We conclude that PIRATE is a cost-effective research facility, and also provides exciting prospects for undergraduate astronomy. We discuss problems associated with performing precision time series photometry when using a German Equatorial Mount, investigating the overall performance of such ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions in both research and teaching applications. It is operated by a mixture of commercially available software and proprietary software developed at the Open University. Situated at the Observatori Astronòmic de Mallorca, PIRATE is currently used to follow up potential transiting extrasolar planet candidates produced by the SuperWASP North experiment, as well as to hunt for novae in M31 and other nearby galaxies. We focus on the PIRATE Mark 1 operational phase where PIRATE was equipped with a widely-used 0.35m Schmidt-Cassegrain system (now replaced with a 0.425m corrected Dall Kirkham astrograph). We introduce PIRATE, a new remotely-operable telescope facility for use in research and education, constructed from ‘off-the-shelf’ hardware, operated by The Open University. M., Rostron 5 5 affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK, J., Barker 1 1 affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK, J J., Rodriguez 3 3 affiliation: Observatori Astronòmic de Mallorca, Cam de l’Observatori, 07144 Costitx, Mallorca, Spain, J., Rolfe 4 4 affiliation: Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK, S. A., Burwitz 2 2 affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, 85748, Garching, Germany, V., Lucas 1 1 affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK, R. Holmes 1 1 affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK, S., Kolb 1 1 affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK, U., Haswell 1 1 affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK, C.
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