The first LCO telescope at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) resumed science observations on the night of May 6. We began BANZAI-processing the first observations with old (pre-shutdown) flat fields. By May 12, we had acquired full sets of new flats, so we reprocessed the data from May 6-12. If you downloaded data from the Dome B, Dome C, or 0m4a telescope between May 6 and May 12, we recommend that you download your data again to benefit from the new flat-fielding.
More news about our instruments at SAAO:
- The NRES unit at SAAO resumed science observations on the night of May 15.
- The cryo system on the fa16 Sinistro camera (on the Dome A telescope) has been recharged, and the camera has been cooled. We are testing it now in preparation for science observations.
The latest information that we have from Cerro Tololo is that the site will remain closed through at least the end of May. We are grateful for the support we have been getting from the support staff at all of our sites.
We recently detected a security flaw in the Observation Portal. To fix that flaw, we plan to deploy a new (secure) version of the Portal tomorrow (2020-05-21) at 17 UT. At that time, all active Portal sessions will be interrupted. Observation requests that are not saved will be lost. (Click the "Save Draft" button!) The Portal should only be unavailable for a few minutes.
