SMARTies: a software suite for flexible and fully automated control of multi-sensor telescope stations

Abstract

We describe the SMARTnet Instrument Enhancing Software (SMARTies) package, which we developed from scratch for fully automated remote control of our telescope stations within the Small Aperture Robotic Telescope Network (SMARTnet). Since March 2024, we have been using SMARTies continually to operate our SMARTnet telescope station in Chile successfully. We include a detailed description of the system design and architecture including the SMARTies modules, which are written in pure and are kept rather abstract, as well as the bespoke device controllers, which facilitate the communication with the actual hardware devices used. SMARTies was designed to fulfil a number of different use cases, including satellite or space debris tracking, survey observations, and observations of astronomical objects, including light curve acquisitions, and is therefore useful for the Space Situational Awareness community and other observational astronomers alike. While a fully automated observing mode following a user-defined schedule was one of the driving factors in the development of SMARTies, it does allow for near real-time manipulations of the schedule and even completely manual operations of the telescope. Because of its object-oriented and modular approach, new SMARTies functionalities can easily be added and different hardware devices can easily be included by adding new device controllers. Therefore, we envision SMARTies to be an extremely useful asset for many telescope operators across the world.