Winter sky brightness and cloud cover at Dome A, Antarctica

Anna M. Moore*, Yi Yang, Jianning Fu, Michael C B Ashley, Xiangqun Cui, Long Long Feng, Xuefei Gong, Zhongwen Hu, Jon S. Lawrence, Daniel M. Luong-Van, Reed Riddle, Zhaohui Shang, Geoff Sims, John W V Storey, Nicholas F H Tothill, Tony Travouillon, Lifan Wang, Huigen Yang, Ji Yang, Xu ZhouZhenxi Zhu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference proceeding contribution

4 Citations (Scopus)
26 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

At the summit of the Antarctic plateau, Dome A offers an intriguing location for future large scale optical astronomical observatories. The Gattini Dome A project was created to measure the optical sky brightness and large area cloud cover of the winter-time sky above this high altitude Antarctic site. The wide field camera and multi-filter system was installed on the PLATO instrument module as part of the Chinese-led traverse to Dome A in January 2008. This automated wide field camera consists of an Apogee U4000 interline CCD coupled to a Nikon fisheye lens enclosed in a heated container with glass window. The system contains a filter mechanism providing a suite of standard astronomical photometric filters (Bessell B, V, R) and a long-pass red filter for the detection and monitoring of airglow emission. The system operated continuously throughout the 2009, and 2011 winter seasons and part-way through the 2010 season, recording long exposure images sequentially for each filter. We have in hand one complete winter-time dataset (2009) returned via a manned traverse. We present here the first measurements of sky brightness in the photometric V band, cloud cover statistics measured so far and an estimate of the extinction.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAstrophysics from Antarctica
EditorsM. G. Burton, X. Cui, N. F. H. Tothill
Place of PublicationCambridge
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP)
Pages34-37
Number of pages4
Volume8
EditionS288
ISBN (Print)9781107033771
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings of the International Astronomical Union
NumberS288
Volume8
ISSN (Print)17439213
ISSN (Electronic)17439221

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