KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Equipment, Observatories, Information operations, Robotics, Software development, Control systems, Control software, Computer architecture
The Intelligent Observatory (IO) is a project of the South African Astronomical Observatory which aims to improve the efficiency of observing, optimize the use of the observatory’s resources and allow rapid follow-up of targets of interest. We have developed software to enable our telescopes and instruments to be programmatically controlled and have used this to develop remotely operable web interfaces for each of these. We are now focused on enabling robotic operation. To this end we have adopted the Las Cumbres Observatory’s Observatory Control System (OCS). This allows users to submit observing requests, and the OCS scheduler produces a schedule of observations for each telescope. We have developed software to retrieve the latest schedule, configure the telescope and instruments accordingly, and take the required exposures. In full robotic mode, it is important that the telescopes and instruments be operated only when safe to do so. We have developed watchdog software, using the same interfaces, to monitor the weather and shut down telescopes and instruments if the weather turns bad.
South African Astronomical Observatory has been spearheading an effort to modernize the optical/IR observing facilities in the country and also from across the African continents to network them to form an Intelligent Observatory (IO), operating robotically from a centralized control brain. To achieve such an ambitious system, one need to be equipped with modern technologies, computation capabilities, real-time coordination between observers and observatory, autonomous trigger management system etc. The primary objective is to enable a comprehensive facility for the follow up observations triggered by the most sophisticated global facilities like LSST, ROMAN, zTF, CTA etc. in near future. The recent developments at SAAO, the Observatory Control System (OCS) has proven to be an integrated sub-component of the complex IO architecture. The OCS, because of a simplistic fragmentation in terms of the definitions of the various components: such as telescopes, instruments, observations, logging; helped the IO architecture uniquely to integrate very old telescope and instruments, originally not designed for the automated operations. The OCS has reduced a lot of burden of the observatory management team by providing a communicable database for managements and data visualization.
The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) has launched a strategic upgrade program named the Intelligent Observatory (IO), aiming to advance SAAO into the so-called fourth industrial revolution. Over the past two years, this initiative has achieved a significant milestone: all three of SAAO’s primary telescopes have been upgraded to support remote operations from anywhere in the world, with one telescope now fully automated. This enhancement in operational capabilities significantly bolsters support for all scientific endeavors, especially in the domains of transient and time-domain science, the core focus areas of the IO. Moreover, these upgrades open new avenues for synergistic integration with other hosted telescopes on the Sutherland plateau, as well as with additional ground-based and space-based observatories. In our ongoing quest for efficiency and responsiveness, we are developing sophisticated algorithms capable of adapting observational strategies in real-time based on dynamic weather patterns. Additionally, the creation of a comprehensive science archive is underway, which will offer fully reduced data products from all telescopes and instruments.
The South African Astronomical Observatory’s (SAAO’s) “Intelligent Observatory” (IO) project is an initiative that aims to future-proof and strategically position the SAAO as a follow-up characterisation “machine” for transient alerts using the diverse facilities owned and hosted by the observatory. We present an overview of the many facilities available at the SAAO, with a particular emphasis on the new and upgraded facilities tailored towards autonomous rapid-response observing. Additionally, we delve into some of the scientific programs that currently leverage these new capabilities.
We present Mookodi (meaning “rainbow” in Sesotho), a multipurpose instrument with a low-resolution spectrograph mode and a multi-filter imaging mode for quick-reaction astronomical observations. The instrument, mounted on the 1-m Lesedi telescope at the South African Astronomical Observatory in Sutherland (South Africa), is based on the low-resolution spectrograph for the rapid acquisition of transients (SPRAT) instrument in operation on the 2-m Liverpool Telescope in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain). Similar to SPRAT, Mookodi has a resolution R≈350 and an operating wavelength range in the visible (∼4000 to 8000 Å). The linear optical design, as in SPRAT, is made possible through the combination of a volume phase holographic transmission grating as the dispersive element and a prism pair (grism), which makes it possible to rapidly and seamlessly switch to an imaging mode by pneumatically removing the slit and grism from the beam and using the same detector as in spectrographic mode to image the sky. This imaging mode is used for auto-target acquisition, but the inclusion of filter slides in Mookodi’s design also provides the capability to perform imaging with a field-of-view ≈10′×10′ (∼0.6″/px) in the complete Sloan Digital Sky Survey filter set.
We describe the software architecture of the Local Control Units (LCU) being deployed as part of the Intelligent Observatory project of the South African Astronomical Observatory. This is an integrated system for scheduling and controlling observations across several telescopes and instruments. As part of this, each telescope and its associated instruments fall under the control of an LCU. The LCU interfaces with the observatory-wide scheduler, executing observations as requested. It also monitors observing conditions and shuts down the telescope if necessary. The software is layered, modular and distributed, and allows remote and robotic control of the various instruments and telescopes.
KEYWORDS: Electron multiplying charge coupled devices, Optical imaging, Polarimetry, Sensors, Polarization, Prisms, System on a chip, Infrared imaging, Calibration, Astronomy
An Andor 1K x 1K EMCCD detector has been used to develop an optical imaging polarimeter for use at the Cassegrain focus of 1.2 m telescope of PRL. The optics is derived from an older single-element detector instrument and consists of a rotating half-wave plate as modulator and a Foster prism as an analyser. The field of view of the instrument is 3x3 sq arcmin. We describe the instrument and the observational methodology in this document. Extensive observations have been carried out with this instrument covering a large variety of sources e.g. near-Earth asteroids, comets, Lynds dark nebulae, open clusters and AGN such as blazars. In the current communication, we discuss some results from the initial calibration runs while the other results will be presented elsewhere.
A soft X-ray focusing Telescope (SXT) was launched in a near Earth, near equatorial orbit aboard the AstroSat on September 28th, 2015. The SXT electronics was switched on within 3 days of the launch and the first light was seen on October 26th, 2015 after a sequence of operations involving venting of the camera, cooling of the CCD, opening of the telescope door followed by the opening of the camera door. Several cosmic X-ray sources have been observed since then during the Performance Verification phase. A few near-simultaneous observations have also been carried out with the Swift observatory. The in-orbit performance of the SXT based on these observations is presented here.
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