PANOPTES (Panoptic Astronomical Networked Observatories for a Public Transiting Exoplanets Survey) is a citizen science project which aims to build low cost, robotic telescopes which can be used to detect transiting exoplanets.
Due to the simplicity and low cost (an individual PANOPTES unit is targeted to cost about $5000 USD), a PANOPTES "unit" can be reproduced quickly and easily by students or amateur scientists. In this way, many units can be deployed at many different sites to provide continuous and redundant sky coverage. PANOPTES is designed from the ground up to be a citizen science project which will involve the public in all aspects of the science, from data acquisition to data reduction.
The philosophy behind the PANOPTES hardware and software design is to use as many commercial off the shelf (COTS) parts as possible as these are generally inexpensive and easily acquired. In addition, the PANOPTES design is kept as simple as possible as this makes the build process easier and means that the final product is more reliable.
With PANOPTES, you too can help discover exoplanets! Join us!
