The Montegancedo astronomical observatory: The first free remote observatory for learning astronomy

This paper describes the first open robotic observatory available to the public on the Internet (http://om.fi.upm.es), interactive and completely free access through a Web 2.0 application, which lets users manage professional astronomical devices and collaborate with other amateur users through a web browser. Its main goal is to open the astronomy to the society and that people learn informally about the cosmos by means of experimenting with real remote devices. Its architecture is made up by common collaborative Web 2.0 tools (such picture gallery, wiki, forum, chat, voting and discussing systems, etc.) and services and policies to offer meritocratically the observatory and its observing time. The paper presents an innovative approach which proposes a reputation system for sharing an online resource to encourage high-quality contributions, and the initial outcomes obtained since the observatory started in December 2008. This paper also describes the first experience using the observatory for carrying out online practical assignments in an Educational Innovation Project within the Technical University of Madrid during academic year 2008–2009 and using it for three subjects of these different degrees: Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, and Topography.