1. Robotic Telescopes Bremen, 03 22 2005 T. Granzer, AIP Current Earth-bound projects

2. Why?  Costs  Efficiency/speed  Constant data quality  (Arbitrary) long programs  Network: full phase coverage weather independent

3. Why not?  Troubleshooting  Software demands

4. Costs Largest telescopes (VLT, Keck): ~100 M $ Hubble Space Telescope: ~6000 M $ Robotic telescope (1.5m): ~1 M $

5. AI replaces astronomer  Protect the instrument  Judge weather  Select targets  Operate instruments in right sequence

6. Protect the instrument  Monitor all system failures  Monitor environment condition weather(!), computer health, UPS  Emergency plan repair, use of partly defect system

7. Judge weather  Immediately react on critical conditions wind speed, humidity  Predict weather …saves time  Seeing, clouds optimize target selection

8. The scheduling problem  Traditionally: A few nights, few targets tailored to observing period  Robotic: Span entire seasons, lots of targets An ad-hoc approach not feasible

9. Approaches: Queue scheduling:  Prescribe a distinct timeline  Easy to implement  Needs lots of human interference  Cannot react to changing conditions

10. Approaches (cont‘d): Optimal scheduling:  Optimize schedule for given time-base.  CPU-intense (  N! - permutations).  Unpredicted changes of conditions break schedule.  Difficult with changing weather, but used in space.

11. Approaches (cont‘d): Dispatch scheduling:  Picks target according to actual conditions.  Must run in real-time, but  N  Allows easy reaction to weather changes.  Used on most current robotic systems.

12. Current projects Hawaii Australia Texas La Palma / Tenerife South Africa Chile Arizona

13. Fairborn Observatory Washington Camp, Arizona

14. Fairborn Observatory  14 robotic telescopes, 0.1-2m  First installation world-wide  Mainly Photometry

15. REM  Focuses on  -ray bursts  SWIFT satellite triggers Earth- bound telescopes  Robotic telescopes can react within seconds. Chile, fully robotic

16. Project Monet Alfred Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Stiftung

17. 2x1.2m telescopes  Univ. Göttingen, SAAO, McDonald Observatory  App. 50% of total time for 'Hands- On Universe' school-projects

18. Liverpool & Faulkes  3x 2m Telescopes in La Palma, Hawaii and Australia  Again emphazises acces for schools and students  Robotic & remote modi

19. Twin-telescope STELLA  Tenerife / Teide  2400m Altitude  2x 1,2m telescopes  AIP/IAC STELLA

20. Two 1.2m & 0.8m, f/8 Alt/Az telescopes Project STELLA STELLA-I  Echelle Spectrograph, R  47000  2kx2k Marconi chip STELLA-II  Wide-field imager, 22’ FoV, Strømgren filters  4kx4k STA chip 11 26 04

21. Supplying targets: SCS Group of operators Users ToO uploade-mail XML target definition

22. What's next? Antarctica, Dome C  Exceptional seeing (0".27)  Ideal for AO & IR (high isoplanatic angle of 7".9)  'Half step' to Moon/Space see also Lawrence, Nature 431, 278L

23. Shackleton@Moon? lower pic. Margot/Cornell U  Passive cooling to 50K  Stable platform  No Expendables, no gyros  Fixed telescope for ultra- deep fields  Data rate ~50Mbyt/s (64x64k@1/600 Hz)64x64k@1/600 see also Angel, SPIE 5487, p.1

24. …but start realistic  Start with a ~4m precursor  Experience with 4m class robotic telescopes (~10 ys.)  Possible benefits from Antarctica telescopes (~10 ys.)

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