1-meter | Las Cumbres Observatory

We have designed, built and are deploying complete 1-meter autonomous telescopes, operating as a global network with centralized scheduling. The 1-meter prototype in Santa Barbara was used as a test facility to validate all optical, mechanical, electrical and software functions prior to wider deployment.

The first 1-meter deployment was to ELP, MacDonald Observatory, in April 2012. From there more telescopes were added to multiple sites across the globe. Read more about the deployment history of our 1m telescopes >

Currently we have thirteen 1m telescopes online, with a further two be added to Ali Observatory in China, which is currently under construction. See camera for live views of our working sites.

Telescope Structure

Mounting	Equatorial C-ring
Basic Optics	Ritchey-Chretien Cassegrain
Maximum slewing speed	6 degrees per s
Tracking accuracy without guiding	0.5" RMS
Blind pointing accuracy	between 3 to 10 arcsec depending on cassegrain axis position
Altitude limit	15 degrees (airmass ~3.9)
Hour angle limits	-4.6 to +4.6 hours

Further technical specifications >

Instrumentation

All of the 1 m telescopes (except the Wise Observatory) have Sinistro imaging cameras. Four of the 1 m sites (CTIO, SAAO, McDonald Observatory, and Wise Observatory) also have high resolution NRES spectrographs.

1m telescope rendering - this video shows a schematic of an LCO 1-meter telescope responding rapidly to a request for observations.