"The Robotic Controlled Telescope: Great Opportunity or Endless Frustration??"
Donald Davis, Mark Everett, Gil Esquerdo
Budget crunches at the U.S. National Observatory have led to the de-commissioning of small telescopes which have subsequently been turned over to universities for operation. The 1.3m (50") telescope on Kitt Peak is the latest budgetary victim and operation of this facility was awarded to a consortium of which PSI is a founding member. For the past 3 years, this telescope has been undergoing a major refurbishment which is now 2 years behind schedule and is not projected to be complete before mid-2004. We will describe the history of this project, the RCT consortium, the current state of the telescope and present data taken with this facility during tet runs. Finally and optimistically, we will outline the science projects that we are interested in pursuing and present a realistic assessment of our involvement in the project in future years.
Useful Link: The RCT consortium