Using Go Observing

The Go Observing engine (click on the Observing Menu above) is your way of making requests to observe objects in the night sky using the Liverpool Telescope.

The user interface has been designed for both young and old to use, and will guide users in deciding which object or objects to observe. It will also take away much of the complexity involved in using a robotic telescope, by providing the telescope with all necessary information to safely carry out the observation.

On arrival at the Go Observing page, users are presented with the most popular observing choices; namely the Moon, Planets, Stars and Galaxies.

These options provide users with lists of the most observable objects within each category, and at that moment in time. The objects are chosen from a observing database that contains many hundreds of possible targets.

By selecting the final More Choices option, users are given the following additional choices:

• Explore the Universe

  These observations are of a general nature and include all objects currently held in the Go Observing database.

  and . . .

• Scientific Investigations

  Observations with a more investigative focus, usually requiring the input of extra parameters such as timing of observations, filter selection, instrument choice, offsets to facilitate observing a wider area of the sky, are included in this section.

  These observing programmes are ideal for teaching various aspects of science.

A simple observation of Mars could support a project preparing a class booklet about our Solar System and Explore the Universe will help you make the observation you need, whereas observing Jupiter over a period of time leads to investigating the length of a Jovian day, changes in atmospheric conditions and identification of Jupiter's moons. In this case you would use the Scientific Investigation section to help you set up your request.

Usernames and Passwords

The Go Observing pages can be investigated by everyone, provided a Username is entered at the beginning. However, a Teacher or Student password is needed to finally submit an observing request.

You can use a Student password to request the following:

• Bright solar system objects - use the LJMU Liverpool Telescope to observe the Moon, planets and even passing comets when they are visible. As planets are constantly on the move, the list of bright objects you can observe will change from week to week.

• Other objects listed in the current observing programme - depending on the time of year, you can request observations of selected extra-solar (outside our solar system) objects that will come into view of the LJMU Liverpool Telescope from time to time.

A Teacher password allows you to request:

• All Observations - ALL possible observations currently in the Go Observing database.
• Observation Archive - you can also search the NSO Archive for images taken by other schools. This is useful as a backup for when weather or mechanical issues prevent your observations from being ready when you need them.

Once the request is in . . .

Once the observation request has been made, you can monitor the status of your observing request and download the resulting telescope data for analysis using the My Observations option on the Go Observing pages of the website.