The GOTO Telescope Control System
Abstract
The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) operates a network of robotic, wide-field survey telescopes searching for optical transients to gravitational-wave signals and other astronomical events. Since 2023, the network has comprised two antipodal sites in the Canary Islands and Australia, each hosting two independent robotic mounts. The GOTO Telescope Control System (G-TeCS) is a custom Python software package that manages all operational aspects of the network; from alert processing and target scheduling to onsite hardware operations and monitoring. The central system consists of an alert monitor, observation database and scheduler, which issues targets to the four nodes. Each telescope operates using a system of independent control daemons, with a pilot master control program to coordinate nightly operations. This architecture, in development since 2015, provides a flexible and robust system that now successfully operates the fully autonomous network.
Versions
Related
- 3.5-meter Segmented-Mirror Robotic Space Telescope Mission White Paper IV. Key Scientific Mission: Solar-System Small Bodies and Planetary Defense
- The extended globular cluster system of the archetypal "failed galaxy" Dragonfly-44 from deep white-light Hubble Space Telescope imaging
- Daytime seeing variations in Paranal through a SHABAR system. Description of the method and first measurements from the PoET solar telescope
- The Balloon-borne VLBI Experiment (BVEX) Radio Telescope and Position Tracking System
- The Simons Observatory: Design and Initial Performance of the Detector Readout System for the Large-Aperture Telescope
BibTeX
@misc{dyer2026goto,
title = {{The GOTO Telescope Control System}},
author = {Martin J. Dyer and Vik S. Dhillon and Stuart Littlefair and Kendall Ackley and Sergey Belkin and Lisa Kelsey and Tom Killestein and Amit Kumar and Joseph Lyman and David O'Neill and Krzysztof Ulaczyk and Ben Godson and Dan Jarvis and Danny Steeghs and Duncan K. Galloway and Paul O'Brien and Gavin Ramsay and Kanthanakorn Noysena and Rubina Kotak and Rene Breton and Laura Nuttall and Ben Gompertz and Jorge Casares Velázquez and Don Pollacco},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.18443},
eprint = {2609.18443},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18443},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The GOTO Telescope Control System
AU - Martin J. Dyer
AU - Vik S. Dhillon
AU - Stuart Littlefair
AU - Kendall Ackley
AU - Sergey Belkin
AU - Lisa Kelsey
AU - Tom Killestein
AU - Amit Kumar
AU - Joseph Lyman
AU - David O'Neill
AU - Krzysztof Ulaczyk
AU - Ben Godson
AU - Dan Jarvis
AU - Danny Steeghs
AU - Duncan K. Galloway
AU - Paul O'Brien
AU - Gavin Ramsay
AU - Kanthanakorn Noysena
AU - Rubina Kotak
AU - Rene Breton
AU - Laura Nuttall
AU - Ben Gompertz
AU - Jorge Casares Velázquez
AU - Don Pollacco
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/16
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.18443
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18443
AB - The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) operates a network of robotic, wide-field survey telescopes searching for optical transients to gravitational-wave signals and other astronomical events. Since 2023, the network has comprised two antipodal sites in the Canary Islands and Australia, each hosting two independent robotic mounts. The GOTO Telescope Control System (G-TeCS) is a custom Python software package that manages all operational aspects of the network; from alert processing and target scheduling to onsite hardware operations and monitoring. The central system consists of an alert monitor, observation database and scheduler, which issues targets to the four nodes. Each telescope operates using a system of independent control daemons, with a pilot master control program to coordinate nightly operations. This architecture, in development since 2015, provides a flexible and robust system that now successfully operates the fully autonomous network.
ER -