Remotely operated telescopes

It should be realised that an observer will have limited opportunities to observe Chiron visually. The object is too faint: ~15th magnitude. Those having a CCD attached to their telescope are better off. Amateurs having such an expensive instrument should try to catch a glimpse of cometary activity, such as brightening, or the development of a coma or tail. Any such well-documented observation is of scientific interest and could be important enough to be communicated to the 'professionals'. Please, do inform the author of these pages also if you have such a case. You will gain a place in the 'Chiron observations' page at this site

But, what would do you do if you do not have a telescope/CCD system yourself ?
Well, operate one through the Internet !

Anybody who:

  1. is capable of reading this page online,
  2. can transfer files with anonymous FTP,
  3. can send and receive electronic,

can make use a CCD telescope in the USA, or the UK.

The telescope in Iowa (USA) can be directly pointed to Chiron by specifying 'Chiron' (the system will compute the coordinates at the moment of observation). Observation is possible with B, V, or R filters, or without a filter. One may include an observation of a Yale bright star, so that photometry may be performed. You should first obtain an observer's code. More information can be obtained from the WWW page of the University of Iowa Remote Telescope. An example of a schedule file to observe Chiron: 

  Title 'An observation of Chiron'
  Observer 'Patrick Vanouplines'
  Filter C,B,V,R
  Repeat 2
  ! Comment: first observe a Yale Bright Star
  Catalog BS Source BS4419
  Duration 10,10,10,10
  ! Comment: and now observe Chiron
  Catalog Asteroids Source '2060 Chiron'
  Duration 300,300,300,300

Another telescope that can be operated remotely through the Internet is the one in Bradford (U.K.). At the moment of this writing the Bradford telescope has a tremendous list of incoming jobs, that still all have to be performed. But things might change quickly, and possibilities to increase the priority of yours jobs exist. Pay a visit to the WWW page of the Bradford Robotic Telescope!

A third telescope is the ROT (Remotely Operated Telescope) in Santa Barbara (California). More information can be obtained through the main page of the Astrophysics Project of the University of California at Santa Barbara.

The undersigned is still experimenting with these three telescope facilities. As soon as more practical information and experience is gained, it will be put in this page.

Let me end this page by wishing you good luck, and (remote) clear skies!

This page was prepared by Patrick Vanouplines (pvouplin@vub.ac.be)

URL of this page is: [http://www.vub.ac.be/STER/www.astro/remteles.htm]
Last modified: 1995 October 03. This page is ©1995.