Liverpool Telescope Operations 2019-2020
Lead Research Organisation:
Liverpool John Moores University
Department Name: Astrophysics Research Institute
Abstract
The Liverpool Telescope (LT ) (http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/) is the world's largest and most sophisticated (in terms of range of science programmes, flexibility of scheduling, and sophistication of instrumentation) robotic telescope with a dual role to carry out internationally competitive research and deliver the key observing resource to the National Schools Observatory. The NSO offers school children near-immediate access to a world-class observatory. Since its launch in 2004, this has led to over 100,000 observing requests from over 2,500 schools. The NSO currently works with over 4000 teachers throughout the UK and Ireland. At the core of the NSO is the website which provides support material for a range of subjects and receives well over 1 million hits each year.
Since operations began in 2004, LT has specialised in delivering high impact results in time domain astrophysics. Indeed, the observatory is unique in actively encouraging rapid-response and difficult-to-schedule monitoring projects from the U.K. and Spanish communities. Refereed publications that include LT data typically average 46 citations/paper, three time the average for all astronomy papers; to date 15 such papers have appeared in the high-profile journals Nature or Science, these having on average 86 citations/paper.
The telescope has high impact science programmes in five key areas of time domain astrophysics:
* Spectroscopy simultaneous with in-situ spacecraft measurements (e.g. ESA Rosetta and NASA New Horizons)
* Exoplanet Characterization
* Cataclysmic Variables, Novae and Supernovae
* Gravitational Wave and Gamma Ray Burst counterparts
* Active Galactic Nuclei
From the outset, the goal has been to provide a wide variety of instrumentation to cater for the broad interests of the LJMU and U.K./Spanish communities. Currently, optical photometry, spectroscopy and polarimetry and infrared photometry are offered with instruments and a software environment that are capable of sampling timescales from ~10 milliseconds to ~10 years. A continuous programme of instrument upgrades has been aggressively pursued throughout the last decade. This has kept the facility competitive and ensures its position at the forefront of time domain astronomy for at least the next five years.
This application is for an STFC contribution over the period 2019-2020 to the funding for the maintenance and operation of the Liverpool Telescope, and hence the continuation of its role as a major resource both for the LJMU Astrophysics Research Institute and the wider UK community.
Since operations began in 2004, LT has specialised in delivering high impact results in time domain astrophysics. Indeed, the observatory is unique in actively encouraging rapid-response and difficult-to-schedule monitoring projects from the U.K. and Spanish communities. Refereed publications that include LT data typically average 46 citations/paper, three time the average for all astronomy papers; to date 15 such papers have appeared in the high-profile journals Nature or Science, these having on average 86 citations/paper.
The telescope has high impact science programmes in five key areas of time domain astrophysics:
* Spectroscopy simultaneous with in-situ spacecraft measurements (e.g. ESA Rosetta and NASA New Horizons)
* Exoplanet Characterization
* Cataclysmic Variables, Novae and Supernovae
* Gravitational Wave and Gamma Ray Burst counterparts
* Active Galactic Nuclei
From the outset, the goal has been to provide a wide variety of instrumentation to cater for the broad interests of the LJMU and U.K./Spanish communities. Currently, optical photometry, spectroscopy and polarimetry and infrared photometry are offered with instruments and a software environment that are capable of sampling timescales from ~10 milliseconds to ~10 years. A continuous programme of instrument upgrades has been aggressively pursued throughout the last decade. This has kept the facility competitive and ensures its position at the forefront of time domain astronomy for at least the next five years.
This application is for an STFC contribution over the period 2019-2020 to the funding for the maintenance and operation of the Liverpool Telescope, and hence the continuation of its role as a major resource both for the LJMU Astrophysics Research Institute and the wider UK community.
Planned Impact
LT has a long tradition of strong industrial engagement. The initial build of the telescope was based around the establishment of a spinout company (TTL, Telescope Technologies Ltd) which was subsequently sold in 2005 to an ex-Google employee to build a global network of small (0.4 and 1 metre) robotic telescopes.
The project has ongoing strong links with a number of local engineering companies. Much of the precision engineering required for LT instrumentation is done in collaboration with the SME engineering firm "Senar". Through the Liverpool Telescope project Senar were contracted by the university-owned company TTL to build several parts for the telescope, resulting in the company upgrading its skills and machinery to deliver the high precision needed for astronomical instrumentation. The contract safeguarded a number of jobs at the time and the company received a grant from MAS (Manufacturing Institute, via the local council organization Wirral Direct) for the purchase of a new, more accurate, CNC lathe for precision machining. Their ongoing work for LT also features as part of their advertising, using the telescope as an example of a high-profile/high-technology client. Their reputation in precision engineering for astronomical applications over the past 10 years has led to contracts with other international observatories (e.g., the new WHT Auxiliary camera and a WEAVE contract) and with CERN, producing the chain links that carry cooling pipes and electrical cables for the LHC. This activity contributed to the rating of ARI impact in the 2nd quartile in REF2014.
Skills and knowledge transfer are furthered by the direct involvement of students (undergraduate and postgraduate) in development projects. The LT team has consistently included undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students in instrument and software design and development with these projects forming the basis of several PhD theses. Most of these students have left academic research for wider industry.
LT has also had success in licensing software and hardware developed for the telescope to the Faulkes/LCOGT organization. License income of £160k plus telescope time worth an additional £180k on the LCO telescopes has been received by LJMU from this activity.
LT is a focus for a significant fraction of the extensive Public Engagement programme at ARI. As well as many talks and workshops to schools and the general public (e.g. in 2012/13 over 150 talks to over 10,000 people were given based on the LT) the LT is also key to the success of a suite of Distance Learning courses in Astronomy that attract around 200 students a year, many of whom have little or no prior experience of Higher Education.
The LT is also an important element in the Spaceport visitor attraction on the banks of the river Mersey. The attraction regularly exceeds visitor number predictions (currently at around 70,000 per year) and brings considerable income into a regeneration area. Using the standard STEAM model (Digest of Tourism Statistics, Dec. 2009 - The Mersey Partnership) for determining the economic benefits of tourism in the City Region for day visitors, this equates to a net gain of more than £2m per year. Spaceport also contributed towards the success of Mersey Ferries being ranked 1st in the City Region in 2008 - when Liverpool was European Capital of Culture - for a paid tourist attraction and an independent MORI Poll from 2006 found that 97% of visitors to Spaceport were either satisfied or very satisfied with their visit. Due to this success, the original targets for the regeneration have been met or exceeded. These include the creation of an estimated 50 new jobs, both direct and indirect, which equates to a gross value added of £1.4m pa to the City Region.
LT is the key resource of the National Schools Observatory, which has delivered over 100,000 unique observations to over 2,500 UK and Irish schools and over 1,000,000 website hits/year.
The project has ongoing strong links with a number of local engineering companies. Much of the precision engineering required for LT instrumentation is done in collaboration with the SME engineering firm "Senar". Through the Liverpool Telescope project Senar were contracted by the university-owned company TTL to build several parts for the telescope, resulting in the company upgrading its skills and machinery to deliver the high precision needed for astronomical instrumentation. The contract safeguarded a number of jobs at the time and the company received a grant from MAS (Manufacturing Institute, via the local council organization Wirral Direct) for the purchase of a new, more accurate, CNC lathe for precision machining. Their ongoing work for LT also features as part of their advertising, using the telescope as an example of a high-profile/high-technology client. Their reputation in precision engineering for astronomical applications over the past 10 years has led to contracts with other international observatories (e.g., the new WHT Auxiliary camera and a WEAVE contract) and with CERN, producing the chain links that carry cooling pipes and electrical cables for the LHC. This activity contributed to the rating of ARI impact in the 2nd quartile in REF2014.
Skills and knowledge transfer are furthered by the direct involvement of students (undergraduate and postgraduate) in development projects. The LT team has consistently included undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students in instrument and software design and development with these projects forming the basis of several PhD theses. Most of these students have left academic research for wider industry.
LT has also had success in licensing software and hardware developed for the telescope to the Faulkes/LCOGT organization. License income of £160k plus telescope time worth an additional £180k on the LCO telescopes has been received by LJMU from this activity.
LT is a focus for a significant fraction of the extensive Public Engagement programme at ARI. As well as many talks and workshops to schools and the general public (e.g. in 2012/13 over 150 talks to over 10,000 people were given based on the LT) the LT is also key to the success of a suite of Distance Learning courses in Astronomy that attract around 200 students a year, many of whom have little or no prior experience of Higher Education.
The LT is also an important element in the Spaceport visitor attraction on the banks of the river Mersey. The attraction regularly exceeds visitor number predictions (currently at around 70,000 per year) and brings considerable income into a regeneration area. Using the standard STEAM model (Digest of Tourism Statistics, Dec. 2009 - The Mersey Partnership) for determining the economic benefits of tourism in the City Region for day visitors, this equates to a net gain of more than £2m per year. Spaceport also contributed towards the success of Mersey Ferries being ranked 1st in the City Region in 2008 - when Liverpool was European Capital of Culture - for a paid tourist attraction and an independent MORI Poll from 2006 found that 97% of visitors to Spaceport were either satisfied or very satisfied with their visit. Due to this success, the original targets for the regeneration have been met or exceeded. These include the creation of an estimated 50 new jobs, both direct and indirect, which equates to a gross value added of £1.4m pa to the City Region.
LT is the key resource of the National Schools Observatory, which has delivered over 100,000 unique observations to over 2,500 UK and Irish schools and over 1,000,000 website hits/year.
Publications
Oikonomou F
(2021)
Multi-messenger emission from the parsec-scale jet of the flat-spectrum radio quasar PKS 1502+106 coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-190730A
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Ciolfi R
(2021)
Multi-messenger astrophysics with THESEUS in the 2030s
in Experimental Astronomy
Shrestha Manisha
(2019)
MOPTOP: Polarimetry for time domain astrophysics
in The Extragalactic Explosive Universe: the New Era of Transient Surveys and Data-Driven Discovery
Albert A
(2021)
Monte Carlo simulations for the ANTARES underwater neutrino telescope
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Maíz Apellániz J
(2019)
MONOS: Multiplicity Of Northern O-type Spectroscopic systems I. Project description and spectral classifications and visual multiplicity of previously known objects
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Das S
(2021)
Modeling the spectrum and composition of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays with two populations of extragalactic sources
in The European Physical Journal C
Terry S
(2021)
MOA-2009-BLG-319Lb: A Sub-Saturn Planet inside the Predicted Mass Desert
in The Astronomical Journal
Dutta R
(2021)
Metal-enriched halo gas across galaxy overdensities over the last 10 billion years
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rahvar S
(2020)
Measuring limb darkening of stars in high-magnification microlensing events by the Finite Element Method
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sollerman J
(2022)
Maximum luminosities of normal stripped-envelope supernovae are brighter than explosion models allow
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Mistry D
(2022)
Machine learning-based search for cataclysmic variables within Gaia Science Alerts
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pastorello A
(2019)
Luminous red novae: Stellar mergers or giant eruptions?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Maíz Apellániz J
(2021)
Lucky spectroscopy, an equivalent technique to lucky imaging II. Spatially resolved intermediate-resolution blue-violet spectroscopy of 19 close massive binaries using the William Herschel Telescope
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Clark P
(2020)
LSQ13ddu: a rapidly evolving stripped-envelope supernova with early circumstellar interaction signatures
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Jordana-Mitjans N
(2020)
Lowly Polarized Light from a Highly Magnetized Jet of GRB 190114C
in The Astrophysical Journal
Reguitti A
(2021)
Low-luminosity Type II supernovae - III. SN 2018hwm, a faint event with an unusually long plateau
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Goicoechea L
(2020)
Liverpool-Maidanak monitoring of the Einstein Cross in 2006-2019 I. Light curves in the g V r R I optical bands and microlensing signatures
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Alvey J
(2019)
Linking scalar dark matter and neutrino masses with IceCube 170922A
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Eftekhari T
(2021)
Late-time Radio and Millimeter Observations of Superluminous Supernovae and Long Gamma-Ray Bursts: Implications for Central Engines, Fast Radio Bursts, and Obscured Star Formation
in The Astrophysical Journal
Kasliwal M
(2020)
Kilonova Luminosity Function Constraints Based on Zwicky Transient Facility Searches for 13 Neutron Star Merger Triggers during O3
in The Astrophysical Journal
Freudenthal J
(2019)
Kepler Object of Interest Network III. Kepler-82f: a new non-transiting 21 M ? planet from photodynamical modelling
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Yang S
(2021)
Is supernova SN 2020faa an iPTF14hls look-alike?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Fitzgerald K
(2020)
Introducing PyCross: PyCloudy Rendering Of Shape Software for pseudo 3D ionisation modelling of nebulae
in Astronomy and Computing
Cai Y
(2021)
Intermediate-luminosity red transients: Spectrophotometric properties and connection to electron-capture supernova explosions
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Friedman A
(2020)
Improved constraints on anisotropic birefringent Lorentz invariance and C P T violation from broadband optical polarimetry of high redshift galaxies
in Physical Review D
McWhirter P
(2022)
Identifying blue large amplitude pulsators from Gaia DR2 and ZTF DR3
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Avrorin A
(2021)
High-Energy Neutrino Follow-up at the Baikal-GVD Neutrino Telescope
in Astronomy Letters
Yan L
(2020)
Helium-rich Superluminous Supernovae from the Zwicky Transient Facility
in The Astrophysical Journal
Andreoni I
(2020)
GROWTH on S190814bv: Deep Synoptic Limits on the Optical/Near-infrared Counterpart to a Neutron Star-Black Hole Merger
in The Astrophysical Journal
Todorov K
(2019)
Ground-based optical transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-1b
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gill R
(2021)
GRB Polarization: A Unique Probe of GRB Physics
in Galaxies
Shrestha M
(2022)
GRB 191016A: a highly collimated gamma-ray burst jet with magnetized energy injection
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Valeev A
(2019)
GRB 161219B/SN 2016jca: a powerful stellar collapse
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cunningham V
(2020)
GRB 160625B: Evidence for a Gaussian-shaped Jet
in The Astrophysical Journal
Shalyapin V
(2019)
Gravitationally Lensed Quasar SDSS J1442+4055: Redshifts of Lensing Galaxies, Time Delay, Microlensing Variability, and Intervening Metal System at z ~ 2
in The Astrophysical Journal
Goicoechea L
(2019)
Gravitational Lens System PS J0147+4630 (Andromeda's Parachute): Main Lensing Galaxy and Optical Variability of the Quasar Images
in The Astrophysical Journal
Maíz Apellániz J
(2021)
Galactic extinction laws - II. Hidden in plain sight, a new interstellar absorption band at 7700 Å broader than any known DIB
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Merc J
(2020)
Gaia18aen: First symbiotic star discovered by Gaia
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lindegren L
(2021)
Gaia Early Data Release 3 The astrometric solution
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Rigault M
(2019)
Fully automated integral field spectrograph pipeline for the SEDMachine: pysedm
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Wyrzykowski L
(2020)
Full orbital solution for the binary system in the northern Galactic disc microlensing event Gaia16aye
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Marscher A
(2021)
Frequency and Time Dependence of Linear Polarization in Turbulent Jets of Blazars
in Galaxies
Lunnan R
(2020)
Four (Super)luminous Supernovae from the First Months of the ZTF Survey
in The Astrophysical Journal
Pastorello A
(2021)
Forbidden hugs in pandemic times II. The luminous red nova variety: AT 2020hat and AT 2020kog
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Pastorello A
(2021)
Forbidden hugs in pandemic times I. Luminous red nova AT 2019zhd, a new merger in M 31
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Morokuma T
(2021)
Follow-up observations for IceCube-170922A: Detection of rapid near-infrared variability and intensive monitoring of TXS 0506+056
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan
Zhang Z
(2020)
First discovery of an ultra-cool white dwarf benchmark in common proper motion with an M dwarf
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Description | Successful operation of the Liverpool Robotic Telescope. |
Exploitation Route | Operation of the telescope enables science exploitation by many UK STFC and international astronomers |
Sectors | Other |
URL | https://telescope.ljmu.ac.uk |
Title | robotic astronomy |
Description | procedures, hardware and software systems for the automation of astronomical observations. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | widespread adoption of robotic observing |
URL | https://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/ |