Las Cumbres Observatory partnered with the LSST Corporation and presented a workshop on "Managing Follow-up Observations in the Era of ZTF and LSST." The event was held at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena last October, and at the start of December astronomers began observing programs exploiting powerful new tools.

The workshop provided an interactive introduction to Target and Observation Management (TOM) systems and specifically the TOM Toolkit software package developed by software engineers at Las Cumbres Observatory.

The TOM Toolkit makes it easy for astronomers to build these powerful systems to support their research. Fifty scientists from all areas of astronomy, representing fourteen nations, participated in the workshop.

The workshop participants were invited to submit proposals for observing time and seed funding to the TOM Community Development Program. The program provides resources to teams who will develop observational follow-up programs using Target and Observation Manager systems, providing the opportunity to prepare for conducting science with LSST alerts and data products.

Funding for the program was provided by generous grants from the Heising-Simons Foundation and the Zegar Family Foundation. In addition to financial support, hours of observing time have been donated by members of the Astronomical Event Observatory Network (AEON): Las Cumbres Observatory, the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope, and Gemini Observatory.

Directors of the workshop received 33 proposals and selected 15 of those for awards. The selected projects cover a wide range of topics in time-domain astronomy, from LIGO alert follow-ups to microlensing and supernova discoveries.

The complete list of funded projects can be found here. Las Cumbres and LSSTC are looking forward to seeing how astronomers make use of the Toolkit to enable their research.

The TOM workshop has successfully engaged the astronomical community in advancing ideas for handling the millions of alerts that will be generated by the LSST when it comes online in 2023. Software generated from the TOM Community Development projects will be particularly helpful as researchers prepare for the coming data-rich era of astronomy.

Related Links
Las Cumbres Observatory
Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media Network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

RIT and IAR observe pulsars for the first time from South America
Rochester UK (SPX) Dec 18, 2019
Rochester Institute of Technology and the Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia (IAR) have collaborated to make the first pulsar observations from South America. A new paper published in Astronomy and Astrophysics outlines how the team upgraded two radio telescopes in Argentina that lay dormant for 15 years in order to study pulsars. Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars with intense magnetic fields that emit notably in radio wavelengths. The pulses they emit carry information about the stru ... read more