Observing information

Observation Schedule

• Observing rota manager : Joe Anderson

  • Full details on the logistics of ePESSTO+ observing can be found on the Observing Runs page.

• PESSTO Night reports

Important pages for observers

    General observing information 

• The PESSTO Handbook PESSTO-Handbook-V1.39.pdf  (9 December 2021). Essential reading for all observers and data reducers (download available at bottom of page). 

  • Observational setup to be sent to the NTT daytime coordinator 24 to 72 hours before your first observing night.

  • PESSTO Observation Blocks via P2 La SIlla (last update October 2019)

• PESSTO EFOSC2 AND SOFI Standard stars and their Finder charts

• visibility : useful tool for plotting visibility of targets. Easy and flexible, works by either querying the marshall database, or you can give it coordinates explicitly or OBs. Written and provided by L. Le Guillou. 

  • pessto-obs-plan :  a python script written by Evan Ridley (Aug 2021) that automatically queries the marshall and returns airmass plots labelled with priority and latest magnitudes for all targets

• The PESSTO Marshall

• AstroNotes guidelines

• GCN Guidelines 

• GCN Guidelines for O3 and GW events

• Tips for target identification from the acquisition images 

• The marshall takes targets from various feeder surveys - here are the sources for these, in case of a catastrophic failure of the Marshall (unlikely!) 

      Weather forecast and meteo information for la Silla:

• General ESO meto info (satellite images, etc)  : http://www.ls.eso.org/lasilla/dimm/meteo.html

• La Silla Meto monitor information (conditions on La Silla) : http://www.ls.eso.org/lasilla/dimm/meteomonitor.html

  • La Silla All sky monitor http://www.ls.eso.org/lasilla/dimm/lasc/

• Satellite images

• Current and future maps of the pressure and wind directions at about 5000m

    Classification tools 

• Gelato - click here for access : you need to register and get a username and password, which is automatic. From Gelato help pages : Your spectrum file should be in FITS or ASCII format. FITS files must have.fits/.fts/.fit extension and comply with FITS header standard for 1D spectral data. ASCII files must have .txt/.datextension and contain two columns with wavelength-flux value pairs. Wavelength values must be equidistant.

• Gelato requires a redshift to be input. For a discussion of the differences between Gelato, SNID and Superfit see Tomasella L. et al, ArXiv 1403.7233 

This wiki area should be used as the main source of communication for this operations group. The group's email address is alerts_@_pessto.org and the group's google drive area can be found here:

http://is.gd/0P4niI

and can be used as sandbox area to hash out ideas, project plans and draft documents.