Liverpool Telescope: Development and science results from a fully autonomous common-user telescope

The Liverpool Telescope is a fully autonomous robotic telescope at the world-class observatory site on La Palma in the Canary Islands, owned and operated by Liverpool John Moores University (UK). Robert will summarize the original motivation for building such a facility and the design features of telescope, instrumentation and control software which enable its unusual operating mode. The unique facility that it provides has enabled or facilitated exciting scientific results in a wide range of solar system, Galactic and extra-Galactic astrophysics and Robert shall present recent results from some of the diverse research projects performed on the telescope, concentrating on the now proven usefulness of large-aperture robotic telescopes.