History of Robotic and

Remotely Operated Telescopes

Russell M. Genet

California Polytechnic State University

The First Robotic Telescope

The Great Robotic Shootout

The Fairborn Observatory

Early Automation

APT Service on Mt. Hopkins

Observatory Automation

Principal Astronomers

Remote Access

Precision & Quality Control

Networking

Human Networking

Epilog

Portable Meter-Class Astronomy

Developmental and Observational Programs

Hawaii Conference January 20-22, 2012

• Lightweight mirrors

• Active primary and secondary mirrors

• Multiple mirrors

• Visual and astro-imaging

• High speed photometry

• NIR photometry

• Spectroscopy

There's really not a lot of difference

conceptually in an automated

telescope service and a laundromat.

There's still some human effort to load

and unload them and occasional

maintenance. With either, a human

isn't tied up running each machine and

you get reasonably consistent results.

Lou Boyd