KUNMING, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- A robotic 70 cm telescope built jointly by China and Thailand has been put into operation in southwest China's Yunnan Province, a local scientist said Wednesday.

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

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.