Operation and Data Taking

As all collaborators, we have to contribute to the commissioning, maintenance and operation of the telescopes. For MAGIC, this means to spent three to four weeks per person at the Canary Island La Palma doing night-shifts on the observatory at an altitude of 2000m, often as shift leader (i.e. being responsible for data quality, but more important for the safety of the telescopes and mainly the personnel on site).

Due to its stability, FACT can be operated from remote without need to travel to the Canary Islands. Since 2017, it is the only telescope of its kind that is operated fully robotic. Therefore, shift duty consists only from arming the system in the evening, checking it in the morning and be ready to react on phone calls if the system realizes any malfunction or an scientifically interesting flare of an observed source.