Moon night sky brightness simulation for the Xinglong station

Using a sky brightness monitor at the Xinglong station of National Astronomical Observatories,Chinese Academy of Sciences,we collected data from22 dark clear nights and 90 moon nights.We first measured the sky brightness variation with time for dark nights and found a clear correlation between sky brightness and human activity.Then with a modified sky brightness model of moon nights and data from these nights,we derived the typical value for several important parameters in the model.With these results,we calculated the sky brightness distribution under a given moon condition for the Xinglong station.Furthermore,we simulated the sky brightness distribution of a moon night for a telescope with a 5 field of view(such as LAMOST).These simulations will be helpful for determining the limiting magnitude and exposure time,as well as planning the survey for LAMOST during moon nights.     

Position calibration methodology for scanning sky monitor for ASTROSAT

Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM) on ASTROSAT is an X-ray sky monitor which has a large Field of View (FOV) and scans the sky to detect and locate X-ray transient sources in the energy range 2 to 10 keV. Experiments are carried out to calibrate SSM detectors for position response and to verify the calibration constants derived. In this paper we discuss the methodology of position calibration of proportional counters for SSM and results from various experiments.     

Moon night sky brightness simulation for the Xinglong stationSong Yao

Using a sky brightness monitor at the Xinglong station of National Astronomical Observatories,Chinese Academy of Sciences,we collected data from22 dark clear nights and 90 moon nights.We first measured the sky brightness variation with time for dark nights and found a clear correlation between sky brightness and human activity.Then with a modified sky brightness model of moon nights and data from these nights,we derived the typical value for several important parameters in the model.With these results,we calculated the sky brightness distribution under a given moon condition for the Xinglong station.Furthermore,we simulated the sky brightness distribution of a moon night for a telescope with a 5 field of view（such as LAMOST）.These simulations will be helpful for determining the limiting magnitude and exposure time,as well as planning the survey for LAMOST during moon nights.     

基于粒子群优化的LAMOST初始波长定标方法

大天区面积多目标光纤光谱天文望远镜(Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope,LAMOST)初始波长定标操作,对于在先验定标系数附近搜索解空间内的每一点,通过插值法生成对应定标系数下的虚拟定标灯谱,再将生成的虚拟定标灯谱与实测定标灯谱作互相关运算,使得相关系数最大时对应的定标系数即为初始定标结果,其实质是一个多参数寻优问题.粒子群优化是一种基于群体智能的随机全局优化算法,具有实现简单、精度高、收敛快的特点.鉴于粒子群优化的优异性能,提出一种基于粒子群优化的LAMOST初始波长定标方法,并设计相应算法和测试实验.实验结果表明,基于粒子群优化的LAMOST初始波长定标在收敛性、解的质量、运行时间等方面都优于基于改进遗传算法参数寻优方法.     

The relative calibration of radial velocity for LAMOST medium resolution stellar spectra

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST)started a median-resolution spectroscopic(MRS,R～7500)survey since October 2018.The main sci...     

Light pollution and night sky brightness at the site of Kottamia Observatory

Photoelectric measurements of the night sky brightness and the light pollution of Kottamia Observatory have been carried out and the deduced results are expressed in mag/sec². The maximum brightness of the sky in the direction of Cairo city at zenith distance 45° and azimuth 70° when the sun is almost 60° below the horizon are 22.68; 21.54 and 19.82 mag/sec² for blue, yellow and red colours respectively. The corresponding values of night sky background are 22.94; 21.85 and 20.14 mag/sec² respectively.The isophotes of the sky brightness at Kottamia Observatory have been drawn for blue, yellow and red colours. The variations of the night sky brightness and the (B-V) colour index with altitude of the observed point have been studied.The light pollution and the night sky brightness at the site of Kottamia Observatory is compared with that deduced by different investigators at other sites. It has been shown that the sky brightness at zenith distance 45° at Kottamia Observatory site is similar to Kitt Peak and Palomar Observatory sites. Kottamia Observatory site is slightly brighter than Junipero Serra while it is darker than Mount Hamilton and San Jose sites. The comparative results have been carried out at blue and yellow colours. No comparison is obtained at red as there is no data published for the red colour.     

Alternative data reduction procedures for UVES: Wavelength calibration and spectrum addition

This paper addresses alternative procedures to the ESO supplied pipeline procedures for the reduction of UVES spectra of two quasar spectra to determine the value of the fundamental constant $\mu =M_p/M_e$ at early times in the universe. The procedures utilize intermediate product images and spectra produced by the pipeline with alternative wavelength calibration and spectrum addition methods. Spectroscopic studies that require extreme wavelength precision need customized wavelength calibration procedures beyond that usually supplied by the standard data reduction pipelines. An example of such studies is the measurement of the values of the fundamental constants at early times in the universe. This article describes a wavelength calibration procedure for the UV–visual Echelle spectrometer on the very large telescope, however, it can be extended to other spectrometers as well. The procedure described here provides relative wavelength precision of better than $3\times {10}^{-7}$ for the long-slit Thorium–Argon calibration lamp exposures. The gain in precision over the pipeline wavelength calibration is almost entirely due to a more exclusive selection of Th/Ar calibration lines.     

Physical properties and catalog of EW-type eclipsing binaries observed by LAMOST

EW-type eclipsing binaries(hereafter called EWs)are strong interacting systems in which both component stars usually fill their critical Roche lobes and share a common envelope.Numerous EWs were discovered by several deep photometric surveys and there were about 40 785 EW-type binary systems listed in the international variable star index(VSX)by 2017 March 13.7938 of them were observed with LAMOST by 2016 November 30 and their spectral types were identified.Stellar atmospheric parameters of 5363 EW-type binary stars were determined based on good spectroscopic observations.In the paper,those EWs are cataloged and their properties are analyzed.The distributions of orbital period(P),effective temperature(T),gravitational acceleration(log(g)),metallicity([Fe/H])and radial velocity(RV)are presented for these observed EW-type systems.It is shown that about 80.6% of sample stars have metallicity below zero,indicating that EW-type systems are old stellar populations.This is in agreement with the conclusion that EW binaries are formed from moderately close binaries through angular momentum loss via magnetic braking that takes a few hundred million to a few billion years.The unusually high metallicities of a few percent of EWs may be caused by contamination of material from the evolution of unseen neutron stars or black holes in the systems.The correlations between orbital period and effective temperature,gravitational acceleration and metallicity are presented and their scatters are mainly caused by(i)the presence of third bodies and(ii)sometimes wrongly determined periods.It is shown that some EWs contain evolved component stars and the physical properties of EWs mainly depend on their orbital periods.It is found that extremely short-period EWs may be older than their long-period cousins because they have lower metallicities.This reveals that they have a longer timescale of pre-contact evolution and their formation and evolution are mainly driven by angular momentum loss via magnetic braking.     

Calculations of the turbidity and air mass for Bahrain's sky

The calculation of the turbidity coefficient and the air mass number is presented in this paper. This was achieved by the use of solar radiation data. The annual average turbidity value of Bahrain's sky was found to be equal to 0.271 ± 0.069. The maximum value was in December (0.393), and the minimum in October (0.192). The annual average air mass was found to be 2.032 ± 0.464 at its maximum in October (2.812) and minimum in December (1.377). The free-aerosols direct solar radiation was found to be 665.14 Wm^–2 and the free aerosols total solar radiation was 1096 Wm^–2.     

More than two hundred and fifty thousand spectroscopic binary or variable star candidates discovered by LAMOST

About 786.4 thousand stars were observed by LAMOST twice or more during the first stage of its spectroscopic survey. The radial velocity differences for about 256 thousand targets are larger than10 km s^-1 and they are possible spectroscopic binary or variable candidates(SBVCs). It is shown that most SBVCs are slightly metal poorer than the Sun. There are two peaks in the temperature distribution of SBVCs around 5760 K and 4870 K, while there are three peaks in the distribution of the gravitational acceleration at 2.461, 4.171 and 4.621 cm s^-2. The locations of SBVCs on the [Fe/H]-T, [Fe/H]-log g, log g-T and H-R diagrams are investigated. It is found that the detected SBVCs could be classified into four groups. The first group has higher log g～4.621 and lower T ～ 4870 K which are mainly cool red dwarf binaries. The second group of SBVCs has logg around 4.171 cm s^-2 that includes binaries and pulsating stars such as δSet and γ Dor variables. The gravitational accelerations of the third group of SBVCs are higher and some of them are below the zero-age main sequence. They may be contact binaries in which the primary components are losing energy to the secondaries in the common envelopes and are at a special stellar evolutionary stage.The last group is composed of giants or supergiants with log g around 2.461 cm s^-2 that may be evolved pulsating stars. One target(C134624.29+333921.2) is confirmed as an eclipsing binary with a period of 0.65 days. A preliminary analysis suggests that it is a detached binary with a mass ratio of 0.46. The primary fills its critical Roche lobe by about 89%, indicating that mass transfer will occur between the two components.     

Chromospheric activity properties and search for subdwarfs and extreme subdwarfs based on LAMOST stellar spectral survey

Big data obtained from a stellar spectroscopic survey carried out using the Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST, also known as Guo Shou Jing telescope) provide important information for studying chromospheric activity, variability of chromospheric activity, and chromospheric statistical properties, and for searching subdwarfs and extreme subdwarfs. Using as chromospheric activity indicator the H_α line, we detected 6391 active M stars among the 99741 stars in the M-star catalogue of the LAMOST survey. We also obtained the relationship between the fraction of active stars and the spectral types, which is consistent to previous results. We also studied the effects of activity on broadband photometric colors, and we did not see significant differences between active and inactive M stars. Using as spectroscopic molecular indicators the CaH123 and TiO5 lines, we found 1288 subdwarfs (including 120 active subdwarfs). We also found 15 extreme subdwarf (2 active extreme subdwarf) candidates. Our subdwarf candidates are slightly redder by about 0.05 mag in g-r compared with dwarfs using the g-r and r-i, and g-r and i-z color diagrams. Using our active M-star catalogue, we found that 898 stars exhibited H_α emission in at least two exposures (170 of them in at least three exposures). Among these 170 stars, 163 of them show variability in H_α emission on long timescales (more than 2.5 h). Furthermore, 34 stars show variability over short timescales (less than 2.5 h), and 29 actives show variability over both short and long time scales.     

Estimation of ages and masses via carbon and nitrogen abundances for 556 007 giants from LAMOST

Estimating ages for a large number of giants is of great importance for studying Galactic evolution.In this work,we determine stellar ages and masses for 556 007 giants from LAMOST Data Release 5(DR5)with empirical relations estimated from chemical [C/N] abundance ratios.Our sample reveals the two wellknown sequences in the age-[α/M] relation.The high-α sequence is composed of stars older than 8 Gyr and low-α sequence is composed of stars with age ranging from 0 Gyr to 13.8 Gyr.Our sample also shows a flat age-[M/H] relation up until 12 Gyr.We compare these distributions with Galactic Chemical Evolution models for reference.When looking at the spatial distribution of stars in 2 Gyr age bins,we find that young stars are concentrated towards the Galactic plane and older stars extend to higher height above and below the disk.We find a smooth transition of median Galactic height for different age bins,which suggests a strong age-dependence on Galactic scale height.     

A search for double-peaked narrow emission line galaxies and AGNs in the LAMOST DR1

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST) has released more than two million spectra,which provide the opportunity to search for double-peaked narrow emission line(NEL) galaxies and active galactic nuclei(AGNs).The double-peaked narrow-line profiles can be well modeled by two velocity components,respectively blueshifted and redshifted with respect to the systemic recession velocity.This paper presents 20 double-peaked NEL galaxies and AGNs found from LAMOST DR1 using a search method based on a multi-Gaussian fit of the narrow emission lines.Among them,ten have already been published by other authors,either listed as genuine double-peaked NEL objects or as asymmetric NEL objects,and the remaining ten are original discoveries.We discuss some possible origins for the double-peaked narrow-line features,such as interaction between jet and narrow line regions,interaction with companion galaxies,and black hole binaries.Spatially resolved optical imaging and/or follow-up observations in other spectral bands are needed to further discuss the physical mechanisms at work.     

Wide-field imaging and polarimetry for the biggest and brightest in the 20-GHz southern sky

We present the wide-field imaging and polarimetry at  ν= 20 GHz  of seven most extended, bright  ( S _total≥ 0.50 Jy)  , high-frequency selected radio sources in the southern sky with declinations  δ < −30°  . Accompanying the data are brief reviews of the literature for each source. The results presented here aid in the statistical completeness of the Australia Telescope 20-GHz Survey: the Bright Source Sample. The data are of crucial interest for future cosmic microwave background missions as a collection of information about candidate calibrator sources. We were able to obtain data for seven of the nine sources identified by our selection criteria. We report that Pictor A is thus far the best extragalactic calibrator candidate for the Low Frequency Instrument of the Planck European Space Agency mission due to its high level of integrated polarized flux density  (∼0.50 ± 0.06 Jy)  on a scale of 10 arcmin. Six out of the seven sources have a clearly detected compact radio core in our images, with either a null detection or less than 2 per cent detection of polarized emission from the nuclei. Most sources with detected jets have magnetic field alignments running in a longitudinal configuration, however, PKS 1333−33 exhibits transverse fields and an orthogonal change in field geometry from nucleus to jets.     

Steps Towards a Fully Automated Classification and Redshiftmeasurement Pipeline for LAMOST Spectra. I. Continuum level and wavelength estimation for galaxies

1 INTRoDUCTIONThere are aiready several wide-field multi-fiber spectrograPhic surveys in various stages ofdevelopment, most notably the stellar popu1ation, galaxy and QSO suxveys using the 2dF faciLity as described by Lewis et al. (1998) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) aJs summarizedby York et al. (2000), both of which are already underway, and those surveys planning to usethe 6dF facility as described by Wason et al. (2000) and the LAMOST facility as outllnedby Wang et a…     

基于SOPC的LAMOST光谱仪IP控制核的设计与实现

讨论了如何将SOPC技术用于大天区多目标光纤光谱天文望远镜(LAMOST)项目的低分辨率光谱仪IP控制核的设计,并在NIOSⅡ软核基础上设计实现了光谱仪IP控制核。整个IP控制核主要分为底层电机控制单元和通信单元两部分。通过工业以太网,远程控制计算机可以方便地控制低分辨率光谱仪,使其完成指定动作。也可以从本地控制计算机上实行控制。设计中采用将步进电机控制器封装成IP再复用的方法,大大缩短了研发时间,减少错误的发生。通信控制中串口通信和以太网可以互为冗余,保证了通信的顺利进行。