The Las Cumbres Observatory operates a fleet of robotically controlled telescopes currently two 2m, nine 1m, and ten 0.4m telescopes, distributed amongst six sites covering both hemispheres. Telescopes of an aperture class are equipped with an identical set of optical imagers, and those data are subsequently processed by a common pipeline (BANZAI). The telescopes operate without direct human supervision, and assessing the daily and long-term scientific productivity of the fleet of telescopes and instruments poses an operational challenge. One key operational metric of a telescope/instrument system is throughput. We present a method of long-term performance monitoring based on nightly science observations: For every image taken in matching filters and within the footprint of the PANSTARRS DR1 catalog we derive a photometric zeropoint, which is a good proxy for system throughput. This dataset of over 2 5 0 0 0 0 data points enables us to answer questions about general throughput degradation trends, and how individual telescopes perform at the various sites. This particular metric is useful to plan the effort level for on-site support and to prioritize the cleaning and re-aluminizing schedule of telescope optics and mirrors respectively.

We carried out near-infrared (IR) observations to examine star formation toward the bright-rimmed cloud SFO 12, of which the main exciting star is O7V star in W5-W. We found a small young stellar object (YSO) cluster of six members embedded in the head of SFO 12 facing its exciting star, aligned along the UV radiation incident direction from the exciting star. We carried out high-resolution near-IR observations with the Subaru adaptive optics (AO) system and revealed that three of the cluster members appear to have circumstellar envelopes, one of which shows an arm-like structure in its envelope. Our near-IR and -band photometry and Spitzer IRAC data suggest that formation of two members at the tip side occurred in advance of other members toward the central part, under our adopted assumptions. Our near-IR data and previous studies imply that more YSOs are distributed in the region just outside the cloud head on the side of the main exciting star, but there is little sign of star formation toward the opposite side. We infer that star formation has been sequentially occurring from the exciting star side to the central part. We examined archival data of far-infrared and CO ( ) which reveals that, unlike in the optical image, SFO 12 has a head–tail structure that is along the UV incident direction. This suggests that SFO 12 is affected by strong UV from the main exciting star. We discuss the formation of this head–tail structure and star formation there by comparing with a radiation-driven implosion (RDI) model.

We summarize methods and plans to monitor and calibrate photometric observations with our autonomous, robotic network of 2m, 1m and 40cm telescopes. These are sited globally to optimize our ability to observe time-variable sources. Wide field "context" cameras are aligned with our network telescopes and cycle every 2 minutes through BVriz filters, spanning our optical range. We measure instantaneous zero-point offsets and transparency (throughput) against calibrators in the 5-12m range from the all-sky Tycho2 catalog, and periodically against primary standards. Similar measurements are made for all our science images, with typical fields of view of 0.5 degrees. These are matched against Landolt, Stetson and Sloan standards, and against calibrators in the 10-17m range from the all-sky APASS catalog. Such measurements provide pretty good instantaneous flux calibration, often to better than 5%, even in cloudy conditions. Zero-point and transparency measurements can be used to characterize, monitor and inter-compare sites and equipment. When accurate calibrations of Target against Standard fields are required, monitoring measurements can be used to select truly photometric periods when accurate calibrations can be automatically scheduled and performed.

Combining stellar occultation observations probing Pluto's atmosphere from 1988 to 2013, and models of energy balance between Pluto's surface and atmosphere, we find the preferred models are consistent with Pluto retaining a collisional atmosphere throughout its 248-year orbit. The occultation results show an increasing atmospheric pressure with time in the current epoch, a trend present only in models with a high thermal inertia and a permanent N-2 ice cap at Pluto's north rotational pole. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.

We describe the operational capabilities of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network. We summarize our hardware and software for maintaining and monitoring network health. We focus on methodologies to utilize the automated system to monitor availability of sites, instruments and telescopes, to monitor performance, permit automatic recovery, and provide automatic error reporting. The same jTCS control system is used on telescopes of apertures 0.4m, 0.8m, 1m and 2m, and for multiple instruments on each. We describe our network operational model, including workloads, and illustrate our current tools, and operational performance indicators, including telemetry and metrics reporting from on-site reductions. The system was conceived and designed to establish effective, reliable autonomous operations, with automatic monitoring and recovery - minimizing human intervention while maintaining quality. We illustrate how far we have been able to achieve that.

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 world-wide network of telescopes, including the two 2m Faulkes telescopes, as many as 17 x 1m telescopes, and as many as 23 x 40cm telescopes. These telescopes initially will be outfitted for imaging and (excepting the 40cm telescopes) spectroscopy at wavelengths between the atmospheric UV cutoff and the roughly 1-micron limit of silicon detectors. Since the first of LCOGT's 1m 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 the 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.

We report recent optical, near-infrared (NIR), and millimeter observations which have revealed some new features of the bright-rimmed cloud BRC 5 associated with W4. With slitless spectroscopy, we detected 17 H alpha emission stars around the cloud; 4 are near the surface of the cloud, and 1 is toward IRAS 02252+6120. NIR photometry shows that the central H alpha emission star, together with one bright infrared source, has large NIR excesses and Class I spectral energy distributions. These two Class I objects are associated with the 2.9 mm continuum peaks and with a bipolar outflow, and are in between two separate, elongated (CO)-O-18(J = 1-0) cores. The (CO)-O-18 cores and the two Class I sources are aligned along a line at position angle similar to 240 degrees, somewhat less than perpendicular to the direction of UV radiation from the OB stars. Most of the detected H alpha emission stars, all T Tauri candidates, are located within similar to 3' of the cloud on the exciting star side. An estimate of the age of the stars based on a color-magnitude diagram suggests that these T Tauri candidates have ages of similar to 1 Myr or less, but are more evolved objects than the central young stellar objects. This age sequence suggests sequential star formation within the BRC 5 cloud. The (CO)-C-13(J = 1-0) emission shows three elongated structures, which indicates the asymmetric structure toward the UV incident axis. We present our exploratory simulation results by using a smoothed particle hydrodynamic code that suggests that the asymmetrical BRC 5 structure could possibly result from the evolution of a preexisting prolate molecular cloud subject to radiation-driven implosion (RDI). Our best-fit prolate cloud has an initial mass of similar to 400M(circle dot), an axial ratio of similar to 1.7, and a semi-major axis of similar to 1.6 pc, pointing away from the ionization flux by an angle of 15 degrees. The simulated cloud structure not only closely matches the observed asymmetric morphological structure of BRC 5, but also reveals the possibility of the development of two major cores at the head of BRC 5. For the first time, the possibility of forming two stars by an RDI mechanism in a BRC is investigated.

Combining stellar occultation observations probing Pluto's atmosphere from 1988 to 2013 and models of energy balance between Pluto's surface and atmosphere, we conclude that Pluto's atmosphere does not collapse at any point in its 248-year orbit. The occultation results show an increasing atmospheric pressure with time in the current epoch, a trend present only in models with a high thermal inertia and a permanent N2 ice cap at Pluto's north rotational pole.

A modular software package for automatically fitting astrometric world coordinates (WCS) onto raw optical or infrared FITS images is presented. Image stars are identified with stars in a reference catalog (USNO-A2 or 2MASS), and coordinates derived as a simple linear transformation from (X,Y) pixels to (RA,DEC) - to the accuracy level of the reference catalog used. The package works with both optical and infrared images, at sidereal and non-sidereal tracking rates.

Our global network of telescopes is designed to provide maximally available optical monitoring of time variable sources, from solar system to extra-galactic objects, and ranging in brightness from about 7-20m. We are providing a distributed network with varied apertures but homogeneous instrumentation: optical imaging, with spectroscopic capabilities. A key component is a single centralized process that accepts (in real time) and schedules TAC approved observing requests across the network; then continuously updates schedules based on status, weather and other availability criteria. Requests range from occasional to continuous monitoring, at slow to high-speed cadences (imaging and fast photometry), and includes rapid response to targets of opportunity. Each node of the network must be fully autonomous, with software agents to control and monitor all functions, to provide auto-recovery as necessary, and to announce their status and capabilities up the control structure. Real-time monitoring or interaction by humans should be infrequent. Equipment is designed to be reliable over long periods to minimize hands-on maintenance, by local or LCOGT staff. Our first 1m deployment was to McDonald Obs. in April 2012. Eight more 1m telescopes are close to deployment to complete the Southern ring, scheduled by end-2012.

Scientific performance specifications, a necessity for ease of commissioning and minimal maintenance, and a desire for automated sensing and remote collimation have led to novel designs and features in LCOGT's one-meter Optical Tube Assembly (OTA). We discuss the design and performance of the quasi-RC optical system with 18 point whiffletree and radial hub mount. Position probes and IR temperature sensors on the primary and secondary mirrors give feedback for active collimation and thermal control. A carbon fiber/epoxy composite truss, with unique spherical node connections, mounts to parallel and offset Invar vanes. A flexure based, closed loop, 3-DOF secondary mirror mechanism is used for tip/tilt collimation. The optics and deflections of the OTA components were iteratively designed for passive collimation with a changing gravity vector. We present the FEA predictions, measured deflections, and measured hysteresis for many of the components. Vibration modes, amplitudes, and damping of the system are presented with an FFT frequency analysis. Thermal CTE effects on loading and focal position are quantified. All of these system effects are then related to the overall scientific performance of the 1.0 m telescope.

We present fitted UBVRI - ZY and u'g'r'i'z' magnitudes, spectral types, and distances for 2.4 million stars, derived from synthetic photometry of a library spectrum that best matches the Tycho2 BTVT, NOMAD R-N, and 2MASS JHK(2/S) catalog magnitudes. We present similarly synthesized multifilter magnitudes, types, and distances for 4.8 million stars with 2MASS and SDSS photometry to g < 16 within the Sloan survey region, for Landolt and Sloan primary standards, and for Sloan northern ( photometric telescope) and southern secondary standards. The synthetic magnitude zero points for BTVT, UBVRI, Z(V)Y(V), JHK(2/S), JHK(MKO), Stromgren uvby, Sloan u'g'r'i'z', and ugriz are calibrated on 20 CALSPEC spectrophotometric standards. The UBVRI and ugriz zero points have dispersions of 1-3%, for standards covering a range of color from -0.3 < V - I < 4: 6; those for other filters are in the range of 2-5%. The spectrally matched fits to Tycho2 stars provide estimated 1 sigma errors per star of similar to 0.2, 0.15, 0.12, 0.10, and 0.08 mag, respectively, in either UBVRI or u'g'r'i'z'; those for at least 70% of the SDSS survey region to g < 16 have estimated 1 sigma errors per star of similar to 0.2, 0.06, 0.04, 0.04, and 0.05 in u'g'r'i'z' or UBVRI. The density of Tycho2 stars, averaging about 60 stars per square degree, provides sufficient stars to enable automatic flux calibrations for most digital images with fields of view of 0.5 degrees or more. Using several such standards per field, automatic flux calibration can be achieved to a few percent in any filter, at any air mass, in most workable observing conditions, to facilitate intercomparison of data from different sites, telescopes, and instruments.

LCOGT are currently building and deploying a worldwide network of at least fifteen 1-meter and twenty-four 0.4-meter telescopes to three sites in each hemisphere, enabling extended, redundant and optimally continuous coverage of time variable or transient sources. Each site will support two or more 1m telescopes and four or more 0.4m telescopes. All telescope classes provide a full range of optical narrow-band and broad-band UBVRI and ugriZY imaging filters. All telescopes are being equipped with a moving light-bar flat-fielding system called Lambert.The 1m network is intended primarily for science observing while the 0.4m network additionally provides educational opportunities to participating schools and institutes. The global network is designed to accommodate multiple science, educational and rapid response capabilities.

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is a fully-automated, wide-field survey aimed at a systematic exploration of the optical transient sky. The transient survey is performed using a new 8.1 square degree camera installed on the 48-inch Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory; colors and light curves for detected transients are obtained with the automated Palomar 60-inch telescope. PTF uses eighty percent of the 1.2-m and fifty percent of the 1.5-m telescope time. With an exposure of 60-s the survey reaches a depth of approximately 21.3 in g' and 20.6 in R (5 sigma, median seeing). Four major experiments are planned for the five-year project: 1) a 5-day cadence supernova search; 2) a rapid transient search with cadences between 90 seconds and 1 day; 3) a search for eclipsing binaries and transiting planets in Orion; and 4) a 3-pi sr deep H-alpha survey. PTF provides automatic, realtime transient classification and follow up, as well as a database including every source detected in each frame. This paper summarizes the PTF project, including several months of on-sky performance tests of the new survey camera, the observing plans and the data reduction strategy. We conclude by detailing the first 51 PTF optical transient detections, found in commissioning data.