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机器人望远镜（就科学计划的范围，调度的灵活性和仪器的复杂性而言），具有双重作用，开展具有国际竞争力的研究，并为国家学校天文台提供关键的观测资源。国家天文台为学生们提供了接近世界一流天文台的便利。自2004年启动以来，该项目已经收到了来自4000多所学校的16万多份观察请求。NSO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，它为一系列学科提供支持材料，每年的点击率超过150万次。自2004年开始运作以来，LT一直专注于在时域天体物理学中提供高影响力的结果。事实上，天文台在积极鼓励来自英国和西班牙社区的快速反应和难以安排的监测项目方面是独一无二的。包含LT数据的论文平均被引用46次，是所有天文学论文平均被引用次数的三倍；迄今为止，有22篇这样的论文发表在著名的《自然》或《科学》杂志上，平均每篇论文被引用166次。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项目：*与现场航天器测量同时进行的光谱学（例如ESA Rosetta和NASA New Horizons）*系外行星表征*灾难性变量，新星和超新星*引力波和伽马射线暴对应物*活动星系核从一开始，目标是提供各种各样的仪器，以满足LJMU和英国/西班牙社区的广泛兴趣。目前，光学光度学、光谱学、偏振学和红外光度学提供的仪器和软件环境能够从<1秒到bb10年的采样时间尺度。在过去十年中，一直在积极推行仪器升级方案。这使该设施保持竞争力，并确保其在至少未来五年内在时域天文学的前沿地位，届时我们计划过渡到一个新的400米机器人望远镜的联合操作模型。该申请是为STFC在2020-2023年期间为利物浦望远镜的维护和运行提供资金，从而继续作为LJMU天体物理研究所和更广泛的英国社区的主要资源。

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.