Related papers: Quantifying photometric observing conditions on Pa…

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) site testing teams have recently finalized their site testing studies. Since atmospheric water vapor is the dominant source of absorption and increased…

The most important limitation for ground-based submillimetre (submm) astronomy is the broad-band absorption of the total water vapour in the atmosphere above an observation site, often expressed as the Precipitable Water Vapour (PWV). A…

We consider mid-infrared (5 to 25 micrometers), optically cooled detectors based on a microcantilever sensor of the radiation pressure. A significant enhancement of sensitivity is achieved due the combination of low effective temperature…

We present the first measurements of the near-infrared (NIR), specifically the J-band, sky background in the Canadian High Arctic. There has been considerable recent interest in the development of an astronomical observatory in Ellesmere…

Optical turbulence affects significantly the quality of ground-based astronomical observations. An accurate and reliable forecast of optical turbulence can help to optimise the scheduling of the science observations and to improve both the…

We investigate the accuracy of astrometric measurements with the VLT/FORS1 camera and consider potential applications. The study is based on two-epoch (2000 and 2002/2003) frame series of observations of a selected Galactic Bulge sky region…

We have conducted a photometric monitoring program of 3 field late-L brown dwarfs looking for evidence of non-axisymmetric structure or temporal variability in their photospheres. The observations were performed using Spitzer/IRAC 4.5 and 8…

In this contribution we present the most relevant results obtained in the context of a feasibility study (MOSE) undertaken for ESO. The principal aim of the project was to quantify the performances of a mesoscale model (Astro-Meso-NH code)…

This paper describes the accuracy and the errors of water vapour content measurements in the atmosphere using optical methods, especially starphotometer. After the general explanations of the used expressions for the star-magnitude…

Deriving atmospheric parameters of a large sample of stars is of vital importance to understand the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. Photometric surveys, especially those with near-ultraviolet filters, can offer accurate…

A near-IR high-resolution, R=80000 spectrometer has been developed at IPAG to directly characterize the atmosphere of exoplanets using adaptive optics (AO) assisted telescopes, and a single-mode fiber-injection unit. A first technical test…

The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) site and the Gamsberg Mountain have been identified as potential sites for the Africa Millimetre Telescope (AMT). The AMT is poised to observe at millimetre and possibly at submillimetre…

Here we present a proof of concept for the application of the Variance of Laplacian (VL) method in quantifying the sharpness of optical solar images. We conducted a comprehensive study using over 65,000 individual solar images acquired on…

This article is the second of a series of articles aiming at proving the feasibility of the forecast of all the most relevant classical atmospherical parameters for astronomical applications (wind speed and direction, temperature, relative…

Determination of the energy and flux of the gamma photons by Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Technique is strongly dependent on optical properties of the atmosphere. Therefore, atmospheric monitoring during the future observations of the…

At Paranal Observatory, the least predictable parameter affecting the short-term scheduling of astronomical observations is the optical turbulence, especially the seeing, coherence time and ground layer fraction. These are critical…

Precipitable water vapour (PWV) strongly affects the quality of data obtained from millimetre- and submillimetre-wave astronomical observations, such as those for cosmic microwave background measurements. Some of these observatories have…

Calibration of a PMT matrix is crucial for the treatment of the data obtained with Cherenkov tracking detector. Furthermore, due to high variability of the aerosol abundance in the atmosphere depending on season, weather etc. A constant…

Context. The term sky temperature is used in the literature in different contexts which often leads to confusion. In this work, we study $T_\text{sky}$, the effective bolometric sky temperature at which a hemispherical black body would…

The VST (VLT Survey Telescope) is a 2.6 m class Alt-Az telescope to be installed at Mount Paranal in the Atacama desert, Chile, in the European Southern Observatory (ESO) site. The VST is a wide-field imaging facility planned to supply…