iPTF Survey Operations

The iPTF uses 48 inch Oschin telescope for transient candidate discoveries. Any interesting candidates are then followed up with many other facilities, including Palomar 60 and 200 inch telescopes for both imaging and spectroscopy.

Palomar 48 inch telescope has an advanced robotic control system. The observation targets and schedules are planned out in advance.  To check in real time what the telescope is doing now, you can look at http://nera.palomar.caltech.edu/ptf/telescopes/p48.php.  A summary of the current experiment and planned observations (as well as pointers to the past) is available at  http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~tb/iptfdir/prv/p48ops/.

At the end of each night, a "Data Quality Monitor" (DQM) report is available. This report is distributed to anyone who is interested in receiving in email. Please let Tom Barlow (iPTF survey operation scientist) know if you are interested in receiving DQM report on a daily basis.

Palomar 60 inch telescope is dedicated to follow-up observations of any interesting tranient candidates discovered by the 48 inch telescope. A nightly log summarizing the targets observed is emailed to those who have signed up.  The real time telescope operation can be seen at http://nera.palomar.caltech.edu/ptf/telescopes/p60status.html.

Additional information on survey strategies, which vary for different science goals, can be found at the team internal Twiki http://www.oir.caltech.edu/twiki_ptf/bin/view/Main/WebHome