The GLORIA Project makes available to internet users 13 robotic telescopes in three continents

The GLORIA Project (GLObal Robotic telescope Intelligent Array for e-science) offers Internet users the possibility of studying the sky from professional observatories. New telescopes are joining the former four telescopes which allowed to observe the night sky in real time since few months ago.  The new eight telescopes will be used in queue mode, so the new users will be able to request the observations, with most of them being accomplished within a few days.

GLORIA (http://gloria-project.eu) has succeeded in building up the first large scale robotic telescope network of free access, which will allow any user to provide scientific knowledge. The project, which was initiated in October 2011, makes use of thirteen telescopes: five in Spain, three in Chile, one in Argentina, two in the Czech Republic, one in South Africa and one in Russia.

The project is also based in collective intelligence so the more data is gathered, the more knowledge will be obtained. Users will be able to research thanks to the proposed experiments, including the solar activity, the study and characterization of variable stars, etc.  but also they will be able to propose their own research. They will be able to plan their observations using the GLORIA resources. The experiments are available at http://users.gloria-project.eu

Finally, the Project has made a big effort regarding public outreach, especially amongst young people and children. On this way, some important astronomical events such as the Venus transit in 2012, the total solar eclipse in 2013 and the total lunar eclipse in 2014 have been broadcasted.

GLORIA is a three year Project funded by the European Union (FP7/2007-2012) with reference number 283783. Twelve institutions belonging to seven countries are involved: Spain, Chile, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Russia.