Remote Observing With SLOOH (Abstract)

Volume 34 number 2 (2006)

Matt BenDaniel

Abstract

(Abstract only) SLOOH.com is a web-portal for an autonomous observatory in the Canary Islands founded in 2003. The equipment includes two 14-inch SCT’s and SBIG ST-10 CCD cameras. SLOOH has over 4,000 subscribers and actively observes for over 2,500 hours annually. Subscribers reserve time on the observatory and specify target coordinates. One application of SLOOH has been to search for and confirm supernovae. SLOOH uses novel automatic image processing and a sophisticated software architecture. In 2006 SLOOH plans to add photometric filters and to deploy a WWW system that allows detailed control of the observatory, culminating with retrieval of FITS image files.