Liverpool Telescope operations 2009-2014

The Liverpool Telescope (LT ) (http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/) is the world's largest and most sophisticated (in terms of range of science programmes, flexibility of scheduling, and sophistication of instrumentation) robotic telescope whose primary purpose (95% of observing time) is to carry out internationally competitive research. Since the commencement of robotic operation at the end of 2004, the LT has combined rapid reaction to Targets of Opportunity (ToO) with the ability to perform systematic long-term monitoring of targets and coordinated observations with other facilities, both on the ground and in space. This has allowed it to participate in many exciting new discoveries reported in high impact journals: - the earliest measurement of the optical polarization of a Gamma ray burst afterglow (Mundell et al, Science, 2007, 315, 1822) - the monitoring of many supernovae including the recent 'double supernova' SN2006jc (Pastroello et al, Nature, 2007, 447, 829) - the direct detection of the asteroidal YORP effect (Lowry et al, Science, 2007, 316, 272) - the discovery of a jupiter-saturn analogue solar system via gravitational microlensing (Gaudi et al, Science, 2008, 319, 927) - observations of the recent 'naked eye' GRB080319 (Racusin et al, Nature, 2008, 455, 813) This application is for continuation of funding for the maintenance and operation of the Liverpool Telescope, and the continuation of its role as a major resource both for the LJMU Astrophysics Research Institute and the wider UK community.