Survey

Status

Where the three tiers stand as of June 2026.

58%RIS complete
260+IMS cycles
1.75MImages acquired
20Telescopes16 online
Operations

Nightly operation

RIS began routine operation in July 2024 and IMS in April 2025; WTS is scheduled to commence in 2026. In a typical night the array observes about 30 tiles, including the seven IMS tiles, for roughly 3,000 individual exposures. Since RTCSpy took over nightly operation in August 2024 the array has acquired approximately 1.75 million images under fully unattended operation, alongside about 100 target-of-opportunity follow-ups and some ten gravitational-wave event campaigns.

≈ 30Tiles per night
≈ 3,000Exposures per night
≈ 350GBRaw data per night
≈ 100ToO follow-ups
≈ 10GW campaigns
Progress

Tier by tier

RIS

Reference Imaging Survey

Observing

14,866 of 25,472 tiles observed · started July 2024 · 5σ point source in m600, single visit (3 × 100 s)

WTS

Wide-area Time-domain Survey

Commencing 2026

Field selection under consideration · started 2026 · *cumulative over the planned five-year operation

IMS

Intensive Monitoring Survey

Observing

> 260 cycles per tile · ~1.2 of 5 planned years · started April 2025 · *cumulative over the planned five-year operation

Timeline

Milestones

  • Oct. 2023

    First light

  • Jul. 2024

    Reference Imaging Survey commences

  • Aug. 2024

    RTCSpy takes over nightly operation

  • Dec. 2024

    Array grows to 16 units; automated ToO response

  • Apr. 2025

    Intensive Monitoring Survey commences

  • Late 2025

    15 additional medium-band filters installed

  • Jan. 2026

    Py7DT becomes the sole operational pipeline

  • 2026

    Wide-area Time-domain Survey to commence

  • End 2027

    Full RIS cycle anticipated

Status figures are those reported in the June 2026 7DT status report. See News for updates as the surveys progress.