Today, we are beginning to probe the interior of stars through the new science of stellar seismology. Certain stars, ranging from our own Sun to white dwarfs, undergo natural vibrations that can be detected with sensitive time-series photometry and/or spectroscopy. Since the signal we seek is an unbroken time-series to allow determination of the vibration frequencies, data from a single-site is usually incapable of uniquely identifying the pulsation modes, no matter how large the telescope being used. In many cases, the observational goals can be achieved using small-ish telescopes in well-coordinated global networks. Here, I briefly describe the work of one such international network of observatories and scientists known as the Whole Earth Telescope (WET). With the WET, we have sounded out the interiors of a large number of nonradially pulsating stars. Over the past 14 years, WET has observed dozens of stars in 20 separate observing campaigns. Our team has wide span of interests, and has observed several other classes of objects such as delta Scuti stars, CV stars, pulsating sdB stars, and rapidly oscillating Ap stars.

In an age of 8m-class telescopes, we should rethink the way we use small telescopes. While 2-4m telescopes are still needed and will continue to be operated largely in the traditional fashion, new 1m-class telescopes operated robotically in global networks will enable a wide range of new and exciting scientific and educational projects, both by themselves and in conjunction with much larger telescopes. I describe our plans for such a global network of two 1m-class robotic telescopes.

A network of longitudinally spaced imaging telescopes is described. Due to the limitations of the radial velocity method extrasolar planets have only been found around bright stars (less than 10 mag). Employment of the network and the photometric method to detect extrasolar planets will lead to the discovery of extrasolar planets at much fainter magnitudes (less than 19 mag).

Students Training for Achievement in Research Based on Analytical Space-science Experiences (STARBASE) is being established to provide exciting hands-on research opportunities for students. STAR-BASE is a network of networks, consisting of dedicated hardware, universities, professional astronomers, teachers, and students all working together in scientific investigations. Funded through the NASA Office of Space Science, the STARBASE network is working to bring major science research projects to motivated students all over the globe.

In this paper, we present the NORT, a network of oriental robotic telescopes originally proposed in 1993 by Querci & Querci to study stellar variability. The NORT project covers all of northern Africa and Asia near the tropic of Cancer. The interest generated among a number of astronomers in countries from the Arab World and Asia offers a solid basis for the rebirth of astronomy and astrophysics and space sciences in developing countries. The number of national projects for telescopes in different countries makes the NORT a framework of choice to coordinate and stimulate these separate efforts by the creation of a NORT steering committee.

Two projects, the Taiwan Oscillation Network (TON) project and the earthshine project, at Tsing Hua University will be discussed. The TON is a ground-based network to measure solar intensity oscillations to study the solar interior. Four telescopes have been installed in Tenerife (Spain), Big Bear (USA), Huairou (PRC), and Tashkent (Uzbekistan). The recent scientific results from the TON data will be briefly discussed. The earthshine project is to measure the brightness of the dark portion of the lunar disk to obtain the Earth’s global albedo. The dark portion of the Moon is lit by the sunlight reflected from the Earth. The global albedo is linked to the global temperature of the Earth. The long-term measurement of earthshine will provide information on the long-term variation of the global temperature. An automated earthshine telescope is being developed at Tsing Hua University. It will be installed at Lulin Mountain in central Taiwan. The ultimate goal is to build a ground-based global network to measure the long-term variation of earthshine to learn about the long-term variation of the global temperature.

Variability in the sky has been known for centuries, even millennia, but our knowledge of it is very incomplete even at the bright end. Current technology makes it possible to built small, robotic optical instruments, to record images and to process data in real time, and to archive them on-line, all at a low cost. In addition to obtaining complete catalogs of all kinds of variable objects, spectacular discoveries can be made, like the optical flash associated with GRB 990123 and a planetary transit in front of HD 209458. While prototypes of parts of such robotic instruments have been in operation for several years, it is not possible to purchase a complete system at this time. I expect (hope) that complete systems will become available ‘off the shelf’ in the near future, as monitoring bright sky for variability has a great scientific, educational and public outreach potential.

ASAS-3 is the next step in the All Sky Automated Survey. This paper describes the new hardware, consisting of two wide field (9 × 9 deg) telephoto instruments and one F = 750 mm D = 250 mm telescope with 2 × 2 deg FOV, each equipped with a 2K × 2K CCD camera. Wide field instruments are now observing the whole southern sky (almost 30,000 sq. deg) at the average rate of 0.5 measurements per day. A narrow field instrument is connected to the GCN network and is ready to respond to the GRB alerts in tens of seconds. Preliminary photometric data are presented here and briefly discussed.

Massive variability searches initiated the design of HAT (Hungarian Automated Telescope), an autonomous observatory. HAT consists of a horseshoe mount similar to the one used in the Automated All Sky Survey (ASAS, Pojmański 1997), a clamshell dome with various utilities, a telephoto lens and a CCD. Expensive hardware elements have been substituted by software running under Realtime Linux: a multitask operating system which can handle processes in real time. A virtual observer – modeled as a finite state machine – is responsible for managing the observatory. The modular structure allows of running virtually any kind of observing program for small telescopes. We describe technical aspects, as well as present test results carried out by HAT1 (Budapest).

NASA’s Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), scheduled for launch in 2009, will determine the positions of thousands of stars as faint as V = 20 to a precision better than 4 microarcseconds (µas). A key part of the mission is the Astrometric Grid, which is a reference frame of several thousand stars with V ≤ 13 against which all relative measurements will be calibrated. To serve as a reliable inertial reference frame, the Grid must be astrometrically stable against photocenter jitter (from planets, binary companions, flaring or spotting) at the ~ 4µas level. Sub–solar metallicity giant stars, by virtue of their intrinsic luminosity, can probe the Galaxy to greater distances than almost any other stellar type at the same apparent magnitude. Thus, distant (> 3 kpc) giants with V < 13 will have proportionately smaller astrometric jitter compared to other potential Astrometric Grid star candidates. The Grid Giant Star Survey is a patchwork all-sky survey to find sub–solar metallicity K giants for the Grid, and to provide a unique database for studies of Galactic stellar populations. We describe here the survey characteristics and give examples of results to date.

We are conducting a robotic wide-angle imaging survey of the southern sky at 656.3 nm wavelength, the Hα emission line of hydrogen. Each image of the survey covers an area of the sky 13° square at an angular resolution of approximately one arcminute, and reaches a sensitivity level of 0.5 Rayleigh (3 × 10−18erg cm−2s−1arcsec−2), corresponding to an emission measure of 1 cm−6pc, and to a brightness temperature for microwave free-free emission of 3 µK at 30 GHz.

Developments in the search for extra-solar planets via gravitational microlensing by the Japan/New Zealand group MOA are discussed. The use of the Kaláka cluster computer is introduced and preliminary results presented.

The YSTAR program is a general sky survey looking for variability. The main equipments are three 0.5-m telescopes. These telescopes have fast F/2 optics covering nearly 3.5 square degree field onto a 2K CCD. They also have very fast slew capability, which exceeds 10 degrees per second. These two factors make them most suitable for rapid target acquisition and wide-field surveys of various kinds. Our primary objective is to identify and monitor variable stars down to 18th R-magnitude, and our observing mode allows the same data set to be also useful in identifying asteroids. Our first telescope has just begun regular automated operation, and the second telescope will be installed in South Africa within this year to provide coverage of the southern sky.

The former KPNO 1.3-meter telescope is being refurbished and automated by a consortium of U.S. institutions, headed by Western Kentucky University, with the goal of a 2002 recommissioning as the Robotically Controlled Telescope (RCT). The 1.3-meter RCT will operate in fully autonomous mode to obtain guided images for a variety of research and education programs. Distinctions between a fully autonomous versus robotic observatory are presented, along with a discussion of why fully autonomous operation is necessary for increased productivity of small telescopes.

During the 1990s groups at universities around the world developed small working automated/robotic telescopes that proved the feasibility of using such systems for education and research projects. A few of the more successful projects such as the Bradford Robotic Observatory in the United Kingdom and the University of Iowa’s Automated Telescope Facility (AFT) and Iowa Robotic Observatory (IRO) programs proved how useful and powerful these systems can be in practice. This paper describes how one company, Torus Technologies, developed hardware and software technologies to create the most advanced integrated small automated/robotic telescope systems in the world. These systems were designed from the “bottom up” to be automated/robotic telescopes capable of operating an entire observatory including domes, CCD cameras, and other peripheral equipment.

Automated/robotic telescopes can play a major role in enabling small colleges and universities, especially in developing countries, to actively participate in serious “hands on” research and education projects that otherwise would not be practical. A commercially available affordable, high-precision, and proven turnkey automated/robotic small telescope system capable of operating remotely via the Internet is crucial for bringing this technology into widespread use. Today Torus Technologies telescopes are installed at locations worldwide as primary instruments for research programs, discovery and monitoring programs, and education programs. This paper describes some of the current applications for using these telescopes and how these telescope systems will be used in the future in standalone installations and in global networks.