Abstract

Software is essential to the success of a robotic telescope. Very different tasks must be correctly performed each night: e.g. instrument driving, weather monitoring, automation, scheduling, image acquisition. The software of a robotic observatory is therefore complex and, if not designed properly, it can result in many lost nights. AudeLA¹ is an open source astronomical software package designed for image processing and for driving telescopes and cameras. AudeLA is also used successfully in robotic observatories. This paper explains in details the features of the AudeLA software.