The operation of robotic telescopes at remote locations without supervision by local staff is a specific challenge for Las Cumbres Observatory’s (LCOGT) global network, where more than 25 telescopes are operated at seven globally distributed sites. LCOGT personnel typically visits each site every 18 months for general maintenance and upgrade tasks, whereas minor failures are handled by local site support staff. LCOGT is making efforts to quantitatively inform decisions about scheduling preventative maintenance tasks and to provide tools to assist with failure diagnostic and response. For example, all night-time observations from all telescopes are analyzed to quantify the telescopes’ throughput; these data, updated daily and looking back more than four years, are used to inform the cadence of telescope mirror washing and recoating. Further examples of utilizing every day’s science data are presented, including monitoring the readnoise of more than 25 CCD cameras which has enabled the early detection of a failing CCD controller. Telemetry from all installations is collected in a no-SQL database (Opensearch) ∗ and presented to various stakeholders via the visualization tools Kibana and Grafana† . These utilities are used to diagnose problems in preprogrammed views, e.g., to detect acute issues or long-term degradation in the fleet of Cryotiger cooling systems. Telemetry data and performance metrics have always been collected at LCOGT. Making those data consistent, accessible, and easy to use for all stakeholders at LCOGT made the deluge of information usable in the daily observatory operation routine.
In Las Cumbres Observatory’s global network, the 1-meter telescopes are in greatest demand. Beginning in 2019, we undertook an investigation into the focus stability of these telescopes. We also refined the procedures for setting and maintaining optimal focus. The investigation showed the sensitivity of the telescopes’ optical components to temperature variations. The temperatures within the domes, as well as along the telescopes, are rarely stable for the first 80-120 minutes of science observations. A consequence is that start-of-night focus corrections must later be countered by additional corrections after thermalization. We report the various improvements to telescope focus that our investigation has spawned. The start-of-night focus corrections are now made immediately before science observations begin. Focus checks are now monitored during the night and trigger actionable alerts if they fail. Finally, we report on our effort to use the guide cameras as real-time focus sensors.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.