Tracking progress: monitoring observing statistics and telescope usage at the Southern African Large telescope

Steven M. Crawford; Anthony Koeslag; Encarni Romero Colmenero; David A. H. Buckley; Thea Koen; Fred Marang; Veronica Van Wyk; Samantha Bennett

doi:10.1117/12.2057369

28 July 2014 Tracking progress: monitoring observing statistics and telescope usage at the Southern African Large telescope

Steven M. Crawford, Anthony Koeslag, Encarni Romero Colmenero, David A. H. Buckley, Thea Koen, Fred Marang, Veronica Van Wyk, Samantha Bennett

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9149, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems V; 914909 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2057369
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

Monitoring the performance of a facility is critical to successful scientific operations, and even more so, for queue based telescopes such as SALT. We highlight the steps that have been undertaken in order to monitor the performance of the Southern African Large Telescope from proposal submission to on-sky observations, and finally to publication. A suite of dedicated software tools has been produced in order to monitor the performance of the telescope, weather conditions, and scientific productivity. We report on some of the key metrics for SALT since the start of science operations to provide a baseline for its current performance. After taking account that science operations only began in September 2011, the number of papers produced by SALT since that time is similar to other 8m class observatories at the beginning of their operations.

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Steven M. Crawford, Anthony Koeslag, Encarni Romero Colmenero, David A. H. Buckley, Thea Koen, Fred Marang, Veronica Van Wyk, and Samantha Bennett "Tracking progress: monitoring observing statistics and telescope usage at the Southern African Large telescope", Proc. SPIE 9149, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems V, 914909 (28 July 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2057369

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