Repository containing reduction codes and data from the Kilonova Seekers - LCO: STAR project.

Please click the 'launch binder' link below to get started!

As we have a core group of very dedicated volunteers, we are keen to provide the opportunity for Kilonova Seekers volunteers to take follow-up observations themselves of targets that they have found, and so we developed the Kilonova Seekers - LCO: STAR project. This provides the opportunity for members of the public (you!) to be involved in transient science from detection all the way to classification. We have been awarded 15 hours of time on the 0.4m telescope network of the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) through the Global Sky Partners for you to use!

You will be able to collaboratively decide which transient discoveries to follow-up from the Kilonova Seekers citizen science project, trigger observations, create light-curves, and produce colour images, guided by a lead observer, with online training and support from the project team.

We ask that you please read and consider our Code of Conduct.

To join the project Slack channel so that you can talk with the team and other volunteers, please fill out the short form here, so that we can grant you access.

More information on Kilonova Seekers
More information on GOTO

LCO is a network of telescopes around the world, whose locations allow for near constant observation of astronomical events. The 0.4m telescopes available to us via this program are located in Hawaii, Texas, Chile, Tenerife, South Africa and Australia, meaning that we can access near-instantaneous follow-up of transient phenomena whatever the time of day. This is the same network as used by professional astronomers around the globe, and so gives you a real taste of what it's like to study supernovae! The LCO Scheduler is completely robotic, taking observation requests via an online form, and automatically assigning individual telescopes to take the requested observations based on conditions at each site and the type of data requested. Projects involving members of the public are provided through the Global Sky Partners, who have over 1000 hours of observing time on the 0.4m telescope network for partner projects to use.

Instructions on how to use the notebooks and codes in this repository can be found under the docs folder. Once you have downloaded the data to your machine using the tutorial there, open the notebooks folder to begin.

We highly recommend using the pre-built Binder environment to run the pipeline and any other analysis. We have tested this extensively, and are best able to maintain the project in this way. You can of course download and run everything locally, but we are unable to provide direct support for this.

Note: Binder does not store your data between sessions, so please ensure you download everything from the outputs folder prior to closing the tab.

Data from the Kilonova Seekers pilot can be downloaded directly from the LCO Archive - please see the guide in docs folder.