The Remote Observatories of the Southeastern Association forResearch in Astronomy (SARA)

William C. Keel1, Terry Oswalt2, Peter Mack3, Gary Henson4, Todd Hillwig5, DanielBatcheldor6, Robert Berrington7, Chris De Pree8, Dieter Hartmann9, Martha Leake10,

Javier Licandro11,12, Brian Murphy13, James Webb14, Matt A. Wood15

ABSTRACT

We describe the remote facilities operated by the Southeastern Association for Research inAstronomy (SARA) , a consortium of colleges and universities in the US partnered with LowellObservatory, the Chilean National Telescope Allocation Committee, and the Instituto de As-trofısica de Canarias. SARA observatories comprise a 0.96m telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona; a0.6m instrument on Cerro Tololo, Chile; and the 1m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope at the Roquede los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain. All are operated using standard VNC or Radmin protocolscommunicating with on-site PCs. Remote operation offers considerable flexibility in scheduling,allowing long-term observational cadences difficult to achieve with classical observing at remotefacilities, as well as obvious travel savings. Multiple observers at different locations can share atelescope for training, educational use, or collaborative research programs. Each telescope hasa CCD system for optical imaging, using thermoelectric cooling to avoid the need for frequentlocal service, and a second CCD for offset guiding. The Arizona and Chile instruments also havefiber-fed echelle spectrographs. Switching between imaging and spectroscopy is very rapid, so anight can easily accommodate mixed observing modes. We present some sample observationalprograms. For the benefit of other groups organizing similar consortia, we describe the operatingstructure and principles of SARA, as well as some lessons learned from almost 20 years of remoteoperations.

Subject headings: telescopes

1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Univer-sity of Alabama, Box 870324, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487;wkeel@ua.edu

2Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, DaytonaBeach, FL; terry.oswalt@erau.edu

3Astronomical Consultants and Equipment, Inc., Tuc-son, AZ; pmack@astronomical.com

4East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN;hensong@mail.etsu.edu

5Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN;Todd.Hillwig@valpo.edu

6Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL;dbatcheldor@fit.edu

7Ball State University, Muncie, IN; rberring@bsu.edu8Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA; cde-

pree@agnesscott.edu9Clemson University, Clemson, SC; hdi-

eter@g.clemson.edu10Valdosta Sate University, Valdosta, GA;

1. Introduction

Changes in the instrumental and funding land-scapes in astronomy, especially in the USA, havedriven increased interest in consortia of universi-ties or other organizations to operate telescopes

mleake@valdosta.edu11Instituto de Astrofısica de Canarias (IAC), C/Vıa

Lactea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Spain; jlicandr@iac.es12Departamento de Astrofısica, Universidad de La La-

guna, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain13Butler University, Indianapolis, IN; bmur-

phy@butler.edu14Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199;

webbj@fiu.edu15Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas

A&M University - Commerce, Commerce, TX 75429 ;Matt.Wood@tamuc.edu

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beyond the reach of any single member, especiallyas national facilities move toward support of largertelescopes and closing or divestiture of smallerones. We document here the operation and fa-cilities of one such consortium, the SoutheasternAssociation for Research in Astronomy (SARA).SARA operates three telescopes in the 1-meterclass at locations on three continents, using re-mote internet control. These instruments supporta wide range of research, educational, and public-outreach programs.

2. Sites and telescopes

The SARA consortium was organized in 1988in response to an opportunity created by the con-struction of the 3.5m WIYN telescope at KittPeak. To put WIYN at a site with favorableairflow for good image quality, the Kitt Peak#1 0.9m telescope was removed, and parts fromboth #1 and #2 0.9m telescopes were incorpo-rated into what is now the WIYN 0.9m telescope.The US National Optical Astronomy Observato-ries (NOAO) entertained proposals for use of theremaining parts; SARA successfully bid for this,and, starting in 1990, re-created a 0.9m telescope1

at a site near the Burrell Schmidt telescope abovethe steep, brush-covered western slope of KittPeak (Fig. 1). Photoelectric photometry wascarried out by onsite observers for some years.By January 1995 it became possible to operatethe telescope routinely in remote modes with aCCD camera (Oswalt et al. 1995). The qualityof long-exposure images is seldom better than 1.′′5FWHM at this site; changing image structure dur-ing sequences of short exposures suggests that lo-cal atmospheric issues are still a major contribu-tor, though a recent assessment of the mirrors byNu-Tek Optics showed measurable astigmatism.As other telescopes were added, this was desig-nated SARA-KP.

Agreements with Lowell Observatory and withNOAO at Cerro Tololo added the 0.6m telescopeformerly operated by Lowell at CTIO to the SARAnetwork early in 2010 (Mack et al. 2010); this tele-scope is now designated SARA-CT. As for other

1As reported by Glaspey (2009), the primary mirror hadbeen replaced in 1966 by one about 5 cm larger in diameter,so the SARA telescope at Kitt Peak is more precisely a 1minstrument.

facilities there, the Chilean astronomical commu-nity has access to 10% of the time on this in-strument, allocated through the Chilean NationalTelescope Allocation Committee (CNTAC), andLowell observers may use a share of telescope timeequal to that of the SARA partner institutions.The weather pattern at Cerro Tololo is more favor-able than at Kitt Peak, and the seeing is better.The telescope occasionally delivers subarcsecondimage quality (mostly in southern summer), andimage quality better than 1.′′5 FWHM is common.SARA-CT is sited on the southern ridge of CerroTololo (Fig. 2).

The most recent addition to the SARA facili-ties is the 1m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope (SARA-RM; Fig. 3) at the Observatorio del Roque de losMuchachos on the Spanish island of La Palma.Originally opened in 1984, it was mothballed forseveral years before being refurbished for SARAremote operation by ACE personnel and formallyrededicated in late September 2015. The origi-nal optical design is shown by Harmer & Wynne(1976); for CCD use with the SARA acquisitionassembly, the secondary mirror had to be movedsubstantially forward (60mm) compared to theoriginal specifications for wide-field photographicplates while retaining the apochromatic correct-ing lens. This changed the optical properties mea-surably. The site is excellent and the telescopeoptics are of high quality; in the months of oper-ation preceding this writing, subarcsecond imagequality has been common and values as good asFWHM=0.′′5 have been recorded.

All three telescopes are on German-style equa-torial mounts, with the telescopes used on the eastside of the piers in the north and the west side atCerro Tololo. The clearance behind the telescopesis such that reversal of the telescope is not neededto point to any otherwise accessible part of thesky.

The SARA sites are summarized in Table 1.Coordinates at Cerro Tololo are taken from Ma-majek (2012), who found agreement between GPSand Google Earth coordinates within 3-5 meters.(As Mamajek notes, the SARA-CT site is adjacentto a cluster of markers used for satellite geodeticranging). Accordingly, we use Google map infor-mation to update the latitude and longitude ofthe other sites (by about 100 meters from thatgiven for the JKT by Royal Greenwich Observa-

2

Fig. 1.— Moonlit view of the SARA-KP site, taken from near the WIYN Observatory. Red dome lights atthe SARA telescope were turned on, outlining the open telescope cover petals. (W. Keel)

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Fig. 2.— Panoramic view of the SARA-CT installation. The M-EARTH rolloff building is adjacent (to theleft), with the Cerro Tololo summit and 4m Blanco telescope in the background. (W. Keel)

tory (1983) , from which we take the elevationlisted). The site elevation at Kitt Peak is derivedfrom a USGS topographic map.

3. Instrumentation and remote operations

The three telescopes have been fitted with up-dated control hardware, and, when using the sameversion of the software, the observer is presentedwith nearly identical interfaces.

The SARA-KP and SARA-CT telescopes havesolid tubes, with covers at the top, while theSARA-RM structure uses a Serrurier truss withcovers above the primary mirror cell. These coversare computer-operated, with 2 or 4 petals depend-ing on aperture. One such set is visible in Fig 1.The opening angle for the petals at Kitt Peak wasincreased from 90 degrees (out along the tube axis)to about 200 degrees (slightly backwards-facing)after examining the effects of wind shake.

Under a National Science Foundation grant,matching CCD systems from ARC, Inc, of SanDiego2 were installed at the Arizona and Chilesites. Each has a 2048 × 2048-pixel E2V chip, us-ing closed-cycle cooling to maintain a CCD tem-

2www.astro-cam.com

perature of -110 C. This is cold enough that darkcurrent ceases to be an important noise contrib-utor even for narrowband imaging with very lowsky background. Unattended operation mandatesuse without regular infusion of cryogens, so theefficiency of thermoelectric cooling is a key fac-tor. While a white calibration screen was in-stalled at Kitt Peak, most observers find twilight-sky or dark-sky flat fields to be more useful. Testswith multiple exposure times show that the time-dependent illumination patterns due to the bladedshutters of the ARC cameras are reduced well be-low 1% for exposures 5 seconds or longer.

An effect of the CCD temperature has beenthe phenomenon of residual images, from chargestrapped by impurities in the chip, and releasedslowly over a timespan changing with tempera-ture (Rest et al. 2002). The Apogee U42 cam-era, typically running at -40 C, can release resid-ual charge for several hours from even nonsatu-rated parts of the image. This can be adequately(if annoyingly) dealt with by taking incrementaldark frames between affected targets. Despite us-ing the same CCD architecture, the ARC cameraat -110 C shows essentially no release of residualcharge even in hour-long exposures.

Table 2 lists properties of CCD systems used on

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Fig. 3.— The SARA-RM telescope (former JKT) as seen with the observer’s webcam in June 2016.

Table 1

Telescopes and Sites

Site Name Aperture (m) Latitude Longitude Elevation (m)

Kitt Peak SARA-KP 0.96 111◦35′58.′′0 W +31◦59′26.′′1 2073Cerro Tololo SARA-CT 0.6 70◦47′57.′′11 W -30◦10′19.′′23 2012Roque de los Muchachos SARA-RM 1.0 17◦52′41.′′1 W +28◦45′40.′′2 2369

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the telescopes. For completeness it also includingimagers employed in the past.

Each telescope has an acquisition/guide box(Fig. 4), which includes an autoguider on a move-able single-axis stage, and two filter wheels. Thefilter wheels (Fig. 5) are of different sizes de-pending on the space available behind each pri-mary mirror. At SARA-KP, the available fil-ters are UBV RI (two sets, one using the Besselprescription), zero-redshift Hα, Hβ and [O III],redshift-stepped Hα with 75-A FWHM, medium-band continuum including one at 5100 A also us-able for redshifted [O III], neutral-density, andvery broad “white light”. At SARA-CT, filtersinclude UBV RI, SDSS ugriz, white light, zero-redshift Hα, and a vintage-1975 set of redshift-stepped Hα filters now being replaced after suf-fering degradation with time (especially at theedges). The SARA-RM filter complement is stillbeing filled out, but includes UBV RI, ugriz, and“white-light”.

Each autoguider uses a 2502 × 3324-pixel QSICCD on a one-dimensional movable stage, withfocus adjustable to work either with the CCD im-ager or spectrograph, and to get the best guidingimages in view of the large range in distance fromthe optical axis spanned by the E-W travel of theguider stage. The image scale on the guider isabout 0.15′′pixel−1. This camera is also availablefor unfiltered imaging, when parked closest to theoptical axis for best image quality; this mode hasbeen used as a fallback when problems occur withthe main imaging systems. Guiding uses Max-imDL3, feeding correction amplitudes to the tele-scope control computer. The locations of availableguiding fields relative to the ARC imaging CCDsare shown in Fig. 6.

In Arizona and Chile, there are nominally iden-tical single-fiber echelle spectrographs, funded byan NSF grant. Achromatic focal reducers give aneffective focal length of 3.6m for each telescope,so the fiber aperture maps to 2.8′′(50 µm diame-ter, in a 70-µm cladding), with the fiber on a con-trollable pickoff assembly. Polymicro FBP fiber isused, giving a transmission for the 20-meter KittPeak fiber nominally above 90% for λ > 4500 Afalling to 65% at 3500 A . The Finger Lakes CCDcovers parts of orders 24-60, with 25-59 uninter-

3From www.cyanogen.com

Fig. 6.— Focal-plane maps for the SARA-KP andSARA-CT instruments, showing the track of themoving guide camera and available offset fields.The E and W designations refer to directions atthe back of the telescope, so they are reversedwhen projected on the sky. At SARA-KP wherethe location is well determined, the echelle pickupfiber is nearly centered in the ARC CCD field. Theguide position offsets at SARA-RM have not yetbeen well-measured on the sky.

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Fig. 4.— The tailpiece of the SARA-KP telescope in July 2016, showing the acquisition and guiding boxabove the ARC CCD camera. The covers for the guider track are visible on either side of the octagonal boxhousing the heat exchangers for the guide camera’s cooling assembly.

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Table 2

CCD Imager Properties

Site/camera Pixel scale (′′) Field (′′) Gain Read noise (ADU) Dates

SARA-KP ARC 0.44 899 2.3 6.0 2012-presentSARA-KP U42 0.38 782 1.2 8.7 2006-2012SARA-CT ARC 0.38 776 2.6 5.5 2013-presentSARA-CT E6 0.61 621 1.5 5.9 2010-2012SARA-CT QSI 0.14 343 × 455 0.46 12.4 2012-2013SARA-CT FLI 0.61 622 2.0 9.7 2015-presentSARA-RM Andor Ikon-L 0.34 697 1.0 6.3 2016-present

Fig. 5.— The acquisition box for SARA-CT being fabricated at the Astronomical Consultants and Equip-ment, Inc. (ACE) Tucson workshop. The two 10-slot filter wheels are in place but not yet anodized or fittedwith fastening hardware. The guider track runs along the wall of the box at the top of the image.

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rupted and with usable throughput. This chip isoperated at typically -45 C; a colder system wouldimprove the limiting sensitivity. The typical reso-lution is R=19,000.

An integrating Astrovid StellaCam cameraviews the polished jaws of the fiber holder fortarget acquisition and guiding. Calibration usesa quartz continuum lamp and ThAr comparisonsource, delivered via fiber with with a lens sys-tem matching the focal-reduced telescope beam.The spectrograph fiber assembly can be insertedinto the beam in a few seconds; the major timetaken for a switch between imager and spectro-graph is in changing the focus of both telescopeand autoguider.

The spectrographs were fabricated by ACE, fol-lowing a design from Gabor Furesz (Mack 2013).The spectral format is illustrated in Fig. 7 usinga 10-second exposure of Sirius so the Balmer linesare prominent markers. The exposure level peaksat about 20% of saturation. A result of the trade-offs between detector format and spectral formatis that the first gap between orders truncates theextreme blue wing of Hα for stars with the broad-est lines. At the blue end, Hβ and the Ca II Kline are each covered by two spectral orders.

4. Weather monitoring

At each site the output of an automatedweather station is accessible to the control soft-ware as well as the observer. There are also all-sky cameras, using fisheye lenses and digital SLRcamera bodies. Both of these kinds of informa-tion are normally available from other facilities ateach site, but a dedicated set increases the chanceof data being available on each night in case ofdata loss from a single source. Dedicated weatherstations also provide sensitivity to microclimate(wind and humidity may differ significantly acrossa single mountaintop). Independently, Boltwoodcloud sensors4 can give a shutdown signal whetheror not their associated software is running.

The all-sky cameras can operate in greyscaleor color modes, and save either JPG or FITS for-mats if desired. On dark nights, 30-second ex-posures show detail in the Milky Way and someof the zodiacal band, so clouds can be seen even

4Distributed by www.cyanogen.com.

in dark time (Fig. 8). These systems have seenauxiliary science use, following bright novae andthe expanding coma of Comet Holmes up to threemonths after its October 2007 outburst.

As expected for mountaintop locations, we havelost several anemometers during severe storms.

5. Telescope control

Operation of the observatories is via remoteconnections to multiple Windows computers ateach site, using either Radmin or VNC protocols,through a virtual private network where neededfor local security. One machine controls the tele-scope (Fig. 9) and passes camera control com-mands to a second computer which also runs theautoguider and spectrograph detector. A thirdcomputer shows the view through an integratingvideo camera for spectrograph acquisition as wellas webcams for general views of telescope anddome. Some functions - weather station, webcams,and CCD control, for example - can be shared bya single PC, so normal use of three at each siteprovides redundancy in case one computer fails.

Internet switch panels allow power cycling toimportant systems, including computers (config-ured to reboot automatically when power comeson) and cameras. For greater safety, conductingbrushes deliver power for opening and closing thedomes at any orientation. The computers them-selves are connected to uninterruptible power sup-ply (UPS) systems.

The remote observer can set filter position, tele-scope and autoguider focus, and autoguider offsetposition. These functions also come with hard-ware initialization positions, in case the absoluteencoder value is lost due to system restarts or en-gineering work. A variety of guider software set-tings (within MaximDL as well as in the telescopecontrol system) can be set and tuned. SARA-RMuses a more recent version of the ACE control soft-ware, which adds integrated exposure series andvalue fitting for focusing, coordinate retrieval fromexternal name resolvers (such as SIMBAD), plan-etary ephemerides, and automatic dither patternsfor exposure sequences.

Observers can use coordinate catalogs - stan-dard system lists, lists created as objects are ob-served, or uploaded as text files. These can besorted or filtered by coordinate, magnitude, or

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30

35

40

45

50

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Fig. 7.— SARA-KP echelle spectrum of Sirius after bias and dark subtraction, showing the layout of spectralorders and location of prominent stellar lines. Order number is indicated on the right, with the edge of theorder matching the midpoint of the numerals. The telluric A and B bands of O2 are seen in orders 30 and 33.For display, the pixel scale in the wavelength direction has been compressed by a factor 2. The CCD includesadditional area at the bottom, beyond the blue end of useful spectral sensitivity, allowing measurement ofscattered light in each exposure. Hα (at the low redshifts which are relevant) appears in order 34, with Hβin orders 45 and 46, and Hγ in 52.

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Fig. 8.— Sample all-sky fisheye images from SARA-KP (top) and SARA-CT. Each is a 30-second exposurewith the camera set to ISO 1600. The weather mast at SARA-KP shadows part of the south side of itsimage.

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Fig. 9.— Typical screen view of the telescope-control computer running the ACE control program (Mack2011). Panels for focus, observation parameters, and instrument control float within the overall window.Some panels have tabs for multiple features; for example, the same panel allowing filter selection also includesspectrograph setup and autoguider control.

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proper motion values.

At SARA-KP there is a control room belowthe observing floor where all the control comput-ers can be accessed from their consoles; consor-tium members routinely bring groups of studentsfor training here, and operate the telescope. Thisroom also houses the echelle spectrograph to assistin its temperature control.

Incoming CCD images are displayed in DS95,using its XPA messaging function, with Max-imDL available for Gaussian image-size measure-ments and other immediate analysis. A connectingclient-server mechanism from ACE handles com-munication between the PCs running the telescopeand CCDs.

Software maps of the effective horizon andcable-wrap extent are used to confine pointingdirections to safe limits.

An interruption in internet control does not in-terrupt observing. This allows not only for occa-sional communication problems at either end, butan observer can switch locations during an expo-sure or leave an exposure sequence running andreconnect later. The systems are designed to closethe dome and telescope autonomously when pre-cipitation is detected or weather limits due to hu-midity or wind speed are violated. For the latter,the observer is queried and must approve contin-ued observing every few minutes. Closure condi-tions are: relative humidity 85% or higher, wind60 km/hr or above, temperature lower than -10 C,or if the sky gets too bright according to the Bolt-wood sensor. The sunrise condition serves as a fall-back for complete loss of internet contact (whichhappened once at Kitt Peak due to problems withwork on the line carrying all phone and networktraffic to the mountaintop). In any case, it is com-mon (and good practice) for the observer to mon-itor as well the web compilations of environmen-tal conditions at each site for improved situationalawareness. Dome control uses an independent pro-gram which can operate even if the ACE controlprogram has been terminated.

Each observer files an online nightly operationsreport, so usage can be tracked and problems orworkarounds communicated. These reports alsoinclude recent focus values and pointing or track-ing information. These reports are available in an

5ds9.si.edu/site/Home.html

email list as well as a web archive; along with a listfor technical discussion, this is important for a dis-tributed organization where successive observersmay have no other communication. Important op-erations announcements, as well as notable imagesand links to new publications, are disseminatedwith the Twitter account @SARA Obs.

6. Scheduling

With minor historical exceptions based on bud-get, allocation of nights is equal among partnerinstitutions. In practice, each institution submitsa list of desired night descriptions. Requests in-clude allowed lunar phases, nights of the week toavoid teaching conflicts, nights needed for scien-tific or public-outreach reasons, cadence of con-nected nights, and simultaneous use of multipletelescopes or avoiding simultaneous scheduling.These are then fit into a single schedule. If ap-propriate, partial nights are easy to arrange, re-quiring only a change of observer doing the re-mote controlling. Multiple users can connect atonce, allowing new observers to be trained eas-ily. (Consortium policy calls for new observersto share operations with experienced observers forthree nights before working solo). Major holidayevenings (Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’sEve) can be scheduled on request, but have morestringent weather requirements (no precipitationforecast within 36 hours) because emergency sup-port is not available in the event of, for example,the dome sticking open.

Although operating both a northern telescopeand the Cerro Tololo instrument at once requiresmultiple computers, because of VPN securityneeds, some observers find it helpful. Subtle vari-ability in blazars on hour timescales was long con-tentious; a detection is more secure if observedby telescopes thousands of kilometers apart. Si-multaneous monitoring can be done in two filters.Finally, some observers favor getting two nights’worth of data at the cost of one night’s worth ofsleep. Use of SARA-RM and SARA-KP on thesame (calendar) night offers the possibility of 18hours’ coverage of northern targets in winter. Thetwo northern sites are separated by 6.2 hours insidereal time. A much more limited, and season-ally variable, patch of sky is accessible to all threesites at once.

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The summer monsoon weather at Kitt Peakmotivates an annual closing roughly from July 15- August 31, when cables are disconnected to re-duce risk of damage from nearby lightning strikes.Planned maintenance (mirror realuminizing, forexample) is scheduled in this shutdown period. Nocomparable annual shutdown happens at the othersites.

Typically, engineering nights are scheduled ev-ery 3 months during midweek bright time. Theseallow for planned vacuum pumping of dewars, andresetting the tension on preload balance with sea-sonal temperature changes. The Kitt Peak tele-scope in particular is over 50 years old and doeshave mechanical quirks.

The primary mirrors need cleaning every 1-2years. The latest cleaning at Kitt Peak improvedsystem throughput by 25% (and provided a red-dening curve for Arizona dust).

7. Science

While the astronomers at most member institu-tions are not numerous, SARA as a whole is essen-tially a very large virtual astronomy department.As such, the range of scientific studies addressedwith SARA facilities is very broad.

In solar-system science, there have been long-running programs to determine asteroid rotationperiods, and campaigns to follow short-periodcomets. Lowell observers and their colleagues havedone occultation-related astrometry, for examplehelping to refine the path of the 29 June 2015Pluto occultation to place SOFIA near its center-line (Zuluaga et al. 2015).

In stellar applications, a multiyear study hasgenerated light curves of numerous Mira variableswith roughly three samples per month (Henson &Deskins 2009). Several observers use SARA lightcurves of binary stars for orbital and geometricreconstruction (Vaccaro et al. 2015, Samec et al.2013, Samec et al. 2015), and some have identifiednew variable stars in globular clusters (Murphy etal. 2015). Hillwig and collaborators (e.g., Hillwiget al. 2015 have used SARA data in a long-termeffort to identify and characterize binary centralstars in planetary nebulae. Several institutionshave observers collecting timing data on exoplanettransits, an application which calls for understand-ing the basis of the computer time stamps as well

as when during an exposure the system recordsthe time. SARA was used in a multi-year cam-paign that discovered the first exoplanet arounda post-main-sequence host star, which may havesurvived engulfment (Silvotti et al. 2007). Woodand collaborators use the SARA facilities as partof global observing campaigns targeting pulsatingwhite dwarfs or cataclysmic variables (e.g., Woodet al. 2005).

Father afield, SARA data have been used tostudy blazar variations on a range of timescales(e.g., Bhatta et al. 2013, Bhatta et al. 2016),variability of Seyfert galaxies, and rapid fol-lowup of gamma-ray burst counterparts and tidal-disruption flares in galactic nuclei. Hα imageshave been used to trace star formation in galax-ies, especially in comparison with GALEX andSpitzer data (Smith et al. 2008, Smith et al. 2010,Smith et al. 2016). After matching resolution toGALEX and XMM Optical Monitor data theyhave been used to derive optical/UV attenuationcurves for backlit galaxies (Keel et al. 2014) andfor emission-line surveys of AGN with extendedionized clouds (Keel et al. 2012). Some of theseprojects use the SARA data largely for samplescreening, which may not be apparent from pub-lications once the most informative sources havebeen observed with larger instruments.

Rapid followup of transient sources (GRB af-terglows, recurrent novae, supernovae) is often or-ganized on an ad hoc basis among observers (atleast once, Keel et al. 2011, beginning with dis-cussion on the cosmoquest.org discussion forum),with results appearing in, for example, more than50 GCN notices.

With commissioning of the echelle spectro-graphs, a large atlas of bright-star spectra is beingconstructed involving observers at FIT and ETSU.

8. Education and public outreach

Institutional use of the telescopes provides ob-servational laboratory experiences for both un-dergraduate and graduate students. This pro-vides access to larger telescopes at higher-qualitysites than an institution’s local facilities, and insome cases access to otherwise invisible parts ofthe sky. Some observers use the SARA tele-scopes as part of public outreach programs, on thecampuses or at such external events as Atlanta’s

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DragonCon (where they have supported very well-attended overnight Live Astronomy events since2007). These events may be organized around atheme (such as star formation and evolution), ordriven by audience requests.

Institutions frequently use the more accessi-ble SARA-KP telescope for on-site training ofstudents, either in classes, internal programs orResearch Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)programs. A SARA-wide REU program, fundedby the National Science Foundation from 1995-2012, included on-site observing and consortium-wide seminars at the beginning and end of eachsummer session. Many of the results of theseprojects appeared in the SARA-sponsored jour-nal JSARA6, which remains focused on researchinvolving undergraduates. Undergraduates usethe instruments frequently for research or classprojects; consortium rules require that a facultyobserver be present when an undergraduate stu-dent moves a telescope.

9. Consortium Organization and Gover-nance

Founding institutions of SARA were the FloridaInstitute of Technology (FIT), Florida Interna-tional University (FIU), Valdosta State Univer-sity (VSU), and the University of Georgia (whichleft in 2007 as faculty retirements changed its de-partmental research profile). Additional institu-tions joined as multiple telescopes became avail-able (and needed to be funded). Table 3 lists thecurrent member institutions and their accessionyears. As of 2015, the consortium is headquar-tered at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University foradministrative and financial matters. In 2015, theInstituto de Astrofisica de Canarias became an as-sociate member.

The major operating costs for the observato-ries are the engineering support contract to ACE,and joint-use fees at the host facilities. These areborne by annual dues, currently US$15,000 peryear from each educational partner. This annualbudget (slightly under US$180,000) is very low tooperate telescopes on three continents, and we dooccasionally experience downtime after major fail-ures, but this model has proven to be sustainable

6jsara.org

even when many institutions are under financialpressure. This tradeoff allows us to operate thetelescopes for less than US$200 per night, with noadditional travel costs.

Each institution appoints a member of theSARA Board of Directors, for three-year terms.The SARA board meets semiannually (in recentyears, many of these meetings are conducted on-line), rotating among member institutions. For-mal bylaws call for a consortium chair and boardsecretary. As additional telescopes have beenadded, a separate set of facility directors, one persite, manages operational aspects of each instru-ment. Less formally, a single person has been thetelescope scheduler, in a process which has greaterimpact as the number of partner institutions andtelescopes has grown. Institutions with particulardominant science interest can ask to have their al-locations weighted toward a particular hemisphereor telescope in each 6-month scheduling period.

The bylaws govern approval of budgetary items(both annual budgets and major expenses arising).As of mid-2016, the consortium is preparing to en-tertain applications for two or three additional in-stitutional members, now that all three telescopesare in regular operation.

Acknowledgements: The ARC imagers andechelle spectrographs for SARA-KP and SARA-CT were funded by the National Science Foun-dation under grant 0922981 to East TennesseeState University, and the SARA-RM retrofit wasfunded by the NSF through grant 1337566 toTexas A&M University - Commerce. Ken Rum-stay corrected some dating errors in the initialdraft; Ron Kaitchuck,Thom Robertson, CarlosZuluaga, and Stephen Levine provided CCD in-formation.

SARA

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Table 3

SARA Member Institutions

Institution Admission date

Florida Institute of Technology 1989Valdosta State University 1989University of Georgia 1989-2007East Tennessee State University 1989Florida International University 1992Clemson University 1999Ball State University 2005University of Alabama 2006Agnes Scott College 2006Valparaiso University 2006Butler University 2008Texas A&M University - Commerce 2012Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University 2013

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A. Appendix: Lessons Learned

Some recurring lessons from SARA remote operations are these, perhaps not all of them obvious.

Apparently robust USB connections may not be.

Remote sites are especially vulnerable to unexpected side effects of operating-system upgrades; we have lostthe use of webcams when new OS versions (upgraded in some cases inadvertently) did not have appropriatedrivers.

An important start for troubleshooting is a concise listing of what to power cycle, when, and in whatorder.

Campus network security policies can cause problems. For example, blocking of VNC connections (theonly available option for Mac OS or Linux local systems) from floating IP addresses means that laptopscannot be used for class observing (in the most restrictive cases, some observers can work only from offcampus).

The SARA all-sky cameras use Canon DSLR bodies and fisheye lenses under clear plastic domes. Degra-dation of their image quality over several years has been traced to lens coatings gradually turning translucentunder constant exposure to sunlight. These have sometimes been the only source of detailed awareness ofcloud conditions; even though each site is shared with other facilities hosting all-sky cameras posting to theWorld-Wide Web, any of these may sometimes undergo outages lasting many nights,

The most current reference source for recent telescope behavior and workarounds has been the onlinenightly reports by observers. We can scarcely stress strongly enough how much observers should read recentreports before a night’s work.

Similarly, for new or occasional observers, the reporting chain for problems (local experienced observer,facility director, only then support engineer) should be documented in an obvious way to avoid unnecessaryeffort, unwarranted support call-outs, and lost observing time.

The key failure will occur in the one circuit not attached to a remotely-controlled power switch.

Be wary of sending a system just arrived from a vendor to a remote site without doing a full-up test; wehave seen some which evidently were never tested between assembly and shipping.

You will always need the larger-capacity uninterruptible power supply.

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Judicious tracking of what components to keep spares for, and where they are kept, is essential in reducingdowntime at remote locations where shipping times can be long.

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This 2-column preprint was prepared with the AAS LATEXmacros v5.2.

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