Liverpool Telescope Operations 2020-2023

利物浦望远镜（LT）（https：//telescope.livjm.ac.uk/）是世界上最大和最复杂的（就科学方案的范围、时间安排的灵活性和仪器的复杂性而言）机器人望远镜，具有开展国际竞争性研究和向国家学校天文台提供关键观测资源的双重作用。国家统计局为学生提供了接近世界级天文台的机会。自2004年启动以来，已收到来自4 000多所学校的160 000多份观察请求。国家统计局目前与英国和爱尔兰的4000多名教师合作。国家统计局的核心是一个网站，该网站为一系列主题提供支助材料，每年的点击量超过150万次。自2004年开始运营以来，LT一直专注于提供时域天体物理学的高影响力结果。事实上，天文台在积极鼓励英国快速响应和难以安排的监测项目方面是独一无二的。西班牙社区。包括LT数据的参考出版物通常平均每论文46次引用，是所有天文学论文平均引用次数的三倍;迄今为止，有22篇此类论文出现在知名期刊《自然》或《科学》上，平均每论文166次引用。该望远镜在时域天体物理学的五个关键领域具有高影响力的科学方案：* 光谱学与现场航天器测量同步（例如欧空局罗塞塔和美国宇航局新视野号）* 系外行星表征 * 灾难性变量，新星和超新星 * 引力波和伽马射线爆发对应物 * 活动星系核从一开始，目标就是提供各种各样的仪器，以满足LJMU和英国的广泛利益。西班牙社区目前，光学光度测定法、光谱学和偏振测定法以及红外光度测定法都提供了能够从10年的时间尺度进行采样的仪器和软件环境。<1 second to >在过去十年中，一直在积极实施仪器升级的持续方案。这使该设施保持了竞争力，并确保其在时域天文学的最前沿地位至少在未来五年内，当我们计划过渡到一个新的4米机器人望远镜的联合操作模式。该申请是在2020 - 2023年期间STFC对利物浦望远镜的维护和运行的资金贡献，因此继续其作为LJMU天体物理研究所和更广泛的英国社区的主要资源的作用。

The Liverpool Telescope (LT ) (https://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/) is the world's largest and most sophisticated (in terms of range of science programmes, flexibility of scheduling, and sophistication of instrumentation) robotic telescope with a dual role to carry out internationally competitive research and deliver the key observing resource to the National Schools Observatory. The NSO offers school children near-immediate access to a world-class observatory. Since its launch in 2004, this has led to over 160,000 observing requests from over 4,000 schools. The NSO currently works with over 4000 teachers throughout the UK and Ireland. At the core of the NSO is the website which provides support material for a range of subjects and receives over 1.5 million hits each year. Since operations began in 2004, LT has specialised in delivering high impact results in time domain astrophysics. Indeed, the observatory is unique in actively encouraging rapid-response and difficult-to-schedule monitoring projects from the U.K. and Spanish communities. Refereed publications that include LT data typically average 46 citations/paper, three time the average for all astronomy papers; to date 22 such papers have appeared in the high-profile journals Nature or Science, these having on average 166 citations/paper. The telescope has high impact science programmes in five key areas of time domain astrophysics:* Spectroscopy simultaneous with in-situ spacecraft measurements (e.g. ESA Rosetta and NASA New Horizons)* Exoplanet Characterization * Cataclysmic Variables, Novae and Supernovae* Gravitational Wave and Gamma Ray Burst counterparts* Active Galactic Nuclei From the outset, the goal has been to provide a wide variety of instrumentation to cater for the broad interests of the LJMU and U.K./Spanish communities. Currently, optical photometry, spectroscopy and polarimetry and infrared photometry are offered with instruments and a software environment that are capable of sampling timescales from <1 second to >10 years. A continuous programme of instrument upgrades has been aggressively pursued throughout the last decade. This has kept the facility competitive and ensures its position at the forefront of time domain astronomy for at least the next five years when we plan to transition to a joint operations model with a new 4m robotic telescope. This application is for an STFC contribution over the period 2020-2023 to the funding for the maintenance and operation of the Liverpool Telescope, and hence the continuation of its role as a major resource both for the LJMU Astrophysics Research Institute and the wider UK community.