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About the LDT

LDT General Information

Lowell Discovery Telescope Schedule

LDT Staff

LDT Site Information

LDT Telescope Information

LDT Instrumentation

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captionProposing to Observe

General Proposal Information

2021A Call for Proposals (current)

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General Observing Preparation Checklist

First-Time User Support at LDT

LDT Remote Observing

Preparing and Submitting Observing Target Lists

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General Information and Quick Links

Astronomer’s Guide to LDT Startup Procedures

LDT All-Sky Cameras and Weather Information

Closure Criteria

Target of Opportunity Policy and Procedures

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General Post-Run Checklist

LDT Feedback

LDT (formerly DCT) Acknowledgment Text

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Lowell Discovery Telescope

Observer Information Pages


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Lowell Discovery Telescope

(formerly the Discovery Channel Telescope)

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COVID-19 Note:

For the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak, all observing at the LDT will be done remotely.  See Continuing, limited in-person observing will be supported at LDT.  For those observing remotely, see LDT Remote Observing Notes.

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Image courtesy: Boston University Astronomy Dept.

Brief Overview:

: J. Fernandez (Lowell)

Lowell Observatory operates the LDT in partnership with Boston University, University of Maryland, Northern Arizona University, University of Toledo, and Yale University.


The 4.3-m Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT) is Lowell Observatory's flagship facility at a dark-sky site approximately 40 miles southeast of Flagstaff on the Coconino National Forest.Lowell Observatory operates the LDT in partnership with Boston University, University of Maryland, Northern Arizona University, University of Toledo, and Yale University.  The telescope is classically scheduled by semester, with the current being 2020B.The .  See the current call for observing proposals is available for Lowell Observatory and Partner Institution members:  2021A LDT Call for Proposals

Instrumentation available on the LDT (all mounted to the cassegrain instrument cube):

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titleDeVeny (Optical Spectrograph)

Operational - Facility Instrument

Summary

Web Page:

Manual: DeVeny_Manual_v1.5_10July18.pdf

Additional Information: DeVeny_Ops_Appendix.tar

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titleDSSI / QWSSI (Optical Speckle Imager)

Operational - PI instrument

Summary

Web Page: the instrument page at Gemini-N is mostly applicable and very informative

Manual:

Additional Information: DSSI/QWSSI is available part time at LDT. For information, contact E. Horch or G. van Belle.

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titleEXPRES (Optical Spectrograph)

Operational - PI Instrument

Summary

Web Page: EXPRES web page

Manual:

Additional Information:

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titleLMI (Optical Imager)

Operational - Facility Instrument

Summary

Web Page:

Manual: LMI User Manual

Additional Information: LMI Exposure time calculator, LMI Filter Information, LMI shutter delay

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titleNIHTS (Near-infrared Spectrograph)

Operational - Facility Instrument

Summary

Web Page:

Manual: NIHTS User Manual (v. 1.4 - 20190130)

Additional Information: Overview of NIHTS (2018 Proc. SPIE 10702, 107023E)

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titleRIMAS (Near-infrared Spectrograph / Imager)

Coming Soon

Summary

Web Page:

Manual:

Additional Information:

.

The facility was constructed as the Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT), and was renamed in 2019 in cooperation with Discovery Communications.

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Updates (and Old Updates)

UPDATE:Call for Proposals for 2026A  released. (2026Oct10)

UPDATE:The 2025B LDT scheduled has been released. (2025Jun24)

UPDATE: LMI is back on-line as of Jan 30. (2025Jan31)

UPDATE: DeVeny is back on-line as of Jan 14. (2025Jan14)

UPDATE: Check your VPN settings before your next remote observations (2024May14)


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titleUPDATE: The LMI User Manual updated.  (2023Sep27)

The LMI User Manual has been updated.

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titleUPDATE: The DeVeny Spectrograph User Manual has been updated.   (2023Nov16)

The new version (v1.8 – 16 November 2023) updates to the PypeIt instructions and introduces the LDT Observer Tools python package.  It is available on the LDT Observer Information Confluence page.

Updates (and Old Updates)

UPDATE: The DeVeny spectrograph will be off-line until next week while a filter wheel is added to the slit viewing camera assembly. (2020Oct27)

UPDATE: The 2021A LDT Call for Proposals has been released.  (2020Oct09)

UPDATE: NIHTS is again available for use.  (2020Oct08)

UPDATE: The GG495 blocking filter has been replaced in the DeVeny spectrograph.  (2020Oct02)

UPDATE: The LMI User Manual has been updated to reflect modified focusing instructions and information about fringing when using the z' filter.  (2020Sep30)

2019Jan302018Dec05The DeVeny Spectrograph Reference and Operations Guide has been updated for the new release of the slitviewing camera GUI application. Version v1.5 (10 July 2018) of the manual is now available on the LDT Observer Information confluence page.
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titleUPDATE: TCS has been updated, ephemeris tracking is again working. (2020Feb19)
The telescope control system (TCS) has been updated, and several issues fixed. One item of particular note to observers is that ephemeris based pointing and tracking is now functioning again. If you plan to use an ephemeris, please be in touch with staff ahead of your run to ensure that things work as expected. The ephemeris file format has changed slightly. For ephemerides extracted through the TCS, there shouldn't be an issue; if you generate your own ephemeris file, then you will need to make sure it conforms to the revised format. (2020Feb19)

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titleUPDATE: NIHTS User Manual updated. (
2021Apr26)

An updated version of the NIHTS User Manual (v1.

4 - 2019013

7) has been released and is available on the LDT

Observer Information

confluence

page

pages.  Per the authors, NIHTS User Manual v1.

4 adds

7 includes a

description of blind target acquisition using LMI

couple of revised figures from the NIHTS Commissioning paper. 

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titleUPDATE: LDT Observer Information Pages released. (2021Mar22)

The new LDT Observer Information Pages were released, replacing the prior DCT Observer Information Pages.

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titleUPDATE: LMI shutter delay. (
2021Sep09)

We have looked into quantifying the delay between when a user requests an image with LMI, and when the shutter actually opens. Details can be found in the write up under the LMI link about the shutter delay (last done 2021Sep). The bottom line is that:

  1. The exposure times are as recorded to within a few hundredths of a second, based on the star streaks.

  2. The shutter throw time in each direction is between roughly 0.1 and 0.2 seconds, meaning that there is also a temporal gradient across all the images.

  3. Formal uncertainty on the measured time offsets are an underestimate of the true variation. The shutter throw time alone means the mid-time varies across the frame systematically by at least 0.1second (added as the systematic uncertainty below).

  4. The shutter opens 2.05 +/- 0.06 (ran) +/- 0.1 (sys) seconds later than the UTCSTART in the image header.

  5. The shutter closes 0.19 +/- 0.06 (ran) +/- 0.1 (sys) seconds earlier than the UTCEND in the image header.

Exposure times should be computed as:

  1. Start time = UTCSTART + 2.05sec

  2. End time = UTCEND - 0.19sec

  3. Mid-time = UTCSTART + 2.05 + EXPTIME/2 or

  4. Mid-time = [(UTCSTART + 2.05) + (UTCEND-0.19)] / 2

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titleUPDATE: DeVeny User Manual updated v1.5 (2018Jul11)

Facility Information:

Planning Your Observing Run:

At the Telescope: