Robotic monitoring of gravitationally lensed quasars

Abstract

We report on the first observational phase of the Liverpool Quasar Lens Monitoring (LQLM) project. This mainly consisted of the optical follow-up of three lensed quasars using the 2 m Liverpool Robotic Telescope. The observational subprogram started in January 2005 and was completed in July 2007. We also describe our photometric approaches (including two pipelines to extract accurate and reliable fluxes of images of lensed quasars), the performance of the telescope when taking modest nightly exposures of lens systems, and the main scientific results from the observed light curves. The LQLM archive and the current status of the project (second phase) are also outlined.