We are continually updating our systems with hardware and software, to improve the capabilities of our network. One major upgrade we have recently made is to allow adaptive scheduling of comets. We have had the capability to adaptively schedule asteroids, using the statistics astronomers know about the orbit of these objects (called Orbital Elements) since 1 April 2014*. This is a complex problem for the robotic scheduler because minor planets (asteroids and comets) are continuously moving, making them difficult to pin down and observe in a flexible way.
Although asteroids and comets move around the Solar System in very similar ways, comets can have orbits which are not closed; many comets only visit the Solar System once, on what are called hyperbolic orbits. For this reason, the orbital elements are slightly different to asteroids.
We are very pleased to announce that from today (3 Oct 2014) we can now handle comets, and are excited about the scientific discoveries this will enable. Many thanks to the whole software team for making this happen.
Above is an animation of comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) from our first set of observations performed using this new handling of cometary orbits. The observations where made on the LCOGT Cerro Tololo node, using a 1-meter telescope through PANSTARRS w filter. These observations were scheduled by Dr Tim Lister, who heads up our minor planet research program.
* = People have been observing comets before now. They had to look up the coordinates for a particular date and time, from websites like Minor Planet Center or JPL Horizons, and ask the robotic scheduler to schedule them as if they were not moving. This approach works but is not very flexible if, for example the observing time were to change.
