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Since 2011 our observatory is a member of
GLORIA (GLObal Robotic telescopes
Intelligent Array for e-Science) project - wide international collaboration
of 13 scientific institutions from 8 countries aiming at opening public
access to robotic telescopes, as well as propagating astronomy in general.
The GLORIA Project offers Internet users the possibility
of studying the sky
from professional observatories. New telescopes are joining the former four
telescopes which allowed to observe the night sky in real time since few
months ago. The new eight telescopes will be used in queue mode, so the
new users will be able to request the observations, with most of them
being accomplished within a few days.
GLORIA has succeeded in building up the first large scale
robotic telescope network of free access, which will allow any user to provide
scientific knowledge. The project, which was initiated in October 2011, makes
use of thirteen telescopes: five in Spain, two in Chile, one in Argentina, two
in the Czech Republic, one in South Africa and two in Russia. One of Russian
instruments, MMT multichannel telescope, has recently been built by the
collaboration including scientisis from our observatory.
The project is also based in collective intelligence so the more data is
gathered, the more knowledge will be obtained. Users will be able to research
thanks to the proposed experiments, including the solar activity, the study and
characterization of variable stars, etc. but also they will be able to propose
their own research. They will be able to plan their observations using the
GLORIA resources. The experiments are available at the users site of GLORIA.
Finally, the Project has made a big effort regarding public outreach,
especially amongst young people and children. On this way, some important
astronomical events such as the Venus transit in 2012, the total solar eclipse
in 2013 and the total lunar eclipse in 2014 have been broadcasted.
For more information on the access to telescopes and other GLORIA
activities please go to
the project web site.
About GLORIA
GLORIA is a three-year project
financed by the Seventh Framework Program of the European Union
(FP7/2007-2012) under agreement number 283783. The project, started in
October 2011, involves 13 institutions from 8 countries. Please see
gloria-project.eu/about/partners/.
GLORIA stands for "GLObal Robotic-telescopes Intelligent Array". GLORIA
will be the first free and open- access network of robotic telescopes
in the world. It will be a Web 2.0 environment where users can do research
in astronomy by observing with robotic telescopes, and/or by analysing data
that other users have acquired with GLORIA,
Contact - Beskin G.
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Fig.1.
MMT multichannel telescope - one of 13 robotic instuments made available
to Internet users by GLORIA project
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