The Carlsberg Meridian Telescope: an astrometric robotic telescope

Abstract

An overview is given of the Carlsberg Meridian Telescope on La Palma, which is one of the oldest robotic telescopes, having started observing on La Palma in 1984. In the spring of 1997, a further stage of automation was made when we converted the telescope to remote operation. Since then, the telescope has been operated over the Internet from Britain, Denmark or Spain. In 1997, a CCD camera, operating in a drift-scan mode, was installed. A year later the telescope underwent a major upgrade and a larger 2k×2k CCD camera was installed, with a Sloan r' filter. With the new system, the magnitude limit is r'=17 and the positional accuracy is in the range 0.03'' to 0.05''. The main task of the project is to map the sky in the declination range -3^o to +50^o, with the aim of providing an astrometric and photometric catalogue that can accurately transfer the Hipparcos/Tycho reference frame to Schmidt plates. We will release the first data by the end of 2001. Using the photometric information, extinction data for La Palma is also provided.