a MOnitoring NEtwork of Telescopes Dr. Frederic V. Hessman Prof. Klaus Beuermann UniversittsSternwar

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(a MOnitoring NEtwork of Telescopes)Dr.
Frederic V. HessmanProf. Klaus
BeuermannUniversitäts-Sternwarte
Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen
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Projects for a 21st Century Astrophysicist

• The Solar System
• Near-Earth Objects
• Trans-Neptunian Objects

• Interstellar Medium
• Evolution of the ISM

• Galaxies
• Global Star Formation Chemistry
• Formation Evolution, Clusters
• AGNs

• Stellar Astrophysics
• Star Formation
• Formation Evolution of Planets
• Sun / Dynamo-driven Stellar Activity
• Brown Dwarfs
• Accretion Phenomena
• Black Holes
• Supernovae / Hypernovae / GRB

• Cosmology
• Evolution of the Universe
• Large-Scale Structure

Science/Math Education
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Tools of a 21st Century Astrophysicist
M. Schwazschild
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Role of Small (0.5-1.5m) Telescopes

• Support observations for 3-9m telescopes

• Observations must be easy to obtain

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• Projects which require large amounts of
  observation time

• Observations must be easy to manage have
  low personnel efforts/costs

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• Projects which require extreme flexibility

• Must have immediate access to own telescopes

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• Useful for schools, university teaching

• Good weather / flexibly scheduled robotic

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? Need Your Own (Robotic) Small Telescopes
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Projects for a 21st Century Astrophysicist
1m-Class Robotic Telescope -
(cutting-edge / high public impact, ground-based,
night-time)

• The Solar System
• Near-Earth Objects
• Trans-Neptunian Objects

• Interstellar Medium
• Evolution of the ISM

• Galaxies
• Global Star Formation Chemistry
• Formation Evolution, Clusters
• AGNs

• Stellar Astrophysics
• Star Formation
• Formation Evolution of Planets
• Sun / Dynamo-driven Stellar Activity
• Brown Dwarfs
• Accretion Phenomena
• Black Holes
• Supernovae / Hypernovae / GRB

• Cosmology
• Evolution of the Universe
• Large-Scale Structure

Science/Math Education
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Old Example COYOTES Collaboration
Large Collaboration organized by Bouvier
(Grenoble) to measure rotation periods of
pre-main sequence stars 500 nights 12
different telescopes 12 different CCD, filter
systems 20 different observers tens of
thousands of observations
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New Example All-Sky Astronomical Survey
Mini-Collaboration organized by W. Pojmanski
(Warsaw), B. Paczynski (Princeton), and Carnegie
Observatory to look for variability in 10 million
objects with Vlt14 2 years already (300 sq.
deg.) 1-3 mini-telescopes same CCDs, I-band
filters no observers 50 million
observations 4000 newly identified variables
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Current Robotic Telescope Projects
Just a few examples.
Gamma-Ray Burst Identification (ROTSE, LOTIS)
APT telescopes (e.g. Fairborn Obs., SAAO)

RoboScope, SpectraBot (Univ. Indiana)
Katzman Autom. Imaging Tel. (Univ. Calif.
Berkeley)
Tennessee 2m (spectroscopy)
John Moore University (Liverpool)
Iowa Robotic Telescope Facility (Univ. Iowa,
WMO/Arizona)
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History of the Project
Beautiful old observatory in a lovely college
town, but terrible German weather
Use of 8-meter-class telescopes (VLT,
Hobby-Eberly-Telescope)
Need for observations of variable
stars (Cataclysmic Variables, Young Stellar
Objects, AGN)
Support of science education in schools (Hands-On
Universe)
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s Benefactor

• Funding for two 1m-class telescopes
• Foundation mainly interested in educational use
  by
• schools in the Ruhr Valley as well as in Lower
  Saxony

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The Basic Idea of the Project
Map of Current Robotic Telescope Projects

• Reasonably large small telescopes (?0.8m)
• International large small telescope
  collaboration

• Complete sky coverage with integrated network
• Good longitude coverage
• Scientific plus educational goals

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s Clients
Göttingen Observatory

Participating Schools
Göttingen Student Lab
McDonald Obs./Texas
SAAO?
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Concrete Project Goals
For the User .. Scientific .. Data
Processing .. Administration ..

• Fast and transparent access for the user
• Minimum of red tape and overhead
• Efficient use as ToO facility
• Connection to HET and SALT
• Quick response to user-defined events
• Standard data pipeline
• User-defined data pipeline add-ons
• Reduce the need for access to raw reduced data
• Simple administration of long-term projects

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Technological Challenges

• Robotic Software
• from venders, own and/or from outside
  collaborations
• Administration of partners different scheduling
  needs
• ToO, scientific, educational, long-term, .
• Maintenance of data pipeline, databank
• Could use ESO VST paradigm experience
• Minimization of internet band-width
• Communication within own network with other
  networks
• RTML Remote Telescope Markup Language

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RTML Remote Telescope Markup Language

• XML dialect developed by the Hands-On Universe
  project and collaborators in order to connect
  network of inhomogenous telescopes

lt?xml version"2.0"encoding"ISO-8859-1"?gt lt!DOCTY
PE RTML SYSTEM "http//ASCOM-Standards.org/RTML/RT
ML-2.0.dtd"gt ltRTML xmlns"x-schemahttp//ASCOM-St
andards.org/RTML/RTML-2.0.xdr" version"2.0"gt
ltContactgtltEmailgthessman_at_uni-sw.gwdg.delt/EmailgtltUse
rgtF.V. Hessmanlt/Usergtlt/Contactgt ltRequestgt
ltIDgtfhessmanlt/IDgtltUserNamegtfhessmanlt/UserNamegt
ltSchedulegt ltMoongtltPhasegt0.0lt/Phasegtlt/Moongt
ltTimeRangegt ltEarliestgt2001-09-03T00
0000.00lt/Earliestgt ltLatestgt2003-09-03T00
0000.00lt/Latestgt lt/TimeRangegt
ltPrioritygt1lt/Prioritygt lt/Schedulegt
ltTelescopegtMONET/SAlt/Telescopegt ltTargetgt
ltNamegtM31lt/Namegt ltCoordinatesgt
ltRightAscensiongtlt/RightAscensiongt
ltDeclinationgt41lt/Declinationgt
lt/Coordinatesgt ltPicturegt
ltExposureTimegt30.0lt/ExposureTimegt
ltFiltergtBlt/Filtergt lt/Picturegt
lt/Targetgt ltCorrection zero"true" dark"true"
flat"true"gt lt//Requestgt lt/RTMLgt
103 1119 2 2 2451513 2451513 22.500 4.500 1 100
M31 Wray 105 1 30 0.00 43 0 0 2000 510 1 1 1 0
30.0 1 1 3 0.0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 M31 510 1 2 1 0 30.0
1 1 3 0.0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 M31 510 1 3 1 0 30.0 1 1
3 0.0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 M31 510 1 4 1 0 30.0 1 1 3
0.0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 M31 115
ATIS
RTML
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The Telescopes

Teleskoptechnik Halfmann Neusäß bei Augsburg
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The Enclosures

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Science Education with

• Improvement of astronomy laboratories
• Semi-autonomous student Project Lab

• Remote web-based use by school classes with
  trained teachers
• Cooperation with Göttingens XLAB science
  laboratory
• Scientific project partners for interested
  classes
• Targeting of young women
• Use of tested and internationally widespread
  curriculum

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Hands-On Universe the Project
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My Personal Science Projects

• Short Term
• Monitoring of HET/VLT Targets
• Accretion onto YSOs/CVs
• Searches for Planets
• Gamma Ray Bursts
• ..
• Middle to Long Term
• Rotational Evolution of YSOs/CVs
• Timescale of Planet Formation
• Solar-like Activity Cycles in YSO/CVs
• Testing of Stellar Dynamo Theories
• ..

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Status of

• EU-wide tender for telescopes in 2001
• Legal agreement with partners signed January
  2002
• Telescopes ordered January 2002
• Study of Enclosures by ZLH in March 2002
• Installation of telescopes Summer Fall 2003

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Summary
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is not only a great project for the partners
but also a good model for the future of small
telescope astronomy

• robotic operation at good sites
• coordination with large telescopes
• networked
• emphasis on science education

www.astro.physik.uni-goettingen.de/hessman/MONET