Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network

TLDR

LCOGT is a young organization focused on time‑domain optical and near‑infrared observations. The paper outlines LCOGT’s scientific goals, the network requirements they impose, current and projected development status, and the completion schedule. LCOGT is building a global network of up to two 2 m, 17 1 m, and 23 40 cm telescopes, equipped for imaging (and spectroscopy except the 40 cm) from the atmospheric UV cutoff to ~1 µm, and the paper details the technical choices for site locations, telescope numbers and sizes, instrument specifications, scheduling and control software, data handling, and program structure.

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.