Robot telescope is world's largest

The world's largest fully robotic telescope has taken its first images.

The Liverpool Telescope is a two-metre optical telescope.

View pictures taken on the telescope's first night of operation.

In pictures

It sits on La Palma in the Canary Islands but belongs to the Astrophysics Research Institute of Liverpool John Moores University.

The telescope is remotely operated and will be used to study supernovae and gamma ray bursts, which result from cataclysmic explosions in space.

The device is supported by the UK's Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PParc).

Five per cent of its observing time has been set aside for the use of schoolchildren, the first time regular access to a world class research telescope has been granted to school students.