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M. F. Bode (Liverpool JMU), Cardiff U. Collaboration, U. Hertfordshire Collaboration, U. Leicester Collaboration, St Andrews U. Collaboration, Queens U., Belfast Collaboration, Mullard Space Science Lab. Collaboration, U. Exeter Collaboration, U. Southampton Collaboration, U. Manchester Collaboration
Involving a consortium of 10 UK universities, RoboNet-1.0 comprises the Liverpool Telescope (LT, La Palma), plus specially allocated time on the Faulkes Telescope North (FTN, Maui) and Faulkes Telescope South (FTS, Siding Spring, Australia). All three are essentially identical 2m telescopes equipped for both optical photometry and spectroscopy and operated from a common centre in Liverpool. The LT is primarily for research use whereas the FTs are mainly dedicated to education. Software developed by the eSTAR GRID project is being applied and enhanced to enable efficient and effective operation of the network. The primary scientific projects being addressed by RoboNet-1.0 are (a) rapid follow-up of Gamma Ray Burst sources detected by missions such as Swift, and (b) the detection of extra-solar planets via microlensing. Observations with the network began in August 2004. This is a pre-cursor project to the establishment of the full RoboNet global network of six dedicated telescopes which would greatly enhance work in several important branches of time domain astrophysics.
Operation of the Liverpool Telescope and RoboNet-1.0 are funded by the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. The Faulkes Telescopes are funded by the Dill Faulkes Educational Trust.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/RoboNet. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.