Robotic telescope
A robotic telescope is a modern astronomical telescope that can be programmed fully automatically and does not require an astronomer or service technician on site. It is mostly a reflector telescope that is automatically controlled together with the observatory dome , increasingly via the Internet . The measurement data is then also transmitted via the network.
The high costs of robotic telescopes are offset by several advantages such as: low staffing requirements, rapid (possibly also fully automatic) reaction to surprising sky phenomena (e.g. novae or gamma-ray flashes ), and the avoidance of refraction anomalies due to the body heat of the observer .