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Services and Products

The table below lists APTA's current products and services. If you would like more information, details, or prices relating to any of these items, please contact us here.

Astronomical imaging	APTA has a high degree of expertise in astronomical imaging and imaging solutions, using remote and robotic hardware. With the services provided through this website, you can request telescopes across the world to acquire images of any object in the sky for you. These images can then be accessed from your desktop, laptop or mobile device. You can take pictures of anything in the night sky that is visible to an accessible telescope, simply and easily. Images may cost money, or may be provided free. For more information, please see our Accounts page.
Observation scheduling and management	At the core of this system lie high-performance scheduling and request management engines. We can produce optimised schedules for your telescopes, based upon a large number of request parameters. Requests may be supplied in many forms (e.g., RTML v2.1) and via many routes (e.g., web services). Please see below for more details on alternative methods of submitting requests. For more information on the details of the scheduling engine currently in use, please refer to this paper, or feel free to contact us here for a copy of the full article.
User management	In addition to the sign-up of individual users via this website, APTA can assist with the management of large user bases, for example, students in a particular class or year or school. This can be through the manual provision of files, or automated, nightly transfers. APTA staff will work with an institution to ensure that any such bulk transfer of information takes place in a secure manner, and is in accord with the institution's Policies.
Telescope management	Telescope owners participating in the network control when and how their telescope is used to service requests. They can elect for their telescopes to participate in various "telescope networks". Such networks may include, for example, ones which service requests for particular institutions or classes or users, or ones which provide images for free.
Redemption codes	We can provide "redemption codes" which can be supplied to clients (e.g., students in a class). These codes can be set to provide the redeemer with access to particular telescopes, networks, credits or other resources. The use of redemption codes is sometimes preferable, depending upon the Privacy Policy of a given Institution. For example, a particular Privacy Policy may prohibit the details of significant numbers of students from being provided to a third party.
Image processing	All observations acquired by member telescope pass through an automated pipeline, which cleans the image and reduces the dynamic range in a manner which is pleasing to the eye. The visibility of fine structure and details are enhanced, whether they lie against a dark or bright background. Users will soon be able to submit their own images to be processed by this pipeline.
Custom request engines	The webpages used to actually submit request are known as "request engines". Some are very simple, and others are very feature-richd. A login to the APTA website will not give you access to all of the request engines which exist, because some are reserved for particular user groups or for particular projects. APTA can assist is the design and creation of new request engines, customised to exactly fit your projects and users.
Custom submission methods	A web browser is the most obvious way of submitting image requests, but it is not the only way. Image requests can be submitted by a number of other methods, including web services and email. These can be customised to meet the particular needs of clients if required.
Observatory automation and consulting	We have been operating our own "test bed" development observatory for some years (IAU E25). This has matured in to a fully robotic facility, and is integrated into the APTA system such that hardware, software and environmental systems are monitored and controlled by the APTA server. We are happy to consult on all aspects of the automation of remote and robotic facilities.
Monitoring and notification	APTA can monitor the states of systems operating at remote observatory sites, and send automated notifications to telescope operators should an adverse situation develop. The states of monitored systems can also be examined through this website.
Blackboard integration	For schools or universities using Blackboard as their eLearning portal, we have a "Building Block" which allows the APTA website and systems to be integrated in to individual Courses.