| Liverpool Telescope | |
| Organization | Liverpool John Moores University |
|---|---|
| Location | Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos, La Palma |
| Altitude | 2363 m |
| Diameter | 2 metres (6.6 ft) |
| Website | The Liverpool Telescope |
The Liverpool Telescope (LT) is a 2 metres (6.6 ft) fully robotic 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, monitoring seeing and weather conditions as the night progresses, and dynamically selecting the next observation accordingly.
Its operating, dynamic scheduling, and environmental awareness behaviour is somewhat akin to giving a futuristic robot a grocery shopping list, and then doing something else while the robot goes shopping for you. It decides the best order in which to buy the goods, and adjusts the order dynamically in response to new priorities as older ones are completed, changes in the environment (be it meteorological or astronomical), and any additional requests from the user on the fly.
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., and is owned by Liverpool John Moores University with operational funding from PPARC. It is sited at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos on La Palma. It is a Ritchey-Chrétien telescope.
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.
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