Compare and Contrast SONG and LCOGT

Tim Brown tbrown@lcogt.netSep 17, 2011Charleston College/SONG4

FTN, Rob Ratkowski

Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT):

An astronomical institute dedicated to time-domain astronomy.

which is to say

An institute that aims to respond to the challenges and to exploit the opportunities inherent in building a world-wide network of optical night-time telescopes.

We Are a Medium-Size Institute

~60 total staff

19 PhD Astronomers

~30 Engineers and technicians

Mostly at headquarters near Santa Barbara, CA, but also in England, Hawaii, and Australia.

We Operate the Faulkes 2.0m TelescopesWe Operate the Faulkes 2.0m Telescopes

• Two telescopes designed by TTL

• Acquired by LCOGT in 2005

• Both telescopes operational • Significant educational component

• Continuous improvement program• Improve reliability• Improve science output

We Do Science….

Extrasolar Planets Supernovae Solar System Variable & Pulsating Stars

…..While We Build A Network of Telescopes

What will this network look like?

• Northern Network– Maui: Haleakala – Texas: McDonald– Canary Islands: IAC– Asia: Likely Xinjian AO

• Southern Network– Chile: CTIO– South Africa: SAAO– Australia: SSO

Probably 7 sites:

What Will a Site Look Like?

3 x 1.0m Telescopes

Site ServicesStorage

Up to 6 x 0.4m Telescopes

All telescopes will be robots: no people are needed on site for normal operation, and almost always, the telescopes will run autonomously, with nobody directly controlling them.

Site Development

CTIO Node

SAAO Node

UT McDonald Node(with help from Photoshop)

Teide Observatory Site

Urumqi, China: Qitai

What Does a 1m Telescope Look Like? (Ans: No Frills)

1.0m f/8 Ritchey-Chretien with wide-field corrector.

Field of View up to 40 arcmin square; ~24 arcmin with 4K x 4K 15-micron pixel CCD

Equatorial mounting (split ring)

Blind pointing accurate to < 5 arcsec

Slew speed > 10 degree/s

18.5-ft (6m) dome with wide slit

Search youtube “LCOGT” for a nice video about the 1m design.

What Does 1m Instrumentation Look Like?

Sinistro

Sinistro

Fit Test

First image w/Fairchild 4K x 4K CCD

Lucky Imaging / Fast Photometry

LIHSP – A 1st (maybe 0th) generation lucky camera.Single color (w/ filter wheel selection)Image scale 0.13 arcsec/pixMax FOV 160 arcsecFrame rate <= 30 images/s.1 such camera on every telescope (40cm, 1m, 2m)

Medium-Res Spectrograph Prototype

Cross-dispersed echelle, fiber-fedR = 250002K x 2K CCDThAr reference fiber2 simultaneous star fibers

380nm <= <= 800nmThermal & pressure controlRobotic star acquisition

Medium-Res Spectrograph

Cross-dispersed echelle, fiber-fedR = 450004K x 4K CCD, R=4 gratingThAr reference fiber3 simultaneous star fibers

380nm <= <= 900nm (full coverage)Thermal & pressure controlRobotic star acquisition

This version is under design now, will go into productionabout Q2 2012.

FLOYDS -- Low-Res Spectrograph for 2m Telescopes

R = 400-800

Very efficient

Main functionSNe classification

Telescope,Instruments

Software Overview

Central planning,Control, Archive

Site

Site

Site

Telescope,Instruments

Telescope,Instruments

Telescope,Instruments

Users EventsTAC

Modular (upgradable) software units

Outside world sees only the Center

Unpredictable events may arise atany level, and are handled at alllevels.

Timeline

3 x domes complete at CTIO Aug 2011.

3 x domes complete at SAAO Nov 2011.

1st 1m telescope plus cluster of 0.4m operational at CTIO ~ Q1 2012

1st telescope to 2nd site (SAAO) in Q2 2012.

Next (largely in parallel) do domes and concrete work at Siding Spring, (Australia), McDonald Observatory (Texas, USA), Tenerife (Canary Islands) and Haleakala (Hawaii). Order and timing will depend on pace of earlier construction.

Fill in sites with 4 to 6 x 1m telescopes per year until all sites are complete. Install 0.4m telescopes in parallel. Aim to finish by end of 2014.

LCOGT / SONG Comparison

Areas of Science

Telescope Aperture

Instruments

Number of Sites

Other Facilities

SONG LCOGT

Asteroseismology,Microlensing, RVplanets

Microlensing, transiting planets,supernovae, asteroseismology,asteroids/KBOs, AGN, …..

1m 1m

RV spectrograph,fast imager

CCD imager, fast imager,RV spectrograph

>~ 3 7

Telescopes/Site 1 2 or 3 1m +2 or 3 40cm

-- 2 x 2m Faulkes Telescopes (imaging, fast imaging, spectroscopy20 x 40cm Telescopes (imaging, fast imaging) Education and Science uses.

General Thoughts

LCOGT has wider scientific scope than SONG, but has its ownlimitations. Trying to do everything invites disaster.

Cooperation in microlensing (both observation and modeling)May be very productive.

Cooperation in spectroscopy may be harder, because of differingprogrammatic and technical choices made by SONG and LCOGT.

SONG should think about how much it wants to do searches fornew objects, as opposed to follow-up of known ones.

The End

SSO: 1.0m “B”