UCSC Review Winter 1997

Katzman telescope is fully robotic

Computers have taken total control of a 30-inch telescope at UCSC's Lick Observatory, making it the most sensitive fully robotic telescope anywhere.

The Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) is named for the Sylvia and Jim Katzman Foundation of Saratoga, which donated $50,000 toward the telescope's development. KAIT will devote itself to checking the night sky for flaring supernovas, to following the changing brightnesses of variable stars, or to observing any object that changes over short or long periods.