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My Observation: What happens next?

Check My Observations

Once your requests have been sent to the telescope, you can simply sit back and relax - observations will be carried out at the best possible time.

You can keep an eye on their status using the "My Observations" tool. Here you will see a list of all your requests.

A screenshot of a table. Far left column is titled "ID" with a different number on each row. Then (going right) the next column is titled "Object(s)", then "Programme", then "Status" with rows displaying "sent to the telescope" or "Ready to Download", then next column is titled "Submitted" with rows displaying dates, next is "Observed" with some rows blank and some displaying dates, and last column is "Action" with all rows showing a graphic of a bin and some rows also showing a graphic of a curved arrow.
This work by The Schools' Observatory is licensed under All rights reserved
"My Observations"

The table gives information such as the name of the object, the requested observing programme, the submission date and time, and the date and time of any completed observations. The progress of your observation is shown in the "Status" column.

More details can be found for a particular programme by clicking on the "ID" number.

Once your observation has been taken and is available, you will get a message on your "My Observations" page. Click on the "ID" number and follow the instructions to download the image data.

You can then use The Schools' Observatory software to display, explore and analyse the data. This software, like Go Observing itself, brings the power of professional astronomy tools into the classroom in a much more "user-friendly" way.

You can find out more about what the software can do by following the help videos or simply loading in some data and playing!

There will also be additional information when you download an image. This includes things like the weather and observing conditions. Not only are these interesting in their own right, but they can help you to understand any differences between observations (Was there any thin cloud?, How close was the moon?, etc.).

 

 

How an Observation is Completed

The Liverpool Telescope (LT) and the telescopes on the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) network are robotic. They use a sophisticated computer programme called a scheduler to make sure observations are done as soon as possible and at the best time. Any observations that you have requested will be included in this.

The telescopes you have access to are located in places and time zones all around the world. However, the steps involved to complete an observation are the same:

Sunset
An open dome on a mountaintop with a telescope pointing up at the sky. The sky is blue-lilac with some clouds. The higher clouds are lit up by the sun beneath, making them an orange-red. There are white clouds in shade below the mountaintop.
This work by Mike Tomlinson/Liverpool Telescope is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International
Sunset at the Liverpool Telescope

Just before sunset at an observatory site, the telescope systems start up. If the weather is OK, the dome of the telescope will open by itself, and observations will start.

As it is still quite bright at sunset, the telescope takes observations that will be used to calibrate the observations taken during the rest of the night.

Once it gets dark enough, it can start trying to take observations for you and all the other astronomers who have made requests.

During the Night

All through the night, the computers at the telescope make decisions about which observation to do next. So, whenever an observation has finished it chooses the best one to do next from the huge list of requests.

It starts by working out which could be observed. To decide this, the scheduler asks a set of questions:

  • Is the object high enough above the horizon?
  • Will it stay high enough all the way through the exposure time of the observation?
  • Will it be possible to finish the observation before the end of the night?
  • Is the sky dark enough for the needs of this particular observation?
  • Is the "seeing" good enough for the observation?
  • If the observation needs the very best conditions, is it a night with no cloud at all?
  • If it has to be done at a special time (say at a particular point in an orbit, or when a variable star is very bright), is the time right?

 

Requests with " yes " answers to all these questions will be passed on to the next stage. This narrows down the list of observations to only those possible right now. These are then ranked using a special piece of computer code called an algorithm. The observation with the highest rank is then observed and the process starts again.

The rank given to each possible observation depends on:

  • Slew time: It takes time for a telescope to move and get into position for an observation. This could last several minutes, depending on the size of the telescope and how far across the sky the next object is. Requests with quicker slewing times are given a higher rank since they won't cut into the available observing hours as much. This means the telescope isn't moving back and forth across the sky all night.
  • Height above the horizon: If the object is going to be further above the horizon later in the night, it might be better to wait, so the rank number is lowered a bit until then. It does not compare it to other objects in other observations though.
  • Priority: Higher priority observations are given a boost to their ranking.
  • Completion: Big science projects that need lots of observations over a number of nights, or even months, are also given a bit of a boost as otherwise completing them might be difficult.

 

The overall rank number for each possible observation at that particular moment is then compared, and the one with the highest rank is observed.

Because it starts again with the full list every time rather than planning the whole night in one go, the telescope can make observations from requests that have only just been made. This is very useful for trying to learn more about things change very quickly or unpredictably, such as exploding stars like supernovae or gamma-ray bursts.

It also means that whenever you make your request - even in the middle of the night - the telescope will start trying to observe it straight away.

Sunrise

As the Sun rises, the dome closes automatically. Another computer program carefully calibrates all the data using the special observations taken earlier that night.

The data files for your observation are copied over to The Schools' Observatory website and are ready for you to download and explore.

Sometimes, you might have been unlucky, such as your observation being taken through a small, unexpected cloud. Or you may notice some image oddities. In these cases, you may wish to resubmit your request and try again. Just go to your list of observations and click on the resubmit button ( ).

 

 

Incomplete Observations

Why might my observation be delayed or not completed at all?

Sometimes you might need to wait a while for your observation, or it might not be possible for it to be completed in time for you.

Observing conditions can change frequently, even during the course of a single night. Many factors need to be considered before an observation can be taken.

Two side by side images of a closed telescope dome. On the left, the dome can be seen clearly, but on the right there is fog obscuring it from view.
This work by Liverpool Telescope/The Schools' Observatory is licensed under All rights reserved
Two different days at the Liverpool Telescope

Here are a few things that might help you to understand why you might not be lucky with your observations:

  • Seasons: Nights are longer in winter than summer, making it seem like a better time to observe. However, the winter weather is often worse, so it is still down to luck. And it's not just rain and ice that can make it unsafe for the telescope dome to open. There's air temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and direction, etc. to consider as well.
  • Across the Sky: As the Earth spins around each day, and orbits around the Sun each year, the part of the sky that can been seen changes. To help work out if something is visible at a particular time, we use coordinates. These can help us to plan an observation. Some objects may only appear in the sky at a certain point in the year and for a limited length of time.
  • Sky Brightness: The fainter something is, the harder it is to observe, especially if the sky is not really dark. Things like the Moon and twilight can make the sky too bright to observe the faintest objects.
  • Seeing: "Seeing" is what astronomers call the "blurring" of astronomical pictures by the atmosphere. The amount of blurring changes and observations that need the sharpest possible images can only be done at certain times. The telescope measures the quality of the seeing all the time, so it will take observations that need to be good only when conditions are right. This means that requests which ask for the best conditions have more competition in the "ranking", whereas if the poorer quality is OK, then it is easier for the telescope to fit the observation in.
  • Long vs Short: Observations that take a long time to carry out are harder for the telescope to fit in than those that are quick. So observations with long exposure times, or several observations taken together (like those for 3-Colour images), might take longer to get observed.
  • Priority: To help the telescope decide which observations are the most important to finish, all requests are given a "priority". For research astronomers, the priority is decided by a committee who think about what science the astronomers want to do and which requests are the most exciting and important. For your observations, we use the priority to boost observations that a lot of people want to get done, and also give a bigger chance to those who haven't used the telescope much to get their first observations done quickly. However, this is only used together with all the other factors - lower priority observations might still be done first if all of the other conditions are better for them.
What can I do if my observation was not completed?

The simplest thing to do is to try again! If you are sure that the observation is exactly what you want, just go to your list of observations and click on the resubmit button ( ).

However, if your observation was hard for the telescope to take the first time, it could be just as hard now, so you might want to try something a bit different. In which case, go back to Go Observing and see what you might change.

For example, you might find a similar object that is easier for the telescope to fit in (check the coloured "Visibility" bars). Or you may want to get a single-colour observation rather than a 3-colour one.