom of a problem with a ci
Sandy Seale | 19 May 2017
We recently discovered an error in our BANZAI data pipeline. In the source catalogs (i.e. the .CAT extensions) that accompany the reduced images, the set of FLUXAPER* keywords are used to indicate the source fluxes within circular apertures of * arcs
Sandy Seale | 25 May 2017
In June, LCO will unveil a new observing portal, the interface through which you interact with the Network. This new portal has been developed (under the codename "Valhalla") over many months. We expect that the re-designed portal will be easier for
Sandy Seale | 05 Jun 2017
LCO's new observing portal is now available! Thanks for your patience while we brought the portal online. We think that you'll like it.
Sandy Seale | 22 Jun 2017
Three of LCO's 0.4m telescopes, which hitherto had made observations exclusively of satellites and space debris, are now making science observations. So, if you are an investigator on a project that was granted 0.4m-time, the scheduler may assign you
Sandy Seale | 26 Jul 2017
NRES is LCO's set of high-resolution echelle spectrographs. The first NRES unit was installed at our Chilean site in March, and it has been undergoing development and testing ever since. Earlier this week, members of the NRES project team met to
Sandy Seale | 19 Jul 2017
The deadline has now passed and we are not accepting any more applications for this round.
Sandy Seale | 13 Apr 2017
Using robotic telescopes for astronomy education is something that is at the heart of my professional interests and I have been actively working on this during my nine years at LCO. This week, my collaborator Dr Michael Fitzgerald and I published a r
Sandy Seale | 31 Mar 2017
People living in the UK and some Northern European countries have been treated to 3 live TV shows about astronomy this week, presented by BBC Stargazing Australia. All of the shows were broadcast live from Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wale
Sandy Seale | 22 Mar 2017
Applications for this internship are now closed
Sandy Seale | 15 Feb 2017
Sandy Seale | 01 Feb 2017
Following the recommendations of an independent Time Allocation Committee (TAC), five new Key Projects have been awarded time on the LCO Network. The list of all key projects that will run during the 2017AB semester has been posted on the websit
Sandy Seale | 07 Feb 2017
Last week (Friday 3 February) the LCO education team hosted a teacher training event in Cardiff University, jointly with School of Physics & Astronomy, Universe in the Classroom, and Space Awareness. It was the not only the largest teacher traini
Sandy Seale | 18 Jan 2017
Las Cumbres Observatory is soliciting proposals for science observations for the 2017AB semester, which will begin on 1 April 2017 and run through 30 November 2017. This call is for astronomers from institutions without guarantees of Network time: th
Sandy Seale | 21 Dec 2016
The Network suffered a one-two punch of power outages in the past week. On December 17, power was lost on Haleakala. As a result, science observations from that site (OGG) weren't possible on December 17-18. ----- A few days earlier, on December 13,
Sandy Seale | 26 Apr 2016
The Spectral cameras on both of our 2-meter telescopes, in Australia and Hawaii, are currently out-of-service.
Sandy Seale | 15 Jun 2016
In recent status reports, I mentioned that we've swapped SBIG cameras on telescopes in Australia (Dome B) and Chile (Dome A). The swaps were only one step in our efforts to eliminate occurrences of "shutter failure" in these cameras. We bel
Sandy Seale | 26 Jul 2016
The Sinistro camera on the telescope in Dome C at our Sutherland (South Africa) site is now available for science observations. It acquired its first post-commissioning science observations tonight ... before, alas, the dome closed-up because of bad
Sandy Seale | 01 Sep 2016
On August 29, a Sinistro camera, fl12, was installed on the 1-meter telescope in Dome A at Siding Spring (COJ). Although the commissioning observations made since then have been limited (by poor weather), the performance of the fl12 Sinistro exceeds
Sandy Seale | 01 Oct 2016
The 2016B semester began at 0 UT today. To those of you who will use the Network for the first time this semester, we say, "Welcome". As in past semesters, if you'd like assistance with preparing your observing requests, please email our Science
Sandy Seale | 04 Oct 2016
The Sinistro camera on the telescope in Dome B at Siding Spring Observatory is now available for science observations. The images will be processed through the BANZAI pipeline as soon as we have acquired sufficient flat fields. On October 6, from
Sandy Seale | 17 Oct 2016
Last week, we announced that Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network is now simply Las Cumbres Observatory, and the url of our website has changed to https://lco.global/. If you've been using scripts that call our various APIs with the
Sandy Seale | 20 Oct 2016
There have been many recent advances on LCO's Sinistro camera front. I'm pleased to announce that we have reached a long-awaited milestone: all of our 1-meter telescopes are now equipped with Sinistro cameras.
Sandy Seale | 24 Oct 2016
The shutter on the Spectral camera on FTN (Haleakala) was replaced last week, and test observations indicate that the shutter is behaving itself. The camera has been cleared to resume science observations.