WOLFGANG-AMADEUS - THE UNIVERSITY-OF-VIENNA TWIN AUTOMATIC PHOTOELECTRIC TELESCOPE

We describe the University of Vienna twin automatic photoelectric tele scope (APT) located at the new Fairborn Observatory at Washington Camp in southern Arizona. Not only are the telescopes fully automatic, but the observatory itself is automatic. A site-control computer monitors weather sensors and operates the roof while the telescope control com puter operates the photometer and accepts input files from and provide s nightly observations to the astronomer; no direct operating personne l are needed. Both telescopes have 0.75-m primary mirrors, a CCD finde r camera, and an environmentally controlled single-channel photoelectr ic photometer with filter combinations optimized for use in the blue ( Wolfgang) and in the red (Amadeus) wavelength regions. The telescopes are currently used for monitoring spotted stars, for asteroseismology of nonradially pulsating variables, and for monitoring asymptotic-gian t-branch stars. Some first results are presented.