This paper describes PiMan, a CORBA-based system manager of the “Pi of the Sky” experiment, whose prototype consisting of two cameras on parallactic mount is running at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. We discuss in detail all software components of the “Pi of the Sky” system, interactions between them, and the architecture of the PiMan system. PiMan extension and other system software that will control and monitor final system being under construction, consisting of two sites with 16 CCD cameras installed on three mounts per site, is also described in this paper.

Krzysztof Nawrocki

Maria Ptasi&#x0144;ska

Marcin Soko&#x0142;owski

Janusz U&#x017C;ycki

Marcin Zaremba

PiMan: System Manager of the “Pi of the Sky” Experiment

The Watcher robotic telescope was developed primarily to perform rapid optical follow-up observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). Secondary scientific goals include blazar monitoring and variable star studies. An automated photometry pipeline to rapidly analyse data from Watcher has been implemented. Details of the procedures to get image zero-point, source instrumental measurement, and limiting magnitude are presented. Sources of uncertainty are assessed and the performance of the pipeline is tested by comparison with a number of catalogue sources.

A. Ferrero

L. Hanlon

R. Felletti

J. French

G. Melady

S. McBreen

P. Kub&#xe1;nek

M. Jel&#xed;nek

B. McBreen

P. Meintjes

J. Calitz

M. Hoffman

The Photometry Pipeline of the Watcher Robotic Telescope

FRAM&#8212;F/(Ph)otometric Robotic Atmospheric Monitor is one of the atmospheric monitoring instruments at the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. FRAM is an
optical telescope equipped with CCD cameras and photometer, and it automatically
observes a set of selected standard stars. Primarily, FRAM observations are used to
obtain the wavelength dependence of the light extinction. FRAM telescope is also
able to observe secondary astronomical targets, and namely the detection of optical
counterparts of gamma-ray bursts has already proven to be successful. Finally, a
wide-field CCD camera of FRAM can be used for rapid monitoring of atmospheric
conditions along the track of particularly interesting cosmic ray showers. The hardware
setup of the telescope, its software system, data taking procedures, and results
of analysis are described in this paper.

Michael Prouza

Martin Jel&#237;nek

Petr Kub&#225;nek

Jan Ebr

Petr Tr&#225;vn&#237;&#269;ek

Radom&#237;r &#352;m&#237;da

FRAM&#8212;The Robotic Telescope for the Monitoring of the Wavelength Dependence of the Extinction: Description of Hardware, Data Analysis, and Results

We report on the first observational phase of the Liverpool Quasar Lens Monitoring (LQLM) project. This mainly consisted of the optical follow-up of three lensed quasars using the 2 m Liverpool Robotic Telescope. The observational subprogram started in January 2005 and was completed in July 2007. We also describe our photometric approaches (including two pipelines to extract accurate and reliable fluxes of images of lensed quasars), the performance of the telescope when taking modest nightly exposures of lens systems, and the main scientific results from the observed light curves. The LQLM archive and the current status of the project (second phase) are also outlined.

Luis J. Goicoechea

Vyacheslav N. Shalyapin

Aurora Ullán

Robotic Monitoring of Gravitationally Lensed Quasars

The main goal of the MASTER-Net project  is to produce a unique fast sky survey with all sky observed over a single night down to a limiting magnitude of 19-20. Such a survey will make it possible to address a number of fundamental problems: search for dark energy via the discovery and photometry of supernovae (including SNIa), search for exoplanets, microlensing effects, discovery of minor bodies in the Solar System, and space-junk monitoring. All MASTER telescopes can be guided by alerts, and we plan to observe prompt optical emission from gamma-ray bursts synchronously in several filters and in several polarization planes.

Vladimir Lipunov

Victor Kornilov

Evgeny Gorbovskoy

Nikolaj Shatskij

Dmitry Kuvshinov

Nataly Tyurina

Alexander Belinski

Alexander Krylov

Pavel Balanutsa

Vadim Chazov

Artem Kuznetsov

Petr Kortunov

Anatoly Sankovich

Andrey Tlatov

A. Parkhomenko

Vadim Krushinsky

Ivan Zalozhnyh

A. Popov

Taisia Kopytova

Kirill Ivanov

Sergey Yazev

Vladimir Yurkov

Master Robotic Net

We present a system of device control programs, developed for the solar observatory at Locarno/Switzerland (IRSOL). Because these programs are implemented as servers&#8212;clearly separated from the higher levels&#8212;scientific instruments, for example, telescopes, can be operated both in a user-controlled mode (GUI, telnet) and in a fully automated mode by use of a script. Astronomical instruments such as telescopes or spectrographs will be responded to by ASCII command strings, which are the same for all clients. In case a device control software does not support multiclient operation or in case it is used together with other devices in a complex measuring procedure, it is worthwhile implementing an intermediate layer that relieves the individual device control servers of routine tasks and provides for a safer operational sequence. In addition, the system may make use of an easy-to-learn script language specialised for controlling fully automated processes.

Gerd K&#252;veler

Van Dung Dao

Axel Zuber

Renzo Ramelli

Robotic and Non-Robotic Control of Astrophysical Instruments

We present results from ongoing science projects conducted by members of the Faulkes Telescope (FT) team and Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT). Many of these projects incorporate observations carried out and analysed by FT users, comprising amateur astronomers and schools. We also discuss plans for the further development of the LCOGT network.

Fraser Lewis

Rachel Street

Paul Roche

Vanessa Stroud

David M. Russell

Robotic Astronomy with the Faulkes Telescopes and Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope

The overall reflectance of sunlight from Earth is a fundamental parameter
for climate studies. We have designed and implemented small aperture, remote
control telescopes in Big Bear Solar Observatory in California and in Tenerife in
the Canary Islands. These telescopes observe the earthshine to obtain a global
mean terrestrial reflectance utilizing a coronagraph-like design for long exposures
of the dark of the Moon and have internal moving parts in the optical train, which
presented some design and control problems.

P. R. Goode

S. Shoumko

E. Pallé

P. Montañés-Rodríguez

Automated Observations of the Earthshine

The key objectives of RTRCAB are the identification of new exoplanets and especially the characterization of the known exoplanets by observing photometric and systematic monitoring of their transits. These telescopes, equipped with advanced technology, optimized control programs, and optical and technical characteristics adequate for this purpose, are ideal to make the observations that are required to carry out these programs. The achievement of these goals is ensured by the existence of three separated geographical stations. In this sense, there are several planned missions that have the same objectives among their scientific goals, like Kepler, CoRoT, GAIA, and PLATO.

Luis Cuesta

M. Teresa Eibe

Aurora Ull&#225;n

Antonio P&#233;rez-Verde

Jorge Navas

Astrobiology with Robotic Telescopes at CAB

We are developing and operating the automatic telescope Aoyama Gakuin
University Robotic Optical Monitor for Astrophysical objects (AROMA) in the Sagamihara Campus of Aoyama Gakuin University. AROMA is composed of two observational equipments, AROMA-N and AROMA-W. AROMA-N is a 30-cm aperture telescope system for rapid follow-up observations of the optical afterglow of gamma-ray bursts. Automatic analysis pipeline for AROMA-N has been developed and is working. The other observational equipment AROMA-W is a wide-field observation system using multiple digital single-lens reflex cameras. It covers a large FOV of about <svg style="vertical-align:-0.3135pt;width:57.237499px;" id="M1" height="11.4" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 57.237499 11.4" width="57.237499" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
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</svg>. AROMAW provides photometric data in four bands with a limiting V magnitude of about 12-13&#x2009;mag. Software to analyze massive image data automatically is being developed. We plan to monitor the luminosities of all the stars in the FOV of AROMA-W, detect optical transients, and trigger a follow-up observation with AROMA-N. We report on the development status and observational results of AROMA.

Ichiro Takahashi

Kosuke Tsunashima

Takayuki Shiraki

Toru Kojima

Atsumasa Yoshida

Yujin E. Nakagawa

AROMA (AGU Robotic Optical Monitor for Astrophysical Objects)

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Advances in Astronomy publishes in all areas of astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology, and accepts observational and theoretical investigations into celestial objects and the wider universe.

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Chief Editor, Professor Trigo-Rodríguez (ICE, IEEC-CSIC), has a background in the formation of primitive solar system minor bodies, the study of their fragments in space and the analysis of their surviving rocks that arrived on the Earth.

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Advances in Astronomy

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