A Design of a Remote-Control Telescope System for High-School Students

Considering the practical factors of astronomical education in high schools in China, we have designed and installed a remote-control telescope system in Aksu City, Xinjiang, where there are more nights than in Hangzhou. The optical system of the telescope is of a 28cm Schmidt-Cassegrain (F=280cm) design with the Sloan g'r'i'z' filters, a dual-CCD camera (SBIG STL-4020M), and a 6cm refractor (F=27cm) with a CCD color camera (Q'HYCCD QHY8Pro). A converted Paramount ME German equatorial mount serves as the mounting and pointing system. The accessory system consists of a 2m all-sky dome, front covers for optics, video monitors, a weather monitor, and etc. The two-level controlling system includes one Industrial PC and two SCMs (Single Chip Microcomputers). The entire system can provide services of quasi-professional or amateur observations(such as astrophotography). It is capable of real-time operations and automatic observations using a software based on a specially designed batch-script language named TABLET. Any observed data can be automatically organized and transferred. We also evaluate the sky background brightness values at the site through different channels. This paper gives an example of an automatic observation of the multi-channel photometry of the SXPHE-type variable AE UMa. In addition the paper shows some examples of astrophotography obtained with the telescope.