Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope, Automatic telescope at Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, United States

The Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope is a robotic observatory at Mount Hamilton that uses a 76-centimeter mirror to survey the night sky. The system operates entirely on its own, capturing roughly 100 images per hour as it searches for transient astronomical events.

The telescope began operating in 1998 as an automated system designed to detect sudden changes in the night sky. Its rapid identification of transient objects became central to modern astronomical research and discovery.

More than 100 undergraduate students from the University of California Berkeley have participated in research projects using this telescope for astronomical observations.

KAIT is a working robotic instrument at Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose, California, and is not set up for public use. Its 76 cm mirror feeds a CCD camera through a 20-slot filter wheel, and an electronic weather station feeds data to the control computers. Check Lick Observatory's visitor arrangements before travelling up the mountain.

In 2014 KAIT helped establish the age of a supernova in the galaxy M83: its images of that sky region from a few days before the discovery showed the star had not yet brightened. The same archive made it a prolific hunter, with 900 supernovae found between 1998 and 2013.