One of the most exciting events of my entire career was seeing the new GOTO network instruments deployed at Siding Spring Observatory this month. A team from the northern hemisphere comprising colleagues from Warwick U. and personnel from the telescope manufacturer ASA, as well as Monash postdocs installed both sets of instruments in the first week on site. The installation went very smoothly (actually completed one day early!) with installation and commissioning activities continuing for the next month.

Of course there were a few delays with networking equipment failure and the larger issue of internet reliability and connection to the outside world, but there are fixes in the pipeline, and at this point the hardware is performing well.

We're hoping to use this new instrument in concert with it's twin on La Palma to follow up events detected during the next LVK observing run!

Labels: 2023, hardware