Development of the Arizona Robotic Telescope Network
Benjamin J. Weiner (1), David Sand (2), Paul Gabor (3), Chris Johnson, (2), Scott Swindell (2), Petr Kubanek (4), Victor Gasho (2), Taras Golota, (3), Buell Jannuzi (2), Peter Milne (2), Nathan Smith (2), Dennis Zaritsky, (2) ((1) MMT/Steward Observatory, (2) Steward Observatory

TL;DR
The paper describes the development of the Arizona Robotic Telescope Network (ARTN), aiming to automate and coordinate multiple telescopes for flexible, rapid, and follow-up astrophysical observations, especially in the LSST era.
Contribution
It introduces a system for adapting existing telescopes for automated, queued, and remote operations, including control software updates and staged implementation across facilities.
Findings
Kuiper 61'' telescope now controlled by RTS2 software
Successful remote operation of telescopes from Steward Observatory
Framework established for multi-telescope coordination and rapid response
Abstract
The Arizona Robotic Telescope Network (ARTN) project is a long term effort to develop a system of telescopes to carry out a flexible program of PI observing, survey projects, and time domain astrophysics including monitoring, rapid response, and transient/target-of-opportunity followup. Steward Observatory operates and shares in several 1-3m class telescopes with quality sites and instrumentation, largely operated in classical modes. Science programs suited to these telescopes are limited by scheduling flexibility and people-power of available observers. Our goal is to adapt these facilities for multiple co-existing queued programs, interrupt capability, remote/robotic operation, and delivery of reduced data. In the long term, planning for the LSST era, we envision an automated system coordinating across multiple telescopes and sites, where alerts can trigger followup, classification,…
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