Optical seeing monitoring at the Oukaïmeden in the Moroccan high atlas mountains: first statistics

Laboratoire de Physique des Hautes Energies et Astrophysique, Département de Physique, Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, BP 2390, Marrakech, Maroc e-mail: zouhair@ucam.ac.ma

Received: 10 December 2004
Accepted: 19 May 2005

Abstract

In order to complete characterization of the Oukaïmeden site and hoping to prospect other sites in the Moroccan High Atlas, we constructed a seeing monitor. We named the instrument DIMMAR for Differential Image Motion Monitor of Marrakesh. After more than one year of operation, we can conclude that the DIMMAR is quite reliable and that it can be a prototype for other similar low-cost instruments. In this work, the seeing measured at Oukaïmeden site using the DIMMAR on top of a 5 meters high tower is presented. Statistics from fifteen months seeing's are treated (from July 19, 2003 up to September 26, 2004). The median and mean zenith seeing for the entire period of observations are 0.84´´ and 0.92´´, respectively, at 0.5  (or 0.96´´ and 1.05´´, if corrected for exposure-time bias). The best seeing value measured is 0.32´´.