Liverpool John Moores University

& University of Exeter

eScience Telescopes for Astronomical Research

http://www.estar.org.uk/

Purpose of the eSTAR demonstrator

• To develop infrastructure to create a global network of robotic astronomical telescopes.

• To test and use Globus in a real situation with diverse resources.

Science Drivers

•Rapid response and time variable astronomy.

•Spaceguard, Near Earth Objects

•Low Running Cost Observatories

•Schools and Education

Concepts

• Intelligent Agents - developed by astronomers to address their own science drivers. Can request and analyse data.

• Discovery Nodes - telescopes or archives which deliver astronomical data or other resources.

• Protocols - – Communication via Globus – Requests via Robotic Telescope Markup Language (RTML).– Status information via Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

Intelligent Agents

• Written in Perl.

• Can be customized for particular science tasks (prototype IA specializes in Dwarf Novae, a type of star which produces infrequent outbursts).

Intelligent Agent Architecture

Intelligent Agent Screenshot

Discovery Nodes

• Telescope Discovery Nodes written in C.

• Include scheduler, telescope and instrument control, weather monitoring.

• Also Archive and Bibliographic Databases.

Discovery Node Architecture

Discovery Node Screenshot

Scheduling Observations• Intelligent Agent requests a score from each

Discovery Node.• Score reflects how well the object is

positioned in the sky.• Can also in future reflect weather, state of

the telescope, how important what it is doing already is.

• Extend to databases which can say they have the data already.

IA then chooses DN which returns the highest score to provide data.

Scheduling and Observation Protocol

Globus

• Globus IO library provides user/host authentication and authorization

• SSL encryption on communications providing a secure data stream upon connection.

Robotic Telescope Markup Language (RTML)

• Subset of XML used for high level communication with Robotic Telescopes.

• New version (2.1) developed for this project.

LDAP structure

Equipment for Demonstrator

• Small (Meade) telescopes in Liverpool and Exeter plus travelling telescopes.

• Commercial CCD camera systems (3 manufacturers supported).

• Control via laptop PCs for IA and DNs.

Future Deployment

• Can be deployed on any telescope which can parse RTML– Existing 2 metre telescopes (Liverpool,

Faulkes).– Future 2 metre telescopes built for international

customers by Telescope Technologies Limited.– Existing UK telescopes in Hawaii, La Palma,

Chile.– Amateur telescopes with a computer control

and a CCD camera.

Non-astronomical applications

• Time critical threat reaction

• Security and Surveillance systems

• Earth Observation Scheduling

• Intelligent Agent Toolkit Evaluation

2-m telescope (La Palma)

4-m telescope (Hawaii) Amateur telescope (Liverpool)

Bibliographic Database (USA)

Object Database (France)

The Intelligent Agent uses telescopes and databases worldwide to carry out automated research, improving productivity and enabling new science

Summary