A generous donation of a telescope, mount, imaging and ancillary equipment from Mr Neil Shaw and his wife Tara has expanded the ICRAR’s SPIRIT outreach initiative with a 3rd robotic telescope.
Located in UWA’s Zadko Observatory 1 hour north of Perth and with much darker skies, the first light results show an impressive improvement in image quality further increasing the potential for student research.
As with all SPIRIT telescopes, students book and then remotely access and control the instruments in ‘real time’ from their home or school computers using nothing more than a web browser.
Telescope operations are monitored by students as they happen and images appear on their screens as they are acquired. Using a customised version of ACP’s innovative web interface also provides for automated and unattended data acquisition. Advanced students and researchers can collect data ‘while they sleep’ by uploading observing plans in advance.
ICRAR & UWA acknowledged this wonderful donation from the Shaws during a small event on April 18th.
Student piloting and use of SPIRIT 3 is currently underway. More information on wider access to SPIRIT 3 will be made available in the coming months.
For more information head to the SPIRIT website.
