SOLARIS: A NETWORK OF AUTONOMOUS OBSERVATORIES IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

Modern astronomical observatories are very often complex installations that incorporate state of the art technology. They are in fact interdisciplinary laboratories that combine topics covered by various disciplines: optics, materials science, computer science, robotics, automation, architecture and, last but not least, astronomy and astrophysics. Astronomers require sophisticated and specialized instruments to observe their objects of interest. Moreover, as noted by Albert Michelson, our future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals. This pushes the limits even further and thus requires close collaboration between engineers and astronomers to create and operate astronomical equipment capable of conducting good scientific projects. In this paper we present Project Solaris, a Polish initiative aimed at the discovery and characterization of extrasolar planets orbiting binary stars. To achieve this, three observatories have been built on the southern hemisphere and the fourth one will be deployed by the end of 2013. We describe the network, its components and performance as a remote and autonomous system.