Robotic Astronomy and the BOOTES Network of Robotic Telescopes

Abstract

The Burst Observer and Optical Transient Exploring System (BOOTES), started in 1998 as a Spanish-Czech collaboration project, devoted to a study of optical emissions from gamma ray bursts (GRBs) that occur in the Universe. The first two BOOTES stations were located in Spain, and included medium size robotic telescopes with CCD cameras at the Cassegrain focus as well as all-sky cameras, with the two stations located 240 km apart. The first observing station (BOOTES-1) is located at ESAt (INTA-CEDEA) in Mazag´on (Huelva) and the first light was obtained in July 1998. The second observing station (BOOTES-2) is located at La Mayora (CSIC) in M´alaga and has been operating fully since July 2001. In 2009 BOOTES expanded abroad, with the third station (BOOTES-3) being installed in Blenheim (South Island, New Zealand) as result of a collaboration project with several institutions from the southern hemisphere. The fourth station (BOOTES-4) is on its way, to be deployed in 2011.