Rapid instrument exchanging system for the Cassegrain focus of the Lijiang 2.4-m Telescope

As a facility used for astronomical research, the Lijiang 2.4-m telescope of Yunnan Astronomical Observatories, requires the ability to change one auxiliary instrument with another in as short a time as possible. This arises from the need to quickly respond to scientific programs(e.g. transient observation, time domain studies) and changes in observation conditions(e.g. seeing and weather conditions). In this paper, we describe the design, construction and test of hardware and software in the rapid instrument exchange system(RIES) for the Cassegrain focal station of this telescope, which enables instruments to be quickly changed at night without much loss of observing time. Tests in the laboratory and at the telescope show that the image quality and pointing accuracy of RIES are satisfactory.With RIES, we observed the same Landolt standard stars almost at the same time with the Princeton Instruments VersA rray 1300 B Camera(PICCD) and the Yunnan Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera(YFOSC), while both were mounted at the Cassegrain focus. A quasi-simultaneous comparison shows that the image quality of the optical system inside the YFOSC is comparable with that provided by the PICCD.

Lijiang 2.4-meter Telescope and its instruments

The Lijiang 2.4-meter Telescope(LJT), the largest common-purpose optical telescope in China,has been available to the worldwide astronomical community since 2008. It is located at the Gaomeigu site,Lijiang Observatory(LJO), in the southwest of China. The site has very good observational conditions.During its 10-year operation, several instruments have been equipped on the LJT. Astronomers can perform both photometric and spectral observations. The main scientific goals of LJT include recording photometric and spectral evolution of supernovae, reverberation mapping of active galactic nuclei, investigating the physical properties of binary stars and near-earth objects(comets and asteroids), and identification of exoplanets and all kinds of transients. Until now, the masses of 41 high accretion rate black holes have been measured, and more than 168 supernovae have been identified by the LJT. More than 190 papers related to the LJT have been published. In this paper, the general observation conditions of the Gaomeigu site is introduced at first. Then, the structure of the LJT is described in detail, including the optical, mechanical, motion and control system. The specification of all the instruments and some detailed parameters of the YFOSC is also presented. Finally, some important scientific results and future expectations are summarized.

Astronomical Site Monitoring System at Lijiang Observatory

We installed two sets of Astronomical Site Monitoring Systems(ASMSs)at Lijiang Observatory(GMG),for the running of the 2.4-meter Lijiang optical telescope(LJT)and the 1.6-meter Multi-channel Photometric Survey Telescope(Mephisto).The Mephisto is under construction.The ASMS has been running on robotic mode since 2017.The core instruments:Cloud Sensor,All-Sky Camera and AutonomousDIMM that are developed by our group,together with the commercial Meteorological Station and Sky Quality Meter,are combined into the astronomical optical site monitoring system.The new Cloud Sensor's Cloud-Clear Relationship is presented for the first time,which is used to calculate the All-Sky cloud cover.We designed the Autonomous-DIMM located on a tower,with the same height as LJT.The seeing data have been observed for a full year.ASMS's data for the year 2019 are also analysed in detail,which are valuable to observers.

Astrometry of three near Earth asteroids with the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope

Under the framework of observational campaigns organized by the GAIA Follow Up Network for Solar System Objects, three near Earth asteroids, 367943 Duende, 99942 Apophis and 2013 TV135, were observed with the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope administered by Yunnan Observatories. The software package PRISM was used to calibrate the CCD fields and measure the positions of 99942 Apophis and2013 TV135, and our own software was used for 367943 Duende. A comparison of the results show that the ephemerides of INPOP10 a and JPL are consistent for99942 Apophis and 2013 TV135, however, they are quite inconsistent for 367943 Duende. Moreover, we have found that differences between the mean values in the ephemerides of INPOP10 a and JPL are about 72 and-199 in right ascension and declination respectively for 367943 Duende. Moreover, the ephemeris published by JPL is reliable in terms of the mean observed-minus-calculated(O- C) residuals in right ascension and declination of about 2.72 and 1.49 respectively.

YFPOL: A Linear Polarimeter of Lijiang 2.4 m Telescope

Polarimetry plays an important role in investigating physical properties for celestial objects. We present a polarimeter named YFPOL for the Cassegrain focus of the Lijiang 2.4 m Telescope(LJT) of Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences. YFPOL is a traditional single-beam polarimeter with a rotating polarizer. As the focal-reducer instrument Yunnan Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera(YFOSC) is always positioned on the Cassegrain focal plane of LJT, we develop two sets of ultra-thin(thickness <12 mm) polarizer rotation control systems with wireless charging and control functions, which are suitable for mounting on the two front-wheels of YFOSC. One set is used as the polarimetric calibration unit, and the other is for the polarimetric modulation unit. Both of the polarizers have an ultra-high contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 in the optical band. We investigate the instrumental polarization characteristics(IPCs) in the full field of view that is transferred from YFOSC. Furthermore, we identify that the IPCs change when the Cassegrain axis rotates. The spurious polarization from the IPCs can be effectively minimized by flat-fielding using the unpolarized domeflat, when the Cassegrain rotation angle is the same or nearest to that of the polarization observation. We develop a quasiautomatic pipeline for YFPOL and its effectiveness has been verified by tests of the polarimetric observation with blazar S5 0716+714. The calibration is performed by observing the zero-polarized and highly-polarized standard stars. We successfully reach high precision polarization in the 7’ field of view, and the systematic uncertainty is below 0.8% for a V = 11.68 target with a 10 s exposure. The instrument polarization angle offset is 2°. 6. YFPOL is not only a simple polarimeter, but also a spectropolarimeter with grisms that can be considered in the future.