Start of operations for FTN and FTS

Following a summer of intense activity at both the Haleakala and Siding Spring sites, both telescopes are undergoing final checks before starting operations for the new school year. Given a number of remaining technical issues, and poor weather in Australia, it is expected that the telescopes will be available over the next few weeks/month:

FTN: A new camera (Hawkcam - named after Eric Hawkins, one of the LCOGT engineers!) has been installed and tested, following the problems that led to the early shutdown of the telescope in June. It is hoped that use of FTN will restart by Monday 18th September but all operations will be considered at risk during September. Details of the new camera (which has a slightly larger field of view, ~6 arcminutes) will be made available as soon as possible.

FTS: Following a huge amount of work on the telescope and enclosure, FTS will undergo a test period in September, possibly with some limited access later in the month. The plan is to start full operations in October, but we will keep you updated on things as they happen.

We are looking forward to finally having two telescopes up-and-running by mid-autumn, and we hope to start seeing the first of many spectacular images of southern hemisphere targets over the next month or so. Please stay with us as we try and (finally) get these two telescopes online - we think the end result of all this work will be well worth it!