Integration of Watcher into the Sierra Stars Observatory Network - lessons learned for GLORIA

Presentation duration: 30 minutes

Presenter: Martin Topinka

The UCD Watcher robotic telescope has started to participate in the Sierra Stars Observatory Network (SSON), a US-based organisation that provides astronomical images upon request to subscribing users, who are typically either amateurs or university/college students. Implementing the tasks of remote scheduling, file transfer, image quality validation and the provision of meteorological information required for the integration of Watcher to SSON have provided useful experience for the GLORIA project. It has also become apparent that managing user expectations will be important for GLORIA.