GLORIA project (GLObal Robotic telescope Intelligent Array for e-science) offers an opportunity to use professional observatories to study night sky to all Internet users. Four telescopes which can perform astronomical observation in a real-time already for several months will now be joined by nine others. Newly involved telescopes use a central planner which will enable those interested observations to enter a requirement which is processed usually in several days and the photos of the sky are taken by the most suitable, automatically selected telescope.
The Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences operates a robotic telescope FRAM at Pierra Augera Observatory in Argentina. In the night photo, the telescope keeps observing while a storm is coming on the horizon.
As part of the project (http://gloria-project.eu(link is external)), which started in October 2011, the first completely freely accessible network of telescopes was built which will enable anyone in the world to participate in scientific research. At present thirteen telescopes are part of the network: five in Spain, three in Chile, two in the Czech Republic, one in Argentina, one in South Africa and one in Russia.
The philosophy of the project is the principle of collective intelligence and the division of risks: the more eyes observe the sky the bigger chance there is that the respective observation will be successful and the more we can thus learn. In the prepared experiments users can observe the activity of the Sun or the variables of a star. They can also propose their own experiments which will use the infrastructure of the robotic telescopes network. Experiments are available at the web address https://users.gloria-project.eu(link is external).
Two telescopes of the GLORIA network are operated by the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Ondřejov – telescope D50 (on the left) and BART (on the right).
During the project solution big emphasis is put on the increase in interest in astronomy, mainly among young people and children. The GLORIA project broadcast live several important astronomical events, such as the passage of Venus in 2012, the total eclipse of the Sun in 2013 or the total eclipse of the Moon in 2014.
The GLORIA project is a three-year project funded by the EU in the 7th framework programme under the ref. number 283783, in which workers from 12 institutions from seven countries – Spain, Czech Republic, Chile, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Russia – take part. In the Czech Republic the following institutions participate in the project: Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Czech Technical University. The Astronomical Institute operates two of the robotic telescopes involved in the world wide telescope network, telescopes D50 and BART, which are located in Ondřejov. The Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences operates a robotic telescope FRAM at Pierra Augera Observatory in Argentina. More information about the partners of the project can be found at http://gloria-project.eu/about/partners.
More information about the project and its results will be provided by:
doc. RNDr. René Hudec, CSc., Astronomical Institute of the CAS, rene [dot] hudec [at] asu [dot] cas [dot] cz
doc. Mgr. Petr Páta, Ph.D.,Czech Technical University, pata [at] fel [dot] cvut [dot] cz
RNDr. Michael Prouza, Ph.D., Institute of Physics of the CAS, prouza [at] fzu [dot] cz