Automatic Small Telescopes

This is a reprint of the Ninth Annual Fairborn-Smithsonian-IAPPP Symposium was held on February 18-21, 1988 at the Lazy K Bar Ranch, in Tucson, Arizona. The Symposium was Co-chaired by Russell M. Genet(Fairborn), Sallie L. Baliunas (Smithsonian), and Douglas S. Hall (IAPPP). The theme of the symposium was fully automatic small telescopes which work without a human observer in attendance or even on the observing site. The symposium explored the Automatic Telescope Instruction Set (ATIS) in depth, and also considered the formation of remote networks of automatic telescopes, including global networks. The attendees took a field trip to Mt. Hopkins near the Mexican border to visit the growing collection of robotic telescopes at the totally automated Fairborn observatory.