Build in 1998 by CNRS. Fully robotized.D=25 cm f=85 cm, CCD Andor 2x2kField = 1.9x1.9°, sampling 3.3 arcsec/pix

About 12 GRBs/yearVariable starsMinor planetsFollow up of ToO

The TAROT observatory presented by Alain KLOTZ –

Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements Toulouse& Observatory of Haute-Provence

Data acquisition and telescope control: softwares and past experience

Basic idea : I do other things during nights instead pushing buttons !

1st consequence : There is a huge amount of data to process and now I spend nights to push buttons to reduce data !

2nd consequence : I spend a lot of daytime to select many targets. Now, I am occupied nights (by processing) & days (for selections) !

Evoluted idea : The robotic observatory MUST include the SCHEDULE and the data REDUCTION => a robotic observatory is not only a computed controled telescope but there is also a lot of software work!

SOME RULES FOR ROBOTIC OBSERVATORIES

Environnement : housekeeping , permanent internet, electric power

Requests

PlanningPlanningDrivingDrivingProcessingProcessing

HardwareHardware

Data

The TAROT observatory – A GLOBAL VIEW

Electricity1 power inverter (onduleur)drived switches (disjoncteurs)Flat-field lamp

Motors5 motors + encoders + protocol(roof, , filters, focus)

MechanicsRolling roofRobust forkCogwheels (roue, vis sans fin)Filter wheel (BVRI C)Meteo station (rain, humidity, wind)Flat-field screen

Computers3 PCs (OS Win32)Webcam

The TAROT observatory - HARDWARE

For each PCVNC, FileZillaServer (FTP), Apache (HTTP), AudeLA

AudeLA (A.U.D.E Logicel d'Astronomie)A free GNU public software : http://audela.ccdaude.comC/C++ ANSI for basic functions (image processing, celestial mechanics)called by Tcl/Tk scripts for nice batchs

Robotic application for AudeLAA Tcl/Tk event loop that calls C/C++ functions

CGI to process web formulars (to acces to requests & processed data)

The TAROT observatory - SOFTWARE

input (e.g. a raw image)

output (e.g. processed image)

USERSUser account, Priority (0 to 100), Quota (0% to 100%)Must publish or teaching.Fit TAROT Tcl/Tk scripts for each user programSend their program using a customized TAROT web interface

REQUESTS & SCENESConversion of the user program into a common description :An observation REQUEST is composed by a series of SCENESA SCENE is the basic observation block :

a slew to coordinates1 to 6 exposures (time + filter)constraints (range of dates, minimum elevation, moon)

SCHEDULESelection : sorts scenes by priority and by date of set.Insertion : each sorted scene is included if the user quota is not over~95% of the night is occupied and every user is satisfied

The TAROT observatory - PLANNING

THE MAIN LOOPChecks that every hardware module is alive and readyAsk to the planning the next scene to observeConvert scene parameters

Pointing model (telescope flexures, etc.)Convertion of angles to motors unitsetc...

Send converted scene parameters to each hardware component

SECURITYAn independant software checks that everything is alive

The TAROT observatory - DRIVING

COMMON PROCESSINGDark and flat correctionsSpecial filter in the case of trailed images (GRBs, occultations, satellites)Sextractor listUSNO-A2 listMatch the lists to compute WCS keywords for astrometryComplete header informations (FWHM, number of matched stars, etc.)Archive of FITS image and the corresponding Sextrator list

SPECIAL PROCESSINGReduce data from image to a form directly usable for the user

e.g. (julian day, magnitude) for the RRLyr programe.g. the image of star trail for a star occultation by an asteroide.g. Web pages to help to analyze quickly a GRB event

The TAROT observatory - PROCESSING

SCHEDULER SEQUENCER

SUPERVISION OF THE OBSERVATORY STATES

SECURITY

GRB ALERTS

MOTORS, METEO, CAPTORS, POWER SUPPLY

MOTORS, METEO, CAPTORS, POWER SUPPLY, CAMERA

REQUESTS

STANDARD IMAGES PROCESSING

SPECIALIZED DATA PROCESSING

PROCESSED IMAGES

PROCESSED DATA

GLOBAL VIEW OF THE TELESCOPE CONTROLelement visible by users (WEB) software hardwareLégend :

Data

Bases

of

TAROT

USERS

The TAROT observatory – STATISTICS: 50 000 images / years

Efficiency : 90% of time ready to observe

The TAROT observatory – SKY COVERAGE

The TAROT observatory – SOME RESULTS

GRB 050730z=4

SupernovaNGC 6946

occultation of star by Wallia

ASTRA

The TAROT observatory – A SECOND OBSERVATORY IN CHILE