The Network suffered a one-two punch of power outages in the past week. On December 17, power was lost on Haleakala. As a result, science observations from that site (OGG) weren't possible on December 17-18. ----- A few days earlier, on December 13, there were power outages that affected all CTIO facilities. Consequently, we made no science observation from our LSC site on December 13-14. Since then, the cameras in Dome B (fl03) and Dome C (fl04) at LSC have been showing unstable temperatures. As a safeguard, we will warm these cameras up tonight (2016-12-21), then inspect and recharge their cryogenic systems tomorrow. Thus, only one camera (fl15, in Dome A) will be available for science observations tonight. We expect to have all cameras available again for the night of 2016-12-22.
If you plan to attend the American Astronomical Society meeting in Grapevine, Texas, January 3-7, please stop by LCO's booth (#210) in the exhibit hall and say Hello. During the AAS meeting, LCO will host a splinter session on January 6 at 6:30pm. The topic of the session is "Opportunities for Time Domain Science with LCO: Preparing for the LSST Era". The session is intended to introduce the US astronomical community, which is now a Science Collaboration partner, to our Network.
We at LCO wish you a happy holiday season. Our offices will be closed for the holidays beginning on December 23. We will re-open on January 2. Network observations will continue throughout the holidays, of course.
