The Liverpool telescope

摘要

Abstract The Liverpool Telescope is a 2.0 metre robotic telescope on La Palma. It achieved first light in July 2003, and began science operations in January 2004, with (supervised) robotic operation from April 2004. Unmanned operation is planned for October 2004. As a national, common‐user facility, the telescope must support over 50 science programmes and is equipped both with common user and experiment specific instruments. As an example, the SupIRCam instrument has been designed to obtain infrared light curves of Type Ia supernovae. This instrument achieved first light in July 2004. From August 2004 the telescope participates in the ROBONET‐1.0 network of 2.0 metre telescopes with the Faulkes Telescopes located in Hawaii and Australia, executing coordinated observations of GRB and exoplanet microlensing events. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)