1 research outputs found
First results of site testing program at Mt. Shatdzhatmaz in 2007 - 2009
We present the first results of the site testing performed at
Mt.~Shatdzhatmaz at Northern Caucasus, where the new Sternberg astronomical
institute 2.5-m telescope will be installed. An automatic site monitor
instrumentation and functionality are described together with the methods of
measurement of the basic astroclimate and weather parameters. The clear night
sky time derived on the basis of 2006 -- 2009 data amounts to 1340 hours per
year. Principle attention is given to the measurement of the optical turbulence
altitude distribution which is the most important characteristic affecting
optical telescopes performance. For the period from November 2007 to October
2009 more than 85\,000 turbulence profiles were collected using the combined
MASS/DIMM instrument. The statistical properties of turbulent atmosphere above
the summit are derived and the median values for seeing ~arcsec
and free-atmosphere seeing ~arcsec are determined.
Together with the estimations of isoplanatic angle ~arcsec and
time constant \tau_0 = 2.58 \mbox{ ms}, these are the first representative
results obtained for Russian sites which are necessary for development of
modern astronomical observation techniques like adaptive optics.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 17 pages, 15 figure