Who are Las Cumbris Observatory? What are robotic telescopes and why build them? In this video I'll be answering some of you most frequently asked questions about the Las Cumbris Observatory robotic telescope network. To find out how to observe with the telescopes or how to process your observations, check out my previous videos linked on screen and in the description down below. So let's start at the beginning. Who are we? Las Cumbris Observatory is an organisation that builds and hosts a unique network of robotic telescopes. Our aim is to advance at the understanding of the universe around us but we focus specifically on near- Earth objects, asteroids that stray close to Earth. Exoplanets, these are planets orbiting distant stars, and supernovae, which is the explosive deaths of massive stars. On top of that, our engineering team has made many advances in robotics, networking and data analysis and all of our research is available to the scientific community and the public. But what really makes us unique are the robotic telescopes, so let's talk more about those. We currently have 18 robotic telescopes, spread across eight different sites around the world, all working together as a single instrument. This includes telescopes of three sizes. There are two two-meter telescopes, meaning they have a mirror that is two meters in diameter. The entire telescope is about the size of a double-decker bus. There are nine one-meter telescopes about the size of a family car, and seven 0.4-meter telescopes that are about the size of a wheelie bin. The next question is why we built a robotic telescope network? What are the benefits? Well, the universe is an enormous place and the objects we look at through the telescopes are very, very far away. This means they're very faint. To see faint objects, we need the best possible conditions. Clear skies, good weather and high altitude. Dark skies, no light pollution from towns and city lights, and no interference to a remote location. To ensure the best conditions, we've built our telescopes in the middle of nowhere. In deserts, atop mountains, and far from towns or cities, this makes the telescopes very hard to access. By making the telescopes robotic, anyone in the world can use them at any time without having to travel for days each time they want to make an observation. It also means we can build telescopes all over the world, giving a clear view of the entire night sky, including both the northern and southern skies and across several times zones. What can we see with the telescopes? The answer is all sorts. The telescopes are very powerful and have been designed for looking at faint objects in a distant universe, such as Nebulae, which are a curveable cloud of cosmic gas and dust. Galaxies, which are enormous constellations of stars, on top of the three main areas of study mentioned earlier. They can be used to look at the sun or moon, and they're not ideal for looking at the planets. The next question is, how far can the telescope see? This is an a simple question to answer. Distances in space are gigantic, so it's not practical to use traditional units to measure them. For example, the closest start to earth, besides the sun, is around 38 trillion kilometres away, which is 4.2 light years. Light travels at around 300,000 kilometres per second, therefore a light second is 300,000 kilometres. A light year is a distance that light can travel in a year, 9.4 trillion kilometres. Now that you know what a light year is, you might be surprised that with your naked eye you can see millions of light years away. The Andromeda galaxy is visible to the naked eye, and it's almost 3 million light years away. With the telescope you can see billions of light years out into the cosmos, but just because an object is far away doesn't mean it's interesting to look out. Some of the most beautiful objects are right here in our galaxy. Finally, what can you do with the telescopes? As I've mentioned previously, the telescopes are used by professional scientists studying several areas, but last camera's observatory in the Universe and the Clatterin project also offers schools and universities the unique and exciting opportunity to explore the wonders of the universe from their classrooms using these professional telescopes. Teachers and students can control the telescopes, using a specially designed and easy to use interface. On the less camera's observatory website, we have an education section where you can find several projects that allow students to observe with the telescopes and analyse the data collected. For example, you can try your hand at finding exoplanets, find out how long ago a star exploded by studying a supernova remnant, or measure the rotation of a near-earth asteroid with asteroid tracker. For younger students in primary school, the Universe and the Clatterin project has created lots of activities that use telescopes to teach other subjects. For example, the telescope network is a great way to learn about time zones, light pollution and how light travels. We've also created lots of resources to teach you about the various stunning and exotic objects in space and how you can explore them using a telescope. One of our most popular resources is Messia Bingo, an astronomy bingo game that familiarises you with a range of cosmic objects and allows you to take your own observations of chosen objects with just a click of a button. I hope you found this video helpful and it's provided some inspiration for teachers and students looking to explore the cosmos. If you have any questions you will like answered, contact us at the address on screen or explore all the resources we have to offer by following the link in the description below.