Comment Re:rast reaction, but how? (Score 1) 273
"There just happened by chance to be a deep space optical telescope available for chasing after this event? I've always thought one needed to book time at observatories due to the high ratio of astronomers to available telescopes. How is it they can just take over an expensive instrument like this? What happens to anyone unfortunate enough to have reserved an observation run during this event?"
You are mostly right. All major telescopes are scheduled. Some operate in a classical observing mode (you are granted x number of nights, you go to the telescope and use them when you are scheduled to), some operate in a queue based mode (your observation is approved, the coordinates are put into a list and a computer automatically observes them when conditions are right) and some operate in a mixed mode (some nights classical, some nights queue). Because of this, one type of time award that you can be granted is called "target of opportunity" or interrupt time. Dr. Reichart's team (who I work with and will be joining full time in a few weeks) has interrupt time on both SOAR and Gemini South.
The basic chain of events is this: SWIFT sees a gamma ray burst go off and immediately relays the position of the of the burst to the ground. Reichart et. al. has a set of robotic telescopes in Chile called PROMPT. These telescopes (still being built, 3 are mostly operational right now, all six should be up and running later this year) are always running in queue mode. When a burst comes in, it goes to the top of the queue. If it is observable from Chile (if the Sun is down and the object is high enough in the sky) and if the weather is good, the PROMPT telescopes stop whatever they were doing and immediately slew to the position of the burst and start taking data. This all can happen in less than a minute from the initial burst. Meanwhile, folks on the ground have recieved email and text message notification of the burst and are deciding if they want to interrupt on the big telescopes. In the case of SOAR, it is currently in engineering and is not yet running in full scheduled mode. So if the telescope isn't being worked on, they can observe the target. In the case of Gemini South, it was operating in classical mode, so it couldn't be used until two days later. If you have real interrupt time, you can bump someone who is using it in classical mode. Since UNC (where Reichart is) is a partner in SOAR, he has true interrupt time. If he bumps an observer, he is charged for the time and the person who was bumped gets a time credit.
While the "burst" only lasts for a short time (usually tens of seconds) that doesn't mean the show is over. After the initial burst, the light output decays over a period of days. So while getting on them as quickly as possible is important, there is also a need for getting data in the days and weeks that follow.
You are mostly right. All major telescopes are scheduled. Some operate in a classical observing mode (you are granted x number of nights, you go to the telescope and use them when you are scheduled to), some operate in a queue based mode (your observation is approved, the coordinates are put into a list and a computer automatically observes them when conditions are right) and some operate in a mixed mode (some nights classical, some nights queue). Because of this, one type of time award that you can be granted is called "target of opportunity" or interrupt time. Dr. Reichart's team (who I work with and will be joining full time in a few weeks) has interrupt time on both SOAR and Gemini South.
The basic chain of events is this: SWIFT sees a gamma ray burst go off and immediately relays the position of the of the burst to the ground. Reichart et. al. has a set of robotic telescopes in Chile called PROMPT. These telescopes (still being built, 3 are mostly operational right now, all six should be up and running later this year) are always running in queue mode. When a burst comes in, it goes to the top of the queue. If it is observable from Chile (if the Sun is down and the object is high enough in the sky) and if the weather is good, the PROMPT telescopes stop whatever they were doing and immediately slew to the position of the burst and start taking data. This all can happen in less than a minute from the initial burst. Meanwhile, folks on the ground have recieved email and text message notification of the burst and are deciding if they want to interrupt on the big telescopes. In the case of SOAR, it is currently in engineering and is not yet running in full scheduled mode. So if the telescope isn't being worked on, they can observe the target. In the case of Gemini South, it was operating in classical mode, so it couldn't be used until two days later. If you have real interrupt time, you can bump someone who is using it in classical mode. Since UNC (where Reichart is) is a partner in SOAR, he has true interrupt time. If he bumps an observer, he is charged for the time and the person who was bumped gets a time credit.
While the "burst" only lasts for a short time (usually tens of seconds) that doesn't mean the show is over. After the initial burst, the light output decays over a period of days. So while getting on them as quickly as possible is important, there is also a need for getting data in the days and weeks that follow.
