JPL SynTrack Robotic Telescope

The JPL SynTrack Robotic Telescope is a robotic asteroid-hunting instrument at Sierra Remote Observatories near Auberry, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

About JPL SynTrack Robotic Telescope

Operated by Sierra Remote Observatories, this facility hosts a 0.36-metre reflector fitted with CCD imaging and runs a synthetic tracking technique designed to detect faint, fast-moving near-Earth objects and support asteroid surveys. Sierra Remote Observatories has been operational since 2007 and provides the robotic infrastructure the telescope relies on.

Telescopes & research

The 0.36-metre reflector's synthetic tracking method combines many short exposures to pull out asteroid signals that would otherwise be lost in a single image, making the site useful for near-Earth object detection and asteroid survey work.

Location & getting there

The telescope sits at Sierra Remote Observatories, a dark-sky site in the foothills near Auberry, California, chosen for around 290 clear nights a year. The facility runs on a 1 Gbps fibre connection with 24/7 technical support, allowing it to operate largely unattended.

See your named star from here

Sierra Remote Observatories' near-constant clear skies make it an ideal vantage point for the night sky. Once you name a star with Star Register, you get its precise RA/Dec coordinates, which a telescope like the JPL SynTrack could, in principle, be aimed at from this same dark-sky corner of California. Browse the star catalogue to pick one.