6
1 Introduction
You are also going to be stationary for considerable amounts of time. Consequently,
hypothermia can become a problem. If you feel too cold, go somewhere warm for a
while.
You will be observing in a dark environment for all but solar and radio observations. Initially, it may appear extremely dark, however after a while, you will become
dark adapted, and it will become easier to see. It takes about 20 min to become fully
dark-adapted, but only a few seconds of exposure to bright light to cause you to lose
your adaptation. Remember this when entering lit buildings and when using a torch
or flashlight. If you flash it in another observer’s eyes, they will lose their dark adaption, or stray light may fall into the instrument, ruining the observation. Exposure
only to red light reduces the loss of dark adaption, although it still has an impact. If
your observatory has red lighting, try to use it. Likewise, if you have access to red
torches, please use those.
1.5 Robotic and Remote Observing
In recent years, both robotic and remote observing have become increasingly popular, as they offer the chance to use a telescope, often in remote locations, without the
inconvenience and cost of extensive travel. It also reduces the cost of having somebody look after the telescope during the night and the day. It may come as a surprise,
but many of the servicing tasks for telescopes have to be done in daylight. This means
that astronomers now have access to dozens if not hundreds of small telescopes that
were previously not worth using due to the cost involved. This comes at a time when
long photometric observations have become increasingly important in the search for
exoplanets and supernovae, as well as for potentially Earth-crossing asteroids, tasks
for which small robotic telescopes are ideal. Examples of such robotic telescopes are
the two-meter Liverpool Telescope in the Canaries, the Open University’s PIRATE
telescope, and TRAPPIST, at the La Silla Observatory, in Chile.
Robotic telescopes are unmanned instruments that use hardware automation and
sophisticated software to undertake astronomical observations. They require some
kind of weather station to determine whether the weather conditions meet the criteria
for the observation. Typically, this will be accomplished with an IR sky sensor that
measures the temperature of the sky. A warm sky is cloudy, while a cold sky is
clear. A robotic sight might also use an all-sky camera attached to image-processing
software that can determine cloud coverage and location. In both of these cases, it
is almost impossible to detect high clouds, which can badly effect high-precision
photometry observations. Observatories can overcome this problem using LIDAR,
but that is rare. With robotic observing, the user submits a job to the queue. This is
normally done via some kind of user interface that will filter out some of the dumber
mistakes people make. Most often than not, this job is then reviewed by somebody
on the observatory’s time-allocation team, and if accepted, the job is given a priority
based on a number of factors and then passed to the telescope. Once in the telescope
queue, it will become available to run. Most robotic instruments use an algorithm
1 Introduction
You are also going to be stationary for considerable amounts of time. Consequently,
hypothermia can become a problem. If you feel too cold, go somewhere warm for a
while.
You will be observing in a dark environment for all but solar and radio observations. Initially, it may appear extremely dark, however after a while, you will become
dark adapted, and it will become easier to see. It takes about 20 min to become fully
dark-adapted, but only a few seconds of exposure to bright light to cause you to lose
your adaptation. Remember this when entering lit buildings and when using a torch
or flashlight. If you flash it in another observer’s eyes, they will lose their dark adaption, or stray light may fall into the instrument, ruining the observation. Exposure
only to red light reduces the loss of dark adaption, although it still has an impact. If
your observatory has red lighting, try to use it. Likewise, if you have access to red
torches, please use those.
1.5 Robotic and Remote Observing
In recent years, both robotic and remote observing have become increasingly popular, as they offer the chance to use a telescope, often in remote locations, without the
inconvenience and cost of extensive travel. It also reduces the cost of having somebody look after the telescope during the night and the day. It may come as a surprise,
but many of the servicing tasks for telescopes have to be done in daylight. This means
that astronomers now have access to dozens if not hundreds of small telescopes that
were previously not worth using due to the cost involved. This comes at a time when
long photometric observations have become increasingly important in the search for
exoplanets and supernovae, as well as for potentially Earth-crossing asteroids, tasks
for which small robotic telescopes are ideal. Examples of such robotic telescopes are
the two-meter Liverpool Telescope in the Canaries, the Open University’s PIRATE
telescope, and TRAPPIST, at the La Silla Observatory, in Chile.
Robotic telescopes are unmanned instruments that use hardware automation and
sophisticated software to undertake astronomical observations. They require some
kind of weather station to determine whether the weather conditions meet the criteria
for the observation. Typically, this will be accomplished with an IR sky sensor that
measures the temperature of the sky. A warm sky is cloudy, while a cold sky is
clear. A robotic sight might also use an all-sky camera attached to image-processing
software that can determine cloud coverage and location. In both of these cases, it
is almost impossible to detect high clouds, which can badly effect high-precision
photometry observations. Observatories can overcome this problem using LIDAR,
but that is rare. With robotic observing, the user submits a job to the queue. This is
normally done via some kind of user interface that will filter out some of the dumber
mistakes people make. Most often than not, this job is then reviewed by somebody
on the observatory’s time-allocation team, and if accepted, the job is given a priority
based on a number of factors and then passed to the telescope. Once in the telescope
queue, it will become available to run. Most robotic instruments use an algorithm