Automated Observations of the Earthshine

摘要

The overall reflectance of sunlight from Earth is a fundamental parameterfor climate studies. We have designed and implemented small aperture, remotecontrol telescopes in Big Bear Solar Observatory in California and in Tenerife inthe Canary Islands. These telescopes observe the earthshine to obtain a globalmean terrestrial reflectance utilizing a coronagraph-like design for long exposuresof the dark of the Moon and have internal moving parts in the optical train, whichpresented some design and control problems.