Science Blog entry list

This week, a number of scientists have gathered in Madrid to discuss the first science results from the Herschel Space Telescope.    Herschel is the largest astronomical telescope ever put in space (the mirror is 3.5m wide!) and observes light at infrared to submillimetre wavelengths (50 - 550 microns), around 500 times larger than the wavelength of visible light.  Astronomers built this telescope to observe cold objects (shining at 10K or -260C) in the Universe, since these sources radiate at this wavelength.  read more »

Faulkes Telescope North has undergone a substantial refurbishment. The primary mirror has been removed using a portable gantry, and block and tackle. This is no mean undertaking as the mirror itself weighs over a ton, at 1240 Kg (2734 lbs). The mirror was then moved to a facility on the Haleakala mountain top where it was re-aluminized. This is the first time the mirror has had more than a wash since its installation in 2003.   read more »

New addition to the website:

There is now a link to nightly summary graphs and overall statistics for each site on the main Network page on the left hand side (or you can click here).  For now it is focused on FTN and FTS, but will include more telescopes as they come online.  read more »

The Sedgwick telescope has now had first light at its site.  The telescope is not robotically controllable yet and does not have a full set of instrumentation installed or commissioned on it. This trip was was to check and calibrate the optics on a dark sky, before commissioning can continue.  read more »

On the evening of March 12, 2009, the Sedgwick telescope, looking outside from the doorway of the LCOGTLas Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network warehouse, was put on sky for the first time.  As it was primarily a test for the drive system’s tracking performance, the goal for the night was to point at a star and observe how long the scope could follow it in the sky.  After finding the star "Dubhe" in the eyepiece, it was determined that the telescope was tracking adequately after the star remained in the field of view (only starting to drift out after an hour or so).  This was impressive, considering the only alignm  read more »

LCOGTLas Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network is about to install the new Spectral cameras, offering a wider field of view and faster read out time.  During these upgrades, the older Hawkcam cameras, EA01 and EA02, will be decommissioned.  According to our database, all current observing projects which used the Hawkcams have either concluded or transferred to the Merope cameras.  We have the standard set of calibration frames available for these programs.  

If your science project requires continued access to the Hawkcam, please contact us as soon as possible.  

An image taken with LCOGT’s Faulkes Telescope North was the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day for June 26th 2008.  read more »

There will be 21 telescopes spaced around the world, arranged in clusters of three telescopes at each of seven sites in the North and South hemispheres. Weather permitting, this enables continuous coverage of celestial objects of interest - mainly time-variable objects. Each telescope is an f/8 system with a 4K CCD providing a 27 arcmin field of view (almost as big as the full moon), and a comprehensive filter set.  read more »