An All Sky Transmission Monitor: ASTMON

TL;DR

ASTMON is a fully robotic all-sky monitor that continuously measures night-sky brightness, atmospheric extinction, and cloud coverage across multiple bands, providing valuable data for astronomical observations.

Contribution

This paper introduces ASTMON, a novel, weather-resistant, fully robotic all-sky monitor capable of mapping sky brightness, atmospheric extinction, and cloud coverage in real-time.

Findings

Parameters agree with previous measurements, validating the instrument.

ASTMON operates reliably under extreme weather conditions.

Preliminary data from two sites demonstrate its effectiveness.

Abstract

We present here the All Sky Transmission MONitor (ASTMON), designed to perform a continuous monitoring of the surface brightness of the complete night-sky in several bands. The data acquired are used to derive, in addition, a subsequent map of the multiband atmospheric extinction at any location in the sky, and a map of the cloud coverage. The instrument has been manufactured to afford extreme weather conditions, and remain operative. Designed to be fully robotic, it is ideal to be installed outdoors, as a permanent monitoring station. The preliminary results based on two of the currently operative units (at Do\~nana National Park - Huelva- and at the Calar Alto Observatory - Almer\'ia -, in Spain), are presented here. The parameters derived using ASTMON are in good agreement with previously reported ones, what illustrates the validity of the design and the accuracy of the manufacturing. The information provided by this instrument will be presented in forthcoming articles, once we have accumulated a statistically amount of data.