Astronomical Site Monitoring System at Lijiang Observatory

Abstract

Abstract We installed two sets of Astronomical Site Monitoring Systems (ASMSs) at Lijiang Observatory (GMG), for the running of the 2.4-meter Lijiang optical telescope (LJT) and the 1.6-meter Multi-channel Photometric Survey Telescope (Mephisto). The Mephisto is under construction. The ASMS has been running on robotic mode since 2017. The core instruments: Cloud Sensor, All-Sky Camera and Autonomous-DIMM that are developed by our group, together with the commercial Meteorological Station and Sky Quality Meter, are combined into the astronomical optical site monitoring system. The new Cloud Sensor’s Cloud-Clear Relationship is presented for the first time, which is used to calculate the All-Sky cloud cover. We designed the Autonomous-DIMM located on a tower, with the same height as LJT. The seeing data have been observed for a full year. ASMS’s data for the year 2019 are also analysed in detail, which are valuable to observers.