The FRAM telescope was built and it is operated by Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and it serves as a part of the atmospheric monitoring program of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The Observatory currently is the largest detector cosmic rays with extremely high energy and it is located in Mendoza province in Argentina, close to the Andes mountain range, and in the vicinity of the town Malargüe (69°W, 35°S, 1400 m a.s.l.).
Main instrument of the FRAM is 0.3m mirror-telescope of Schmidt-Cassegrain optical design made by Meade, with CCD camera G2-1600 produced by Moravian Instruments. As a widefield camera we use the G4-16000 camera from the same producer attached to 300mm/f2.8 Nikkor ED-ID lens with diameter of 12.5 cm. Both cameras are equipped with filter wheel with UBVRIN Johnson-Bessel filters. The telescope uses the equatorial Bisque Paramount ME mount and works in fully automated mode, controlled by Remote Telescope System Version 2 (RTS2) software.
The observation program of the FRAM telescope spans from the measurements of wavelength dependence of extinction (Angstrom coefficient) using the Landolt fields of standard stars, through the rapid monitoring of integrated optical depth along the trajectories of cosmic rays showers, to observations of opportunity astronomical targets − optical transients of gamma ray bursts, variable stars, minor planets and comets.