This is an astronomical calendar, not a civil calendar. See bottom of page for proper interpretation.
(in order to see the above calendar Google has sometimes required that the browser accept third party cookies or at least that it accept cookies from www.google.com)
The state and county shelter in place orders have closed
the remote observing room, as well as the telescopes.
The room is re-opening for essential operations as UCSC begins
to resume research operations.
We wish to restore the option for having two remote observers on
the same night.
Please let us know of rooms on campus which might be used for
remote observing during the summer.
The new remote observing stations at UCSC use off-the-shelf hardware which is comparable to a home gaming computer. See the hardware details.
Observers will only be scheduled to use the Remote Observing
room on campus for instruments which cannot be operated from
home.
As usual, Keck observers have priority for the room on campus.
Until the pandemic subsides this mean most Keck observers and
almost all Lick observers will have to observe from home.
UCSC policy and Santa Cruz county policy currently require face coverings indoors in public spaces.
During this pandemic it is essential to use the
e-mail address
UCSC Remote Observing <ucsc-remote-obs@ucolick.org>
for arranging use of the remote observing room.
Before using the remote observing room everyone must review these materials
Anyone affiliated with UCSC must follow these instructions for symptom checking. In particular, UCSC affiliates should read that page and follow the instructions to enroll/register in the Symptom Check program.
Keck telescopes have resumed operation. Keck has new software for home observing. Home observing for Keck is handled by the same folks who handle all remote observing for Keck. See below for the information on how to contact Keck.
Some telescope operations at Lick have resumed with software based on the home observing scheme developed for Keck and experimental network gear. Observers with suitable hardware and network bandwidth have been using Lick telescopes from home.
Complete details about home remote observing for Lick are now available at https://mthamilton.ucolick.org/techdocs/remoteObs/homeobserving/intro/
Repairs and upgrades to network and power infrastructure tend to be scheduled at night. If the contractors are given enough notice they will avoid work on remote observing nights. For all such routine work we need as much advance notice as possible, so please make remote observing reservations as early as possible.
Users who need Remote Observing, or Home Observing, for the telescopes on Mauna Kea must request and receive approval from Keck Observatory. The process of requesting reservations begins by using the WMKO Observer Login Page as described on the Keck Policy on Mainland Observing page. We believe that it is not necessary for the PI to login; anyone who has an observer account at Keck should be able to make the remote request. After Keck grants their approval of the remote observing then the local-to-UCSC arrangements can be made using the remote observing e-mail address listed below.
If the Keck reservation is in place more than 5 days before the night then Keck will send automated e-mail to the PI indicating that the VNC sessions for that night are ready. After those VNC sessions are started Keck remote observers should come to Remote Observing during the daytime and test that the connections to Keck are working. Remote Observers will need the information in the e-mail from Keck in order to connect to the appropriate VNC session.
Keck Observers, please make remote observing reservations 3 weeks in advance in order that displaced Lick Observatory users can make their arrangements to travel to Mt. Hamilton.
Lick Observatory users who need the UCSC Remote Observing
stations for telescopes on Mt. Hamilton can reserve time via
e-mail
UCSC Remote Observing <ucsc-remote-obs@ucolick.org>
Please read the
Policy for Shane remote observing and the
Policy for Nickel remote observing.
Note that remote observers must be checked out
prior to using the Remote Observing stations.
Arrangements for checkout should be made several weeks
in advance by e-mail to
Support Astronomers <sa@ucolick.org>
We need to know how to contact the people who have the keys. Make arrangments for the Remote Observing room keys by sending e-mail to UCSC Remote Observing <ucsc-remote-obs@ucolick.org>. The e-mail must be either
Observers who need keys to the UCSC Remote Observing rooms or
who need training for the login, setup, and Polycom operations
should make an appointment via e-mail
UCSC Remote Observing <ucsc-remote-obs@ucolick.org>
The remote observing connections require passwords, and those
passwords may change at any time.
The keys, training, and passwords are not available at all hours
of every day, so please make the appointment several days in
advance of the observing.
During the training it is helpful to bring a secure way to take
and store notes about all of the login procedures.
The UCSC remote observing room is always cold.
Bring warm clothing.
The remote observing policy for the UCSC facilities respects
aperture priority.
This means that Keck observers will displace observers using
telescopes on Mt. Hamilton.
In such cases the Lick Observatory observers may have to travel
to Mt. Hamilton and make arrangements to sleep in the Lick
dormitories.
Use of the Lick dormitories can be arranged by e-mail to
Mt. Hamilton Reservations <reservations@ucolick.org>
Mt. Hamilton observers, please make reservations 3 weeks in
advance for the sake of mountain preparations and dormitory
billing arrangements.
Since 2013 June both facilities are in Natural Sciences 2 Room 170.
They have the following characteristics:
| Remote Observing | Station #1 | Station #2 |
|---|---|---|
| Keck Mainland-only mode | Yes | Yes (software video) |
| Keck Eavesdrop mode | Yes | Yes (software video) |
| uninterruptible power duration | 1 to 2 hours | 1 to 2 hours |
|
failover telecomm
to Keck (ISDN) |
Yes | Yes |
| backup computer | Yes | Yes |
| Lick telescopes | Available | Available |
Remote Observing room usage for dates before April 2013 is still available at this old calendar page.
The begin and end of the events on this astronomical calendar differs from typical civil calendars. A full-day event shown on, e.g., the 17th day of the month is understood to mean that the observer begins on the afternoon of the 17th and ends on the morning of the 18th. For Lick Observatory this is effectively a timezone 20 h behind UT, and for Keck Observatory this is effectively a timezone 23 h behind UT.