Undergraduate Observing Policy

I. Undergraduates may be checked out to observe on the CAT and 1-meter telescopes (but not the 3-meter). Only undergraduates who have a good grasp of observing basics, including celestial coordinates and sidereal time, the principles of telescope and instrument operation, and the data-gathering process will be considered for a checkout.

II. The undergraduate will be observing for an established program under the direction of a faculty member, researcher, or graduate student, and the project PI anticipates that the undergrad will be the observer of record on at least several nights subsequent to their training.

III. The undergraduate must receive a complete checkout from a mountain support astronomer and be judged by that support astronomer to be competent to use the telescope and instrument. Prior to the checkout, the undergraduate must have participated as an assistant on at least two nights of active observing for the program (i.e., nights on which data gathering takes place), under the direct supervision and guidance of a faculty member, postdoc, research scientist, or graduate student trained on that instrument and present throughout.