Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network

Creators: Brown, T. M.; Baliber, N.; Fulton, B. J.; Saunders, E. S.; Shobbrook, J.; Shporer, A.

Abstract

Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT) is a young organization dedicated to time-domain observations at optical and (potentially) near-IR wavelengths. To this end, LCOGT is constructing a worldwide network of telescopes, including the two 2 m Faulkes telescopes, as many as 17 × 1 m telescopes, and as many as 23 × 40 cm telescopes. These telescopes initially will be outfitted for imaging and (excepting the 40 cm telescopes) spectroscopy at wavelengths between the atmospheric UV cutoff and the roughly 1-μm limit of silicon detectors. Since the first of LCOGT's 1 m telescopes are now being deployed, we lay out here LCOGT's scientific goals and the requirements that these goals place on network architecture and performance, we summarize the network's present and projected level of development, and we describe our expected schedule for completing it. In the bulk of the paper, we describe in detail the technical approaches that we have adopted to attain desired performance. In particular, we discuss our choices for the number and location of network sites, for the number and sizes of telescopes, for the specifications of the first generation of instruments, for the software that will schedule and control the network's telescopes and reduce and archive its data, and for the structure of the scientific and educational programs for which the network will provide observations.

Additional Information

© 2013 The Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Received 2013 May 03; accepted 2013 July 11; published 2013 September 10. We are grateful to all who have contributed over the last six years to the success of the LCOGT Network. These include those who have served on our governance and advisory committees: C. Aerts, J. Beckers, T. Bedding, L. Bildsten, J. Bloom, J. Farrell, L. Hillenbrand, D. Largay, T. Marsh, M. Phillips, D. Pollacco, D. Queloz, P. Roche, D. Sasselov, M. Skrutskie, D. Soderblom, N. Suntzeff, J. Tonry, and V. Trimble. We also thank all of LCOGT's employees, past and present, whom we have not named elsewhere: J.R. Aquino, J.D. Armstrong, I. Baker, J. Barton, O. Barton, M. Becker, E. Bildsten, J. Bowen, J. Bower-Cooley, N. Brooks, H.E. Brown, H.J. Brown, J. Brown, N. Brunner, S. Cook, V. Corris, R. Cutler, A. Dai, C. Daniel, D. Mans, B. Donnelly, N. Fairhurst, L. Farinpour, C. Ferrer, A. Fox-Leonard, W. Giebink, C. Gillmore, M. Giorgio, V. Gorbunov, S. Growney, J. Harmon, S. Hausler, N. Hawes, R. Hayes, W. Haynes, A. Henry, I. Henry, S. Hillberry, D. Huthsing, D. Jahng, B. Janus, M. Jeffus, D. Johnson, D. Kent, C. Kim, D. Kudrow, A. Kushnick, P. LaCorte, S. Lad, M. Lagana, K. Lessel, K. Lopker, S. Lowe, M. Loyley, J. Macassey, A. Mansfield, J. McCammon, L. McCormack, G. Medrano-Cerda, P. Michell, J. Minc, D. Muecke-Herzberg, D. Murray, G. Nelson, D. Norton, A. Ouellett, G. Paredes, C. Phung, A. Piascik, R. Qadri, P. Rees, A. Reiner, S. Ridgeway, G. Rives-Corbett, G. Robertshaw, P. Robinson, M. Royster, N. Ruvalcaba, O. Saa, G. Sandoval, N. Schauser, L. Seale, G. Shannon, J. Shaw, B. Sheppard, L. Simcock, T. Simmons, A. Sinclair, M. Smith, N. Su, S. Taylor, A. Tekola, J. Templeton, D. Thomson, L. Tinajero, J. Towsley, S. Valenti, B. Vanderhyden, J. VanLeyen, R. Welsh, O. Wiecha, K. Wojcik, and C. Wood. We are grateful to Keith Horne, Martin Dominick, their colleagues at St. Andrews University, and to the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) for their generous support in helping to install telescopes in the southern hemisphere. Funding for the NRES spectrographs was provided through MRI Grant AST-1229720 from the National Science Foundation (NSF). We are also grateful to Dr. Grant Williams, who refereed this paper, for his careful reading and helpful comments about the manuscript.

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