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Lowell Discovery Telescope

(formerly the Discovery Channel Telescope)

Observer Information Pages

(The information in the LDTOI space supersedes DCTIC: Observing at DCT)


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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.

Current Semester Observer and Telescope Operator Calendar

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Image: TJ. Ellsworth-Bowers Fernandez (Lowell)

Brief Overview:
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 2021A.The .  See the current call for observing proposals is linked in the sidebar at left for Lowell Observatory and Partner Institution members.

Facility Instruments:

LMI (Optical Imager)

DeVeny (Optical Spectrograph)

NIHTS (Near-infrared Spectrograph)

Visitor / PI Instruments:

EXPRES (Optical Spectrograph)

QWSSI (Optical Speckle Imager)

RIMAS (Near-infrared Spectrograph / Imager – Under Development, Coming 2021)

Instrumentation Main Page

List of LDT Scientific and Technical Publications

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

UPDATE:Call for Proposals for 2025B released. (2025Apr09)

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:
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Updates (and Old Updates)

UPDATE: 
The DeVeny Spectrograph User Manual has been
revised and
updated.
 
   (2023Nov16)

The new version (v1.

6 – 22 March 2021) includes updated operating instructions, a reorganized structure, and more ancillary data and information on the instrument

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

. (2021Mar22)UPDATE: The new LDT Observer Information Pages were released, replacing the prior DCT Observer Information Pages

.

(2021Mar22)

UPDATE: The LMI User Manual has been updated.  (2020Dec20)

UPDATE: The 2021A LDT schedule has been released.  (2020Dec01)

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titleUPDATE: NIHTS User Manual updated. (2019Jan302021Apr26)

An updated version of the NIHTS User Manual (v1.4 - 20190137) has been released and is available on the LDT Observer Information confluence pagepages.  Per the authors, NIHTS User Manual v1.4 adds 7 includes a description of blind target acquisition using LMIcouple 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. (2018Dec052021Sep09)

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

Facility Information:

Planning Your Observing Run:

At the Telescope: