Towards a collaboration cloud for astronomical observations

With the rapid spreading of the high-speed network, the application of many advanced technologies in large astronomical telescopes, and the progress in Internet-based scientific collaboration platform, it is possible for astronomers to collaboratively use several large astronomical telescopes located thousand miles apart. In this paper, we propose a collaboration cloud for astronomical observations, Astronomical Virtual Laboratory (AVLAB), which is based on the Duckling software, an open-source scientific collaboration platform. By AVLAB, astronomers can collaboratively operate several astronomical telescopes distributed over different observation stations and get the observation images immediately. AVALB was used for collaboratively observing a fast varying celestial object, S5 0716+714, with the 2.16-m telescope located at Xinglong observation station and the 1.56-m telescope located at Sheshan observation station in China.