Worth its SALT: four years of full science operations with the Southern African Large Telescope

Petri Väisänen; Chris Coetzee; Anja Schroeder; Steve M. Crawford; David A. H. Buckley; Janus Brink; Éric Depagne; Alexei Kniazev; Thea Koen; Paul Kotze; Fred Marang; Brent Miszalski; Encarni Romero Colmenero; Ockert Strydom; Veronica Van Wyk; Theodore B. Williams

doi:10.1117/12.2232873

15 July 2016 Worth its SALT: four years of full science operations with the Southern African Large Telescope

Petri Väisänen, Chris Coetzee, Anja Schroeder, Steve M. Crawford, David A. H. Buckley, Janus Brink, Éric Depagne, Alexei Kniazev, Thea Koen, Paul Kotze, Fred Marang, Brent Miszalski, Encarni Romero Colmenero, Ockert Strydom, Veronica Van Wyk, Theodore B. Williams

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9910, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems VI; 99100T (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232873
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

SALT is a 10-m class optical telescope located in Sutherland, South Africa. We present an update on all observatory performance metrics since the start of full science operations in late 2011, as well as key statistics describing the science efficiency and output of SALT, including the completion fractions of observations per priority class, and analysis of the more than 140 refereed papers to date. After addressing technical challenges and streamlining operations, these first years of full operations at SALT have seen good and consistently increasing rates of completion of high priority observations and, in particular, very cost-effective production of science publications.

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Petri Väisänen, Chris Coetzee, Anja Schroeder, Steve M. Crawford, David A. H. Buckley, Janus Brink, Éric Depagne, Alexei Kniazev, Thea Koen, Paul Kotze, Fred Marang, Brent Miszalski, Encarni Romero Colmenero, Ockert Strydom, Veronica Van Wyk, and Theodore B. Williams "Worth its SALT: four years of full science operations with the Southern African Large Telescope", Proc. SPIE 9910, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems VI, 99100T (15 July 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232873

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