The Liverpool Telescope (LT) is a 2-metre (6.6 ft) fully robotic Ritchey–Chrétien telescope that observes autonomously; i.e., it operates without human intervention. Professional astronomers and other registered users submit observation specifications to be considered by the telescope's robotic control system (RCS) at any time of the day or night using an online GUI. Each night the RCS decides for itself what to observe next based on visibility and weather conditions.
The RCS additionally has a rapid-response capability where it can automatically interrupt regular observations to slew to observe transient phenomena with higher priority, such as gamma-ray bursts.
It is the largest robotic telescope in the world to be used primarily for astronomical research.
The telescope was built by Telescope Technologies Ltd. It is owned by Liverpool John Moores University, and operated by the Astrophysics Research Institute with operational funding partly from STFC. It is sited at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma.
Along with the Faulkes Telescope North and the Faulkes Telescope South, the Liverpool Telescope is also available for use by school children around the world over the internet. The registration and time allocation for the LT is organised by the National Schools Observatory.
The Liverpool Telescope is one of the primary players in the Heterogeneous Telescope Networks Consortium, a global collaboration between major research groups in the field of robotic telescopes which seeks a standard for communication between remote telescopes, telescope users, and other scientific resources.
Famous quotes containing the word telescope:
“The sight of a planet through a telescope is worth all the course on astronomy; the shock of the electric spark in the elbow, outvalues all the theories; the taste of the nitrous oxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better than volumes of chemistry.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)