1-meter Deployment History

A history of the deployment of our 1m telescopes across the globe, which began in early 2012, with links to our 1m news articles.

2012

The first 1-meter deployment was to ELP, McDonald Observatory, in April 2012.

• First 1-meter Telescope Ships to Site

The first LCOGT production 1-meter telescope ships as Juan Garza and Annie Hjelstrom watch.

• 1-meter installed at McDonald Observatory

1m installation at McDonald Observatory

• LCOGT Sees First Light at McDonald Observatory

LCOGT's First Light image of NGC2903 from McDonald Observatory.

Three 1-meter telescopes were deployed to Cerro Tololo, Chile in September 2012.

• LCOGT telescope network expands at Cerro Tololo
• Our telescope network expands at Cerro Tololo

The craning procedure at Stellan B enclosure.

• LCOGT telescopes on sky from Chile

RGB color image of NGC 1365, a barred spiral in Fornax, about 200,000 light years across with an active Galactic Nucleus. Taken on 10-Oct-2012 (UT) from our 1-m telescope in DOME-C at CTIO.

In October 2012, LCO had it's first night of purely science operations on our first 1-meter telescope at McDonald Observatory, Texas.

• Our first 1-meter open for science

Las Cumbres 1-meter enclosure and telescope at McDonald Observatory.

In October 2012, all 1-meter telescopes at Cerro Tololo, Chile saw first light.

• Las Cumbres Observatory gains first light for entire 1-meter node at CTIO

In November 2012, two 1-meter domes were completed at Siding Spring Observatory, ready for telescope installation in 2013.

• Two 1-meter domes completed at Siding Spring

Dome installation at Siding Spring.

2013

Three more were installed at SAAO, Sutherland, South Africa in February 2013.

A timelapse video of the installation of our telescopes at Sutherland during February 2013.

• Sutherland achieves first, first-light

First light image from doma A on 22 February.

• Two first lights in One Night!

Left: NGC 2442, Dome A, LCOGT 1-meter telescope at SAAO, Right: NGC 2997, Dome C, LCOGT 1-meter telescope at SAAO

• All Sutherland telescopes see first-light

3 x 1-meter domes with Abiy in the middle, image provided by Kevin Govender (IAU office of astronomy for development)

• First Light At SAAO For Third 1-Meter Node Of Global Telescope

First light image of M104, Sombrero Galaxy

Two more were installed at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia in May 2013.

• Telescopes Away: Two 1-Meters Travel to Australia

Australia "A" 1-meter telescope in truck heading south

Las Cumbres Observatory, with first lights at nine new 1-meter telescopes since April of 2012, achieved another critical milestone by capturing the first on-sky image with a production Sinistro camera in mid summer 2013.

• Sinistro astronomy imager captures first light

Sinistro’s raw, unprocessed first light image.

2019

With a generous grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation, a second 1-meter telescope was added in October of 2019 to the McDonald Observatory site in Texas.

• Las Cumbres Observatory Receives $1,000,000 Grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to Build a New Telescope

McDonald 1m installation 2019.

2021

With a generous grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, two 1-meter telescopes were added to the Teide site in Tenerife in 2021.  

• Las Cumbres Observatory Receives a $4,880,000 Grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to Build Two New Telescopes

2019 Teide infrastructure installation. Telescope were installed in 2021.

Future

Through a MOU with NAOC, LCO plans to provide two 1-meter telescopes for the Ali Observatory in western Tibet by the end of 2021.