Related papers: Operational Concepts of Large Telescopes
An array of large observational programs using ground-based and space-borne telescopes is planned in the next decade. The forthcoming wide-field sky surveys are expected to deliver a sheer volume of data exceeding an exabyte. Processing the…
The efficiency of science observation Short-Term Scheduling (STS) can be defined as being a function of how many highly ranked observations are completed per unit time. Current STS at ESO's Paranal observatory is achieved through filtering…
A Virtual Observatory (VO) will enable transparent and efficient access, search, retrieval, and visualization of data across multiple data repositories, which are generally heterogeneous and distributed. Aspects of data mining that apply to…
Telescope arrays are receiving increasing attention due to their promise of higher resource utilization, greater sky survey area, and higher frequency of full space-time monitoring than single telescopes. Compared with the ordinary…
Fundamental changes are taking place in the way we do astronomy. In twenty years time, it is likely that most astronomers will never go near a cutting-edge telescope, which will be much more efficiently operated in service mode. They will…
The Observatory Science Operations (OSO) subsystem of the SKAO consists of a range of complex tools which will be used to propose, design, schedule and execute observations. Bridging the gap between the science and telescope domains is the…
As telescope facilities become increasingly more capable they also become increasingly complex and require additional resources to operate. This is particularly true for the current and future generations of "software defined telescopes"…
The workhorse instruments of the 8-10m class observatories have become their multi-object spectrographs (MOS), providing comprehensive follow-up to both ground-based and space-borne imaging. With the advent of deeper imaging surveys from,…
Adaptive optics (AO) instruments for the future extremely large telescopes (ELTs) are characterized by advanced optical systems with diffraction-limited optical quality. Low geometric distortion is also crucial for high accuracy astrometric…
As we move towards the era of ELTs, it is timely to think about the future role of the 8-m class telescopes. Under the OPTICON programme, novel technologies have been developed that are intended for use in multi-object and integral-field…
The challenges of multi-wavelength astrophysics require new outlooks from those appropriate to traditional astronomy. The next generation of research scientists must be trained to exploit the potentiality now being provided for the first…
The forecast on a time scale of 1 or 2 hours is crucial for all kind of new generation facilities (ELTs) instrumentation supported by the adaptive optics that will be mainly operated in Service Mode. In a recent study (Masciadri et al.…
In the era of big data astronomy, next generation telescopes and large sky surveys produce data sets at the TB or even PB level. Due to their large data volumes, these astronomical data sets are extremely difficult to transfer and analyze…
At Paranal Observatory, the least predictable parameter affecting the short-term scheduling of astronomical observations is the optical turbulence, especially the seeing, coherence time and ground layer fraction. These are critical…
Nowadays medium-large size astronomical projects have to face the management of a large amount of information and data. Dedicated data centres manage the collection of raw and processed data and consequently make them accessible, typically…
Like every other field of intellectual endeavor, astronomy is being revolutionised by the advances in information technology. There is an ongoing exponential growth in the volume, quality, and complexity of astronomical data sets, mainly…
Context. Towards the multimessenger era, the scientific demand for simultaneous observations with different facilities is continuously increasing. The main challenges of coordinating observations is the determination of common visibility…
The advent of the Virtual Observatory (VO) concept signals a pradigm shift in the way astronomy will be done in the era of information abundance and ubiquitous networking. Small telescopes will be playing a number of essential roles in this…
I discuss the modalities of zenith observing with LMTs, their limitations and advantages. The main limitation comes from the relatively small regions of the sky that LMTs can access. The main advantage comes from low cost, for inexpensive…
A concept of the ground-based optical astronomical observations efficiency is considered in this paper. We believe that a telescope efficiency can be increased by properly allocating observation tasks with respect to the current environment…