An instrumentation update strategy for the Las Cumbres Observatory’s 1-meter telescope fleet

Abstract

Las Cumbres Observatory enables time domain astronomy with its fleet of 26 robotic 2-meter, 1-meter, and 0.35-meter telescopes. The telescopes are globally distributed at 7 sites to always access night skies. The usage of the telescopes ranges from the study of near-earth objects, extrasolar planetary transits, Galactic stellar physics, active galactic nuclei, supernovae, and multi-messenger astrophysics. The primary instruments on the fleet of 12 1-meter telescopes are legacy imagers based on Fairchild CCD486 detectors. These cameras have reached the end of their useful life span, and in preparation for the Rubin Observatory LSST era we explored camera updates using commercially available CMOS and CCD detectors, in both single and dual-channel instrument designs. We review the instrument upgrade options we considered, and how they fit into science and operational requirements, as well as into fiscal realities. We selected an upgrade to Princeton Instruments Sophia 4k deep-depletion CCDs, and in addition a deployable dual-channel extension for two sites.