The impact of the site quality of the Zadko Observatory on its scientific results

TL;DR

This paper evaluates how the Zadko Observatory's site quality, particularly sky brightness and weather, affects its scientific productivity, emphasizing the importance of preserving dark skies for optimal observational results.

Contribution

It provides an assessment of the Zadko Observatory's site quality over time and highlights the impact of weather and sky darkness on scientific outcomes.

Findings

Sky quality has decreased over the last decade.

Weather patterns, not light pollution, mainly cause site quality decline.

Preserving sky darkness is crucial for small observatories' scientific success.

Abstract

We present the site quality of the Zadko Observatory, focusing on the brightness of the sky and the effects of the weather on the efficiency of the Observatory. We discuss these effects and their consequences for the scientific goals of the Observatory. Without surprise, the overall sky quality had decreased during the last decade. However, this decrease is mostly due to the weather pattern at the Observatory rather than the light pollution. We put an emphasis on how important the preservation of the sky darkness is for small observatories, in order to stabilize the global degradation of the site quality, as this directly impacts the scientific return of the observations.