The Liverpool TelescopeChris Davis

http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/liverpooltelescope

Telescope:• Ritchey-Chretien; 2.0m primary/0.62m

secondary; f/10 at cassegrain • Alt-Az mount on hydrostatic bearings;

slew rate 2o/second; Alt range 25o-87o

• Through port clear aperture: 40 arcmin

Autoguider:• Allows closed-loop tracking (no tip-tilt

capability at present)• Guider field-of-view: 224 arcsec• Can specify cardinal sky angles

(0,90,180,270) or specific angle in phase2 GUI.

Robotic Control System (RCS): • Decides what and how to observe and

is responsible for the safe operation of the telescope throughout the night

2 metre Alt-Az

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Instrumentation IO:O (optical)

4096 x 4112 pixel e2v detector 10' FOV; 12 optical filters

IO:I (near-IR) 2048x2048 HgCdTe Hawaii 2RG 6’ FOV; Y,J,H broad band imaging

IO:THOR Short exposures (>0.01sec) possible 2’ FoV; “White-light” 520-900 nm

RISE (QUB TRANSIT INSTRUMENT)

Short exposures (0.8 sec) 9’ FoV; single fixed “V+R” filter

FRODOspecIO:O

IO:THOR

Instrumentation FRODOspec

12x12 lenslet fibre-fed IFU R~2500/5500; 400 < < 940nm

FRODOspec

Dual (red & blue) beams observed simultaneously

0.82 arcsec/pixel FoV ~ 9.8 arcsec

Instrumentation

Rotating polaroid used to modulate incoming signal

8 images obtained per rotation/every second

Currently being used for Blazar and GBR follow-up (Mundell, Steele, et al.)…

RINGO3

• RINGO3 Fast-readout optical polarimeter 4’ FoV; three broadband beams

InstrumentationWide-field

Skycam-A:All-sky – 4.5 mm fisheye lens; stars down to ~6th mag

Skycam-T:Medium field – 35 mm lens; 21o field; 73” pixels; down to ~ 12th mag

Skycam-Z:Zoomed – Orion optics AG8 telescope; 1o field; 3”/pixel; down to ~18th mag

• All cameras are Andor ikon-M DU934N-BV• No filters; CCD QE from ~400-800 nm• Live images (& Movies) available in Quicklook

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InstrumentationIn development

SPRAT (Iain Steele & Brian Bolton)

• Goal – a simple, high-throughput optical spectrometer.• Low resolution: R ~ few hundred.• Science driver – SN typing

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Robotic Control System

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Robotic Control System (RCS) is effectively a robot user that reacts to events as they occur (rise/set of target, changing weather, seeing, sun rise/set, power outages, etc).

Robotic Control System

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RCS decision-making:

• The RCS generates a list of Observations that satisfy current constraints. A weighted score is then generated for each observations based on:

1. Proposal science priority (A, B or C).2. Repeat observations have a higher priority than one-off

observations.3. Urgent observations have a higher priority.4. Ratio of current elevation vs highest elevation expected that night.5. Matching of actual (seeing/lunar) conditions to those requested.

Calibrations:

• Standards:o Set to run every 3 hours; sets for photometric and non-photometric. 

• Background standards:o Used for monitoring when there are no science groups available

• Twilight flats:o Obtained most mornings/evening, as conditions permit.

Science AreasTime Domain and Transient Astronomy

Proposals by subject

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Most proposals are either monitoring of known transients (CVs, Novae, SN, YSOs, etc.) or eclipses (Binaries, Exoplanets, etc.), or Target of Opportunity requests for as-yet unknown events (GRBs, TDEs, etc.).

Science HighlightsThermo-nuclear Super Novae

• Using Type Ia SN important as a measure of cosmological distances (the redshift-distance relationship) and as probes of Dark Energy.

• Need high-quality light-curves to characterize low-redshift (z < 0.1) SNe, so can better understand the high-redshift SN used as standard candles.

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Left: Brighter SNe Ia have wider and bluer light-curves, and are preferentially located in more massive galaxies (Sullivan, Maguire et al.); Right: SN light curve shapes trace the presence of circumstellar material (CSM). Systems with blue-shifted CSM features are ‘wider’; light curve shape may track progenitor type (Maguire et al. 2013).

Science HighlightsGamma-Ray Bursts• Dense, photometric monitoring over the first hour (Mundell, Gomboc, et al.) and beyond (Tanvir, Levan, Urkia et al.).

• Complex profiles include flares that are indicative of central engine activity; need to probe the scale and speed of these events.

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Above: GRB lightcurves from LT, FT(N) and FT(S) (Melandri et al. 2008). Left: GRB 080319B was a remarkable GRB detected by the Swift satellite on March 19, 2008. The burst set a new record for the farthest object that could be seen with the naked eye (z ~ 0.93). It had a peak magnitude of 5.8 and remained visible to the unaided eye for approximately 30 secs. The explosion occurred 7.9 billion years ago.

LT data

Swift trigger (X-ray) data

Other telescopes

GRB 080319B

Collimated relativistic Fireball model!

Science Highlights

Tidal Disruption Events• Search for stars tidally-disrupted as they wander too close to a super-massive black hole.

• Monitoring of SEDs; to determine energy distribution and time evolution.

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Gezari et al. 2012, Nature 485, 217

Slow Blue Nuclear transients• Distant AGN microlensed by stars in foreground galaxies; amplified by factors of 10 – 100 (Lawrence et al.).

• LT observations triggered by PanSTARRS

Science Highlights

RISE

Solar-system, Stars and Planets

Binary star and planetary transits, occultations, etc.

Below: White dwarf CSS080502 eclipsed by M-dwarf companion. 30-40 sec eclipse ingress/egress fully sample in these RISE data such that mid-eclipse time can be measured to within a second. Eclipse time variations (few secs) caused by a circumbinary planet.

RISE data (Feb. 2013): Bours et al., U. Warwick.

10 mins

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Above: Comet ISON - being monitored by professionals and semi-professionals at the LT through imaging, spectroscopy and polarimetry

Other on-going science projects• Asteroids and NEOs (Fitzsimmons et al.; Goldaraceno et al.; Vaduvescu et al.)

• Occultations by Trans-Neptunian Objects (Moreno et al.)

• Exoplanet detection via microlensing (Horne et al.)

• X-ray transients and binaries (Monos-Darias et al.; Espinosa et al.)

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• FU Ori and T Tauri outbursts – episodic accretion and outflows (Sigurdsson et al.; Naylor et al.; Davis et al.)

• Galactic and extra-galactic Novae – short and long period monitoring (Darnley, Bode et al.; Ederoclite et al.)

• High-z Quasar monitoring (Simpson et al.)

• LOFAR transients follow-up (Fender, Bersier et al.)

LT strengths…• High-impact Science

– 36 citations/paper (for papers >3 yrs old) with 14 papers in Nature/Science having on average 86 citations (since ops began in 2004)

• Broad range of sampling timescales available– From 10 ms to 10 years; monitoring is “actively encouraged”!

• Optimised scheduling and autonomous rapid follow-up

• Rapid access to reduced data– Reduced Quick-look within minutes; data reviewed, PI notified and

data archived the usually the following day

• Robotic operations allows for low operating costs– 10.5 staff; £500k/year or £10k/paper

• Open to collaboration (LOFAR, GAIA, iPTF, etc.)

• Outreach – National Schools Observatory 5% of telescope time used by NSO 16

LT over the next ~5 years…• A stable instrument suite

– IO:O and IO:I: Optical and IR imaging/photometry

– IO:THOR: rapid optical (lucky) imaging

– FRODOspec: IFU optical spectroscopy (R~2500 or 5500)

– RINGO3: three-beam Optical Imaging Polarimetry

– RISE (exoplanet timing) or SPRAT (R~500 optical spectroscopy)

• Enhance Rapid-Response capabilities• Through improved submission system (eStar-type, template

observations waiting on coordinate submission)

• Nurture collaborations: GAIA and LOFAR transients, iPTF follow-up…

• Act as a “training ground” for LSST

• Remain competitive until 2020+• Operations began in 2004

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Liverpool Telescope 2• A replacement facility for Robotic Time Domain

Astronomy in 2020 and beyond– Rapid follow up of transient detections from LSST and other facilities

– New types of transients: GW, neutrinos, high energy (CTA)

– GRB afterglows, (spectroscopy of) SNe on the rise, exoplanets, etc.

• Capability will build on the strengths of the existing facility– Increased slew rate: GRB observations within tens of seconds?

– A greater spectroscopic capability (larger aperture?)

– Flexible instrumentation suite; importance of infrared?

– LT2 feeding off discoveries made with LT in real time?

• Science & Technical case for LT2 in development– Community input important: please contact Chris Copperwheat, the

LT2 scientist at ARI: c.m.copperwheat@ljmu.ac.uk or visit the LT2 website at: http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/lt2/

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Thank You

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