AstMon-UCM is a new instrument to study the quality of our night sky and the light pollution. This project is being carried out by the Astrophysics Department in collaboration with the Department of Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear physics of the UCM.

AstMon, that is located in the UCM Observatory (at the top of the Physics building), uses its CCD camera to take images in different photometric bands. Real time images are available at Cielos de Madrid.

AstMon-UCM is an extinction monitor that consists of a CCD camera and fisheye optics. It takes images in different photometric bands to calculate the atmospheric extinction and the sky brightness. This data will be used to determine the quality of the sky in Madrid, and to study the evolution of the light pollution in our city.

The web page Cielos de Madrid has real time images updated every 20 minutes, some animations of the sky and a summary of the project.

AstMon camera was purchased with funds from the Astrid project.