We present RTCSpy, a network-based robotic telescope control system for fully autonomous operation of multitelescope arrays. RTCSpy provides end-to-end automation—including startup, science observation, calibration image acquisition and shutdown—while coordinating all telescope units through real-time, network-based communication. Its operational framework integrates both synchronized control and automated decision-making by evaluating target priorities, available resources, and weather conditions within a unified framework, while a dedicated target-of-opportunity (ToO) manager monitors external alerts and enables sub-minute rapid ToO response. Deployed since August 2024 on the 7-Dimensional Telescope(7DT), RTCSpy has demonstrated stable nightly operation and reliable rapid response performance. Its network-based architecture also supports straight forward expansion to additional units and multi-site arrays, enabling coordinated observations across distributed facilities.
Hyeonho Choi, M. Im, Ji Hoon Kim· Astronomical Telescopes + In...· 0 citations
We present Py7DT, the operational data reduction pipeline for the 7-Dimensional Telescope (7DT), a medium band optical telescope array in Chile designed for rapid target-of-opportunity follow-up and the 7-Dimensional Sky Survey of the entire southern sky. Py7DT addresses the main reduction challenge of 7DT: reducing heterogeneous data from many telescope units, filters, and observing modes while sustaining nightly survey throughput and minimizing latency for transient events. The pipeline orchestrates the processing flow by wrapping established astronomical software behind Python interfaces, using a stage-dependent image-grouping scheme, centralized path handling, and priority-aware scheduling. The code is modular and portable, serving as a standard tool for end users to reprocess 7DT data with custom configurations, and supports the diverse scientific goals of 7DT– from transient object search to pixel-based analysis of spatially resolved galaxies– while remaining flexible and easy to maintain. The pipeline also features multi-level logging, automatically generated quality-assessment statistics and flags, and web-based real-time status monitoring to reduce the management load on the small developer team. Current operational tests show that Py7DT can process a typical nightly survey volume within the daily time budget while producing prompt ToO products on an approximately one-hour end-to-end timescale when the target is immediately observable.
Donghwan Hyun, D. Tak, G. Paek et al.· Astronomical Telescopes + In...· 0 citations
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