Robotic Telescope Built Put into Operation

Beijing, Jan 6 (IANS) A robotic 70 cm telescope built jointly by China and Thailand was put into operation in China's Yunnan province, a scientist said on Wednesday.

The telescope, installed at an observation station at Yunnan Observatory in Lijiang city, was completed last December, Xinhua quoted Qian Shengbang, a research fellow with the observatory, as saying.

At low latitudes, Lijiang enjoys high atmospheric transparency. "[This means] the telescope can help us conduct long-term monitoring of the southern sky to see the movements and evolution, and search for special celestial bodies such as black holes or brown dwarfs," he said.

The telescope has been tested and the data, Qian noted, acquired will be used to inform time-series photometry.

Yunnan Observatory has collaborated with Thailand for more than two decades.