Can you imagine how it would be access from a personal computer or a mobile device directly to a professional telescope and observe the universe from there? Probably not ... The novelty is soon to be a reality. The GLORIA project, with University of Chile as a partner, is moving in that direction.

What is the development being performed within the context of the GLORIA project?

It consists in the integration process of the robotic telescope of the University of Chile "CATA500" to a worldwide network of robotic telescopes. At first, knowing little or nothing about astronomy and telescopes, my job was to know the robotic telescope of the University of Chile, located at Cerro Tololo, IV region. At the same time, I had the opportunity to evaluate different software tools available to control the telescope hardware. Almost a year ago we decided on a particular software (ACP) and since then I am dedicated to the continuous improvement of the telescope, for example keep operating with the corresponding maintenance. During this year of teamwork, we have reached maturity and fluency with the telescope enough to enter definitively to be part of the Gloria’s network.

One important thing is that in this project there are no two identical telescopes, in fact one of the main goals of this project is to define generic standards to harness the capacity of all the "flavours" of robotic telescopes from the various project partners, the other option was simply to invest many millions of euros in a single telescope model to replicate, leaving out all those potentially interested in joining this network. Therefore, the challenge of integrate our telescope to the network and give others the chance to replicate our experience is the Gloria project itself.

What is a robotic telescope and a tele-operated one?

In both cases you do not need an operator at the site of the telescope. In a tele-operated telescope, the operators (one or more) are able to access all the features you could enter if they were physically in the observatory, however, the tele-operator should perform routine actions such as: measure and correct the pointing and the tracking, check weather reports and plan the observation points in the sky. A robotic telescope, along with offering all the features of the teleoperation, also allows automate manual tasks mentioned above, to the point that it is almost possible to forget the tedious part of the operation of the telescope, allowing researchers to concentrate on the images obtained.

When the network becomes operational, What could do the Chilean telescope?

With this network, we can track objects that would be impossible with just one conventional instrument. For example, suppose that our telescope is observing a galaxy, and due to bad weather (or because the dawn) is no longer possible to continue serving Gloria user‘s requests. In that case, Gloria will allocate this observation to any other telescope that claims to have the possibility to observe that object. This synergy between the telescopes will let the investigators to observe objects that rarely or never have been observed on a continuous basis, where large telescopes do not have time, and the amateur telescopes ...although if they have more time they are not always robotic and probably are not organized in a network. Of course, the idea is to include everyone, specially amateur telescopes owners who want "to become robotic" and join to the Gloria’s network, they are all welcome.

Also, our telescope will show the southern sky to the northern hemisphere users. And similarly, users of this part of the world can request observations in areas of northern sky.

Many possibilities arises from a global telescope network of this type; At the Gloria’s project team we are sure we can‘t predict how users are going to use this network. As a final example, it is also possible that in a classroom, day students can see some images recently obtained by a telescope who is observing the sky at night, on the other side of the globe.

In what stage of the project development are we now?

At a technical level, almost all are implemented. Some of the network telescopes were already operating from the very beginning while others are still being constructed. This has clouded our progress sensation. However, the first telescopes have served of laboratory and benefited all the others.

The policies for allocating observing time to users has been the most difficult point to solve. In the many strategies we have considered (karma-popularity, and / or virtual money), we want to avoid situations where a few users (with more knowledge) end monopolizing the network, and along with that, we want new users to have an observation time attractive considering that the initial cost is only "register on the website". We do believe that this is more like an universal problem rather than a particular situation in astronomy, engineering, physics, etc... After much discussion and meditation, we decided to apply any minimally reasonable policy, to then make adjustments on the fly. At this point we need also a little of patience from the users.

What features will make the project attractive to a regular user?

We think the project will appeal to a common user because with only registering on the Gloria’s website, users can access a global network of telescopes that many amateur and professional astronomers would like to have. And beyond the observing time on telescopes, the Gloria’s portal we would like to offer:

An Image repository, properly indexed and with a simple interface for novice users and advanced features for the more experienced. This repository will contain all the images taken by the telescope network.

Astronomy Tutorials, astronomical phenomena explanation (the solar system, transits, eclipses, etc..).

Experiments access. With these, by combining real images with didactic material, the users are invited to follow a series of guided exercises that can be as or more profitable than a little sense astronomical observation. Another externality of these experiments are both a target, which for instance: "inhibit users to place requests to observe Jupiter (which is already widely studied), resulting in a plague of repeated images that will hardly be analyzed ".

Broadcasting of astronomical events: In 2012, Gloria transmitted -via internet- audio and video in real time and in different languages ​​and from different places, astronomical events such: The Transit of Venus and the Solar Eclipse in Australia. These events received hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and along with teaching astronomy in phenomena close to the people, served to raise awareness of this project.

What is the interface between the "Gloria Scheduler" and "ACP scheduler"?

Gloria Scheduler is the central node that receives all the observation requests of the Gloria project users. The "ACP Scheduler" is a proprietary software installed on the computer that controls the Cata500 telescope. This interface is the application that lets the "Gloria Observation requests" enter to our telescope automatically and in real time, without requiring a 24x7 staff responsible for: (1) Transcribe "Gloria Observation Requests" to "ACP Scheduler" format , (2) Put the resulting images into the Gloria Repository just after being captured by our telescope.

This interface is still under development , however, is already being tested with the aid of the Spanish partners (specially, the engineer Juan Cabello, University of Málaga), and is a key step in the integration of our telescope to the network. Furthermore, ACP is an extremely popular software in the world of amateur telescopes, so we believe that this development is an great opportunity to add many more telescopes to Gloria, in the mid term.

About the Gloria Project

Global Intelligent Robotic Telescope Array for e-Science is a project funded by the European Union‘s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2012) under grant agreement 283783. This consists of 17 institutions, only one in the Americas: The University of Chile. where the scientist in charge is the astronomer and Chilean Sciences National Award 1999, José Maza.

About ACP

ACP Observatory Control Software and ACP Scheduler Engine are astronomical software packages developed by DC3 Dreams (www.dc3.com).