Las Cumbres Observatory

Founder	Wayne Rosing
Type	501(c)(3)
Focus	Astronomy, astrophysics, educational technology, space sciences
Location	6740 Cortona Dr., Goleta, California, USA
Area served	Worldwide
Product	Robotic telescope service
Employees	60
Website	LCOGT.net

Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT.net) is a non-profit private operating foundation directed by the technologist Wayne Rosing. The network's goal is to build a global network of 50 to 70 longitudinally spaced robotic telescopes for scientific and educational use; the spacing would provide complete latitude coverage in both hemispheres to allow continuous observations of any astronomical object.

As of March 2010, the network currently comprises two fully operational, science-grade telescopes, the 2m Faulkes Telescopes, North and South. In 2010 work began at Cerro Tololo (Chile) and Sutherland (South Africa). A site on the island of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) is being arranged.

Network plans

LCOGT.net's network two 2-meter telescopes underwent improvements and upgrades during 2005-2010. The network will eventually be sited at roughly six locations in a northern and a southern global ring. The network will be deployed in clusters of up to three 1-meter telescopes and up to four 0.4-meter telescopes, at each site. Currently the entire network is planned to contain approximately 27 telescopes. At present the confirmed sites are Haleakala (Maui, USA), Siding Spring (New South Wales, Australia), Cerro Tololo (Chile), Sutherland (South Africa) and Texas (USA). There are still negotiations on site locations, and the exact sites may change as the network evolves. Each telescope in the network will operate robotically, without any need for a human presence at site during normal operations. Each site has weather and telemetry sensors which automatically inform the telescope and enclosure whether conditions are suitable for observing.

At present, observations can be made either by remote control, where an observer directly controls the telescope, or by robotic scheduler, where observations are submitted to a queue.

The network of telescopes will operate as a single global telescope, with a standardized and homogeneous photometric system with identical filters, CCDs, calibration and reduction processes. To fulfill the science objectives, the global telescope network will include three classes of telescope: 0.4, 1.0m and 2.0m. There may also be occasional additions to the network which do not fit within these classes. One such addition is the Sedgwick Reserve Observatory in the Santa Ynez Valley, California, which has 0.8m aperture and is a custom design system. It has recently been installed and is now under going commissioning.

The network will consist of 3 main classes of telescope.

• ~10-15 0.4 meter telescopes arranged in clusters of 4 that are primarily for educational uses, but also science capable.
• ~12 1-meter telescopes that are primarily for science use, but also capable of educational use, in clusters of 3 at 6 sites around the world in the North & South hemispheres
• Existing 2-meter telescopes North and South allowing 24/7 high quality observations of time variable astrophysical and solar system phenomena for both scientific research and education.

At any time, any object of interest should be accessible from 2-4 of the planned site-clusters.

The following list details the requirements the network must fulfill in order to achieve the mission of the project:

• rapid response to targets of opportunities, e.g. microlensing events, supernovae and gamma-ray bursts
• scheduled event monitoring (a central scheduler)
• moving sources, e.g. near Earth objects (NEOs)
• periodic sampling of interesting objects, e.g. X-ray binaries
• central online archive of data
• automated calibration pipeline.

Research

The network's research goal, as stated, is "to establish and build a durable scientific institution dedicated to time-domain astrophysics."

LCOGT.net will concentrate on time-varying astronomy. Initially, LCOGT.net started with a strong concentration of astronomers studying extra solar planets. Science Director Timothy Brown was on the team that observed the first transiting extra solar planet, and has been a leader in transiting planet research. LCOGT scientists have continued to be significant players in obtaining new measurements on newly found transiting planets. LCOGT's first staff astronomer, Stuart Taylor, established LCOGT's still ongoing project on transit timing variations (TTVs). LCOGT scientists have continued to be significant players in obtaining new measurements on newly found transiting planets. Active global telescope astronomers who have worked at LCOGT include Marton Hidas, Stuart Taylor, Rachel Street, Timothy Litster, and Timothy Brown.

Recently the science program has been expanded to include research into extra-galactic supernovae follow-up. LCOGT network is being used to study nearby supernovae in combination with more distant supernovae discovered by the Supernova Legacy Survey to determine the nature of Dark Energy.

Having a worldwide network of telescopes will mean there will always be a telescope available for time-critical events. The flexibility to measure transits from multiple longitudes are an example of the advantage of having telescopes spaced around the earth, hence exoplanet and supernova research remains a top priority.

LCOGT.net supports software research aiming to make continuous observing as seamless as possible.

Education

The network's educational goal, as stated, is "to use astronomical research to inspire critical thinking and technical understanding in young people and learners of all ages."

LCOGT.net is keen to work in partnership with education organizations across the globe. It has been working closely with Faulkes Telescope Project since 2006, to bring real-time observing into the classrooms of the UK. As the global network grows, and more observing time becomes available, more countries will be provided with access to the high quality instruments to make their own investigations. Accompanying the educational network will be a vast library of resources and projects.

The educational goal of LCOGT.net is to create an awareness for science and technology, and to foster the ability to think critically about the world around us.

History

LCOGT was originally started by Wayne Rosing under the name LCO or Las Cumbres Observatory. The company was later renamed LCOGT partly to avoid confusion with Las Campanas Observatory (which also may be abbreviated as LCO) and partly to emphasis the global nature of Las Cumbres Observatory. In 2005, Rosing founded the global telescope version of LCO. The first astronomers to join were Stuart Taylor in July, 2005, and Tim Brown, in June 2006. In 2005, Rosing and Taylor were joined by engineer Matt Dubberly, a longtime acquaintance of Rosing's from Las Cumbres. LCO was later to be named LCOGT to avoid confusion with another well known observatory that used the acronym LCO.

Rosing set up the first offices were on Haley Street in Santa Barbara while evaluating which university to affiliate with. After choosing to affiliate with the University of California at Santa Barbara, the current Cortona street offices were established.

The fully operational parts of the network are Faulkes Telescope North and South. These were purchased from the Dill Faulkes Educational Trust in 2005, at a similar time that Telescope Technologies Limited (the company responsible for designing and building these 2-meter telescopes as well as their sister telescope, Liverpool Telescope) was also taken over by LCOGT.

See also

• University of California, Santa Barbara
• Amateur astronomy

External links

• Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Inc. official website
• Autumn Moonwatch: Tweeting the Moon