Related papers: Quantifying photometric observing conditions on Pa…

We present very encouraging preliminary results obtained in the context of the MOSE project, an on-going study aiming at investigating the feasibility of the forecast of the optical turbulence and meteorological parameters (in the free…

We present here the characterization of the night sky-brightness at the near-infrared, the telescope seeing, and the fraction of useful time at the Calar Alto observatory. For this study we have collected a large dataset comprising 7311…

ESPRESSO is the new high-resolution spectrograph of ESO's Very-Large Telescope (VLT). It was designed for ultra-high radial-velocity precision and extreme spectral fidelity with the aim of performing exoplanet research and fundamental…

The Faint Sky Variability Survey is aimed at finding photometric and/or astrometric variable objects in the brightness range between 16<V<24 on timescales between tens of minutes and years with photometric precisions ranging from 3…

A technique for detecting the presence of cloud in the field of view of an atmospheric Cerenkov telescope using a far infra red radiometer is described. Models for the radiative emission from clear and cloudy skies are tested and found to…

The atmospheric water vapor content above the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) obtained from Global Positioning Systems (GPS) is presented. GPS measurements have been evaluated by comparison with 940nm-radiometer observations.…

Space-based ultra-high-energy cosmic ray detectors observe fluorescence light from extensive air showers produced by these particles in the troposphere. Clouds can scatter and absorb this light and produce systematic errors in energy…

We present measurements of sky surface brightness and seeing on Mt.Graham obtained at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) during 16 observing runs between April 1999 and December 2003. We show that the sky surface brightness is…

A six-night optical turbulence monitoring campaign has been carried at Cerro Paranal observatory in February and March, 2023 to facilitate the development and characterisation of two novel atmospheric site monitoring instruments - the…

We present an analysis of the potential follow-up polarimetry microlensing observation to study the stellar atmospheres of the distant stars. First, we produce synthetic microlensing events using the Galactic model, stellar population, and…

The Faint Sky Variability Survey (FSVS) is aimed at finding photometric and/or astrometric variable objects between 16th and 24th mag on time-scales between tens of minutes and years with photometric precisions ranging from 3 millimag to…

The idea of using stellar photometry for atmospheric monitoring for optical experiments in high-energy astrophysics is seemingly straightforward, but reaching high precision of the order of 0.01 in the determination of the vertical aerosol…

We retrieved the total content of the atmospheric water vapor (or Integrated Water Vapor, IWV) from extensive sets of photometric data obtained since 1995 at Lindenberg Meteorological Observatory with star and sun photometers. Different…

While optical and radio transient surveys have enjoyed a renaissance over the past decade, the dynamic infrared sky remains virtually unexplored. The infrared is a powerful tool for probing transient events in dusty regions that have high…

The present work provides the results of the first six years of operation of the systematic night-sky monitoring at ESO-Paranal (Chile). The UBVRI night-sky brightness was estimated on about 10,000 VLT-FORS1 archival images, obtained on…

We present a characterization of the main properties of the night-sky at the Calar Alto observatory for the time period between 2004 and 2007. We use optical spectrophotometric data, photometric calibrated images taken in moonless observing…

Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) are equipped with sensitive photomultiplier tube (PMT) cameras. Exposure to high levels of background illumination degrades the efficiency of and potentially destroys these photo-detectors…

Cherenkov telescope experiments, such as H.E.S.S., have been very successful in astronomical observations in the very-high-energy (VHE; E $>$ 100 GeV) regime. As an integral part of the detector, such experiments use Earth's atmosphere as a…

San Pedro M\'artir in the Northwest of Mexico is the site of the Observatorio Astron\'omico Nacional. It was one of the five candidates sites for the Thirty Meter Telescope, whose site-testing team spent four years measuring the atmospheric…

Atmospheric water vapor is the main limiting factor of atmospheric transparency in the mm and submm wavelength spectral windows. Thus, dry sites are needed for the installation and successful operation of radio astronomy observatories…