The Coonabarabran Times, the local newspaper for Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, published this article on November 2 featuring Faulkes Telescope South.

By Liz Cutts

New astronomical phenomena are on the verge of discovery when a network of robotic telescopes spread across the globe link together to keep astronomers in the dark.

The Faulkes Telescope South, located at the Siding Spring Observatory complex in Coonabarabran, has become part of a huge project that will give scientists around the world continuous night time viewing of our skies.

Amateurs and professionals will be invited to join astronomers around the world in exploring our universe when a new level of access to the world of astronomy for educational and scientific purposes is established through the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT) project in the USA.

The aim of LCOGT project is to establish two complete longitudinally distributed rings of robotic research telescopes, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere.

The Faulkes Telescope South, which has an identical twin observatory in the Faulkes Telescope North in Hawaii, will become one of the telescopes linking the southern hemisphere to the LCOGT global project.

The Faulkes Telescope South is unlike the classical domed telescope enclosure, opening like a clamshell leaving the telescope completely exposed during use. It is also one of a new generation of large robotic telescopes that can be controlled live by users on the other side of the world. When fully operational, high quality images from the telescope can be obtained within minutes; it is as simple as punching coordinates onto a keyboard.

Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Wayne Rosing, visited the Faulkes Telescope South at Siding Spring to discuss the project with site manager, John Shobbrook.

"In a few months we will have our new cameras installed and the telescope will be fully commissioned and ready to go for science and education," explained Wayne Rosing, Director of the Faulkes Telescope South project at Siding Spring.

"We plan to have as many as four or five large 2 metre class telescopes and then add ten 0.9 metre telescopes and approximately thirty 0.4 metre telescopes. Once completed, we will have by far the largest telescope network in the world.

"There are other smaller networks, but we will probably be the first organisation to complete a true global network. It will be dedicated to education and science."

Founder of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Wayne Rosing, a technical guru and legendary figure in the computer industry and a keen astronomer, visited Coonabarabran recently and commented on the dark skies and first-rate facilities available at Siding Spring.

"The overall support facilities at Siding Spring are excellent because of the Australian National University and the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO); there are a lot of talented people and all the assistance is here when we need it," added Mr. Rosing.

"I am primarily a computer scientist and electronic engineer. Astronomy is my acquired profession, although I studied astronomy in high school, but I have had an interest in this science from an early age.

"The science of astronomy and technology overlap; it is all part of studying maths and physics, learning the basics and adding in some computer science. Maths and physics were my primary concentration at school because I felt that was the right foundation for astronomy. I was originally planning to be an astronomer but I fell in love with computers and my career took a change in that direction.

"I was an amateur astronomer until around 1994 when I started to do actual astronomical research building my first robotic telescopes and since then they have been getting bigger and bigger.

"Astronomy has transitioned from photographic plates and the pre-computer days to modern technology where you need Charge Coupled Device (CCD) cameras because data acquisition has become computerized. Over the last twenty years, more and more telescopes are becoming automated because they are less expensive to run and they are more productive. If they are well programmed, you can do more science with a robotic telescope.

Future Dimenstions

"I think the cutting edge of astronomy is moving towards two dimensions. Satellites are one dimension because in space they can observe wavelengths of light that cannot get through the water in our atmosphere.

"Another dimension of optical astronomy is the large telescopes; thirty metre telescopes are already on the drawing board - approximately seven and a half times the diameter size of the AAO.

"The focal plane of telescopes is also getting bigger. The ANU will soon commence installing the Skymapper telescope at Siding Spring. This has a quarter of a billion image elements in its focal plane and will cover eight degrees of the sky. The moon is about half a degree in diameter, so you can imagine the amount of information this telescope will be producing. Telescopes are becoming very complex computer dependent devices and astronomy is becoming a massive project of computer science."

Because the comprehensive coverage of the sky, the Global Telescope Network will enable astronomers to find and investigate fast-moving or short-lived celestial objects, such as supernovae, active galaxies, variable stars, comets, asteroids, gamma ray bursts and much more.

Although the Faulkes Telescope South is intended primarily for science, it also offers some great opportunities for educational use. Wayne Rosing believes that by teaching astronomy other sciences, such as physics, chemistry, biology, geology and engineering are introduced to young people.

"The education side is not so much to teach astronomy but to reduce the fear of the technology and make it more accessible to youngsters," continued Mr. Rosing.

"I hope we can help young people embrace technology and develop a willingness to make it part of their career, whether it is computer science, engineering, medicine - it really does not matter. We need more kids motivated to study maths and physics.

"My experience is that astronomy and dinosaurs are two of the really fundamental things that young children really care about. I cannot do much about the dinosaurs, but we can certainly make astronomy more accessible. Since the early nineties it has been my dream to make this technology available and more accessible to young children and teachers.

"I think it is extremely important to understand that the motivated gifted teachers, who wish to learn how to use this equipment and develop lesson plans, will have the ability to get time on these telescopes. I see this project as very much a partnership between ourselves, the teachers and the students.

"Australia has been a significant contributor to astronomy. Since World War II CSIRO has been a pioneering organisation along with the ANU. I would say Australia has a disproportionate significance in the astronomical community considering the size of the population. It is commendable that the government and people support astronomy the way they do; it is an indirect, yet important investment for the people of this country."

Completion of the Faulkes Telescope South marks the beginning of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network project, which aims to promote science and inspire schoolchildren using real time astronomy. Their slogan is "We will always be able to keep you in the dark" and that is exactly what is planned.