Scientific Operations Begin

The United Kingdom is rapidly developing a world-leading position in exploration of the astrophysical "time domain" using new, state-of-the-art telescopes and developments in e-Science.

The Liverpool Telescope (LT) began science operations in mid-January this year (2004) and first results were reported at a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society in London on February 13th. The telescope was designed and built on Merseyside by Telescope Technologies Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liverpool John Moores University. The development of its robotic software and instrumentation is led by the Astrophysics Research Institute of Liverpool JMU, who also operate the telescope on behalf of the wider astronomical community. Funding for the project has come from a variety of sources including the European Union, the university and the generous benefaction of Mr Aldham Robarts. In return for PPARC's contribution to capital and operational costs, the UK community has access to 40% of the time on the telescope.

The Liverpool Telescope in its fully-opening enclosure.

The LT is sited on La Palma near several other major telescopes. With its 2m primary mirror, it is the largest and most sophisticated robotic research telescope ever built. Its first light instrument is an optical CCD camera (RATCam) with an infrared camera (SupIRCam - developed in a joint project with Imperial College) currently being commissioned. These are soon to be followed by a low resolution fibre-fed spectrograph (developed jointly with the University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank Observatory) and next year by an intermediate resolution spectrograph (FRoDOSpec), again in a joint project, this time in collaboration with the University of Southampton.

From the start, the philosophy was to develop an instrument that could be operated "like a space probe on the ground" with a high degree of autonomy and flexibility. This would enable the LT to monitor variability in celestial sources on timescales from seconds to years both effectively and efficiently. The telescope and its enclosure are also designed such that it can respond very rapidly to unpredictable events, including those most enigmatic and scientifically important objects, the Gamma Ray Bursters (GRB's).

During its first few weeks of operation, the LT commenced work on around a dozen science programmes for the user community, all running in parallel. These projects range from observations of the variable activity of comets during their orbits around the Sun, through the outburst cycles of interacting binary stars known as cataclysmic varaibles, to the variations of Active Galactic Nuclei to investigate the regions in these objects closest to where it is thought super-massive black holes may lurk.

Galaxy NGC3683 with Supernova 2004C Colour image from 3 observations from the LT

Of particular note perhaps are observations being carried out of Supernova 2004C in the galaxy NGC 3683. This supernova was discovered by astronomers at the US Naval Observatory and reported to the community on January 15^th. This coincided with the first night of science operations of the LT which observed the object that night as part of a project led by Imperial College. The first publication from the LT (albeit in the form of an IAU Circular - IAUC 8270) was produced immediately after.

This supernova is particularly interesting as subsequent spectroscopy has indicated that it is a Type Ic. This variety of core-collapse event has been linked to some long duration GRB's. Observations of the declining light curve of the object with RATCam are continuing.

Final commissioning of the telescope and its instruments is ongoing, working towards full robotic operation later this year. Of particular importance will be observations of GRB's in conjunction with the Swift satellite, due for launch in the Autumn, and in which the UK has a significant stake. The LT promises to be the most capable ground-based telescope by being able to rapidly follow up the many precise positions of GRB's expected from Swift. It will therefore be a very significant asset in our quest to understand the true nature of these incredibly energetic explosions.