Abstract
The Joint Astronomy Centre operates two telescopes at the Mauna Kea Observatory: the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, operating in the submillimetre, and the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, operating in the near and thermal infrared. Both wavelength regimes benefit from the ability to schedule observations flexibly according to observing conditions, albeit via somewhat different "site quality" criteria. Both UKIRT and JCMT now operate completely flexible schedules. These operations are based on telescope hardware which can quickly switch between observing modes, and on a comprehensive suite of software (ORAC/OMP) which handles observing preparation by remote Pis, observation submission into the summit database, conditions-based programme selection at the summit, pipeline data reduction for all observing modes, and instant data quality feedback to the PI who may or may not be remote from the telescope. This paper describes the flexible scheduling model and presents science statistics for the first complete year of UKIRT and JCMT observing under the combined system.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 24-32 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering |
| Volume | 5493 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2004 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | Optimizing Scientific Return for Astronomy through Information Technologies - Glasgow, United Kingdom Duration: Jun 24 2004 → Jun 25 2004 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Computer Science Applications
- Applied Mathematics
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering