Before your run | During your run | After your run |
For YOUR Information:
For OUR Information:
Our mountain observing support staff provides most of the support for observers on Cerro Tololo itself. For the V. M. Blanco 4-m Telescope, each instrument has a scientific staff contact for additional help. The smaller telescopes are operated by the SMARTS Consortium, and queries should be directed to SMARTS personnel.
At the end of every night at every telescope, a report form must be filled out. At all telescopes this is the responsibility of the observer. The observing assistant (Blanco, SOAR) will remind the observer to fill out the form as necessary. For the Blanco the form is here. At SOAR, the operator will indicate the location of the link. At SMARTS telescopes, please follow their protocol.
2020 Ephemeris data for Cerro Tololo (be careful of winter/summer time). (Other years: 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025 -2026 - 2027 - 2028 - 2029)
CTIO runs a Target-of-Opportunity program which may require that your observations be interrupted. The official policy is here.
You may wish to review the weather rules for closing and re-opening the Blanco telescope.
In order to make sure that we stay competitive as a front-line observatory, we need to know how successful your run was. PLEASE fill in one of these forms before you leave CTIO!: End-of-run report form for all CTIO telescopes