Documentation

Documentation relating to the LCO internal science archive.

Documentation of the BANZAI data reduction pipeline.

A description of the FLOYDS (low-resolution spectrograph) pipeline.

A description of the BANZAI-NRES data pipeline.

FITS header keywords and definitions

A description of how uncertainties are propagated during the BANZAI reduction process.

Documentation, examples and code for working with LCO's extensive programmatic interfaces.

Rapid Response mode is for observations of science targets (e.g. gamma-ray bursts) that must be carried-out as soon as possible after a request is submitted. Time-Critical mode is for observations at tightly constrained times that rarely occur.

Observations of standard stars are routinely acquired to enable the photometric calibration of science data, as well as to monitor the performance of the network’s telescopes. The data from these observations are available to all in the Science Archive.

If data are unusable because of a technical problem arising from LCO's hardware or software, the time charged for that observation may be refunded to the proposal.

Advice on setting your airmass limit for best quality data

The time available to Co-investigators on a proposal (for observation requests) may be restricted by the proposal's PI. Read how user quotas work and how to enable them.

The orbital elements of close-approaching NEOs evolve rapidly, but the time and site of an observation is not known until a request is scheduled. This document provides some guidance.

Some images, acquired under good conditions, resist astrometric solutions. We’ve determined that pixel saturation is critical for determining whether an astrometric (WCS) solution is fit to an image.

Bright stars can leave "ghosts" in the SBIG 6303 camera images (on the 0.4m telescopes). Find out why they occur, and how to spot them.