上海天文台1．56米望远镜斑点干涉成像实验进展

斑点干涉成像技术是克服大气湍流影响,提高地面大口径望远镜分辨本领的有效途径之一。该技术利用斑点相机拍摄一系列的短曝光像,使得大气湍流冻结,再经过图像处理获得高分辨率重建像。该技术设备简单,易于实现,很快在观测天文学中得到了广泛的应用,尤其是对双星的研究。首先回顾了天文高分辨率重建技术的发展,并介绍了相关研究成果。描述了几种典型的斑点干涉成像处理方法及其优缺点。对图像噪声类型及滤波方法进行了分析。在上海天文台1．56m望远镜上开展了双星斑点干涉观测实验,目标星等4～7mag,双星目标星等差小于2。分别采用斑点干涉术和迭代位移叠加法成功实现了双星目标的高分辨率成像,初步证明了在1．56m望远镜上进行斑点干涉成像实验,能够达到接近望远镜衍射极限的分辨率水平。     

CCD图像数字定心算法的比较

从CCD采集的数字图像中提取天体的位置和光度信息对于天文研究具有基础意义.其中,恒星星像中心像素位置的精确测量对于天体测量至关重要.针对国际上常用的三种位置测量算法:修正矩方法、Gauss拟合法和中值法,利用实测的CCD图像进行了试验研究.具体地,采用云南天文台1m望远镜观测的CCD图像同时使用这些算法进行了实际测量,根据每幅图像中测得的像素位置,对这三类定心算法进行了比较和精度分析.可视化方法被用于不同阈值的选取和设定比较.实验数据表明,无阈值的二维Gauss拟合方法是一种精度相对较高的定心算法.     

Facilities at ARIES for the Nainital-Cape Survey

A collaborative programme searching for mmag pulsations in chemically peculiar stars in the northern hemisphere was initiated in 1997 between Nainital, India, and Cape Town, South Africa. It was therefore named as theNainital-Cape Survey programme. The detection limits imposed by the observing conditions (including atmospheric noise and telescope size) at both Manora Peak and Devasthal sites are described. The scintillation noise on the best photometric nights is≈ 0.1 to 0.2 mmag for these sites. Both places allow one to detect few mmag variation in bright stars(B ≤ 12 mag), and are therefore particularly well-suited for carrying out the proposed survey work. The main characteristics of the three-channel photometer developed at ARIES for carrying out the observations are also presented. This excellent instrument has been used extensively since 1999 at the f/13 Cassegrain focus of ARIES’ 104 cm telescope. In particular, it allowed the survey to result in the discovery of δ Scuti like pulsations in four Am stars, in one rapidly oscillating Ap star, and in a number of probable variables so far. The future prospects are then presented, which regard the acquisition of a high speed time series CCD photometer, a project to build a 3-metre class telescope at Devasthal, and collaborative observations with Indian and foreign astronomical sites.     

Astronomical Image Co-adding Method based on Wide-field Image Deconvolution

Due to the atmospheric turbulence, the static aberration, tracking and pointing errors of telescopes, the point spread functions (PSFs) in different fields of view are different. Meanwhile, there are different PSFs in the images obtained by different telescopes. The quality of co-adding image is limited by the image with the poorest quality, and finally the resolution and sensitivity of the quad-channel telescope will also be affected. Dividing the image into some regions with the same type of PSF, and deconvolving these regions can improve the quality of the co-adding image. According to this theory, an image restoration algorithm based on the PSF clustering is proposed. Firstly, this paper makes the PSF clustering analysis by using Self-Organizing Maps, and makes the image segmentation based on the result of the PSF clustering analysis, then using the clustered PSFs to make deconvolutions on the sub-images. Then, the restored sub-images after deconvolution are joined together. Finally, by through the image registration and co-adding, the image with a high signal to noise ratio can be obtained. The result shows that the signal to noise ratio of the astronomical images are improved with our method, and the detection capability on faint stars is also improved.     

Doing Research on Eclipsing Binary Stars with Small Telescopes and PC computers

Astronomical research with a small telescope (20 cm – 40 cm) has always been a challenging problem. The invention of CCD cameras and personal computers has now put this question to past as small telescopes can do good and practicle science. This paper describes the use of small telescope in the study of eclipsing binary stars. Binary stars play an important role as astrophysical laboratories in our quest to understand the evolution and structure of stars. The most useful aspects of research with a small telescope in binary star research is; 1) as a viable teaching laboratory for begining students 2) to teach and learn the fundamental observational techniques that are common to many types of astronomical research areas 3) as a starting point to initiate research programs in observational astronomy, optics, instrumentation, computational astrophysics and 4) as a foundation to develop an infrastructure and technical know how for larger telescope facility. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

SETI in star clusters: a theoretical approach

For several decades, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has proceeded using advanced astronomical techniques. Different strategies have been proposed for target selection for targeted searches with goals of improving the chances of successful detection of signals from technological civilizations that may inhabit planets around solar-type stars, and to minimize the chances of missing signals from unexpected sites. In this paper we demonstrate that these goals are best achieved by observing star clusters. We show that standard open clusters are not appropriate for SETI scans because their disruption time scale is shorter than the characteristic time scale for the development of a protective atmospheric layer on a habitable planet. However, the old open clusters, those older than some Gy are optimal candidates for SETI surveys as their ages are older than the likely time for intelligent civilizations to emerge and the probability of catastrophic orbital modification as a result of close encounters with other cluster stars is, in general, rather negligible. The final performance of the proposed survey can be significantly increased by using initially a radio telescope beam larger than the cluster apparent size so that the entire cluster can be observed simultaneously. Globular clusters are also good candidates from the statistical point of view but only if hypothetical civilizations located in these clusters have been able to develop astronomical engineering technologies or have been involved in (rather speculative) cosmic colonization. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Astrometric Imaging Telescope: Detection of planetary systems with imaging and astrometry

The Astrometric Imaging Telescope (AIT) is a proposed spaceborne observatory whose primary goal is the detection and study of extra-solar planetary systems. It contains two instruments that use complementary techniques to address the goal. The first instrument, the Coronagraphic Imager, takes direct images of nearby stars and Jupiter-size planets. It uses a telescope with scattering-compensated optics and a high-efficiency coronagraph to separate reflected planet light from the central star light. Planet detections take hours; confirmations occur in months. With a program duration of about 2 years, about 50 stars are observed. The second instrument, the Astrometric Photometer, shares the same telescope and focal plane. It uses a Ronchi ruling that is translated across the focal plane to simultaneously measure the positions of each target star and about 25 reference stars with sufficient accuracy to detect Uranus-mass planets around hundreds of stars. Enough stars of several spectral types are observed to obtain a statistically significant measurement of the prevalence of planetary systems. This observing program takes about 10 years to complete. The combination of both instruments in a single telescope system results from a number of innovative solutions that are described in this paper.Paper presented at the Conference onPlanetary Systems: Formation, Evolution, and Detection held 7–10 December, 1992 at CalTech, Pasadena, California, U.S.A.     

Field optimization and CCD data simulation for the antarctic International Concordia Explorer Telescope (ICE‐T)

We performed extensive data simulations for the planned ultra‐wide‐field, high‐precision photometric telescope ICE‐T (International Concordia Explorer Telescope). ICE‐T consists of two 60 cm‐aperture Schmidt telescopes with a joint field of view simultaneously in two photometric bandpasses. Two CCD cameras, each with a single 10.3k × 10.3k thinned back‐illuminated device, would image a sky field of 65 square degrees. Given a location of the telescope at Dome C on the East Antarctic Plateau, we searched for the star fields that best exploit the technical capabilities of the instrument and the site. We considered the effects of diurnal air mass and refraction variations, solar and lunar interference, interstellar absorption, overexposing of bright stars and ghosts, crowding by background stars, and the ratio of dwarf to giant stars in the field. Using NOMAD, SSA, Tycho‐2 and 2MASS‐based stellar positions and BVIJH magnitudes for these fields, we simulated the effects of the telescope's point‐spread‐function, the integration, and the co‐addition times. Simulations of transit light curves are presented for the selected star fields and convolved with the expected instrumental characteristics. For the brightest stars, we showed that ICE‐T should be capable of detecting a 2 R_Earth Super Earth around a G2 solar‐type star, as well as an Earth around an M0‐star – if these targets were as abundant as hot Jupiters. Simultaneously, the telescope would monitor the host star's surface activity in an astrophysically interpretable manner (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Direct imaging of planetary systems around nearby stars

We show that by utilizing a space-borne telescope it may be possible to directly image planetary systems around the nearest stars. Direct imaging, while limited to the nearest stars, would provide a great deal of information on the planet, over and above the planet's orbital elements—estimates of the planet's size and rotation rate, and the presence or absence of an atmosphere are all possible if light from the planet can be separated from light from the star. It is shown that a Jupiter-like planet would be detectable around several of the nearest stars.     

Discovery of Three Variable Stars in Direction toward NGC 4565

We present the results of a variable star search in a field next to the edge-on galaxies NGC 4565 from the archive data of Beijing-Arizona-Taibei-Connecticut Multicolor Sky Survey. Three new variable stars were discovered. Based on spectra obtained from the 2.16 m NAOC telescope, we identify two of these as RR Lyr stars and one as a special T Tauri star.     

行星(月球)自转监测望远镜的原理样机地面验证实验

类地行星(月球)自转监测望远镜的科学目标是在行星(月球)表面现场测量行星(月球)自转并研究其内部结构和物理性质.为了验证全新的观测原理和资料处理方法,项目团队设计制造了一套原理样机,在一台商用天文望远镜的光路前端增加3面反射镜组,使其具有同时观测3个视场的能力.自2017年起在地面上开展了观测实验,获得了混合有3视场星象的图像.通过计算星象在前后图像上的位移实现了归属视场识别,使得观测效果与分视场独立观测等同,证明了用一台设备同时观测多视场的可行性.处理图像并通过3个视场中心的指向变化归算地球自转轴的空间指向,与理论值比较偏差平均约1′′,证明了观测原理和数据处理方法有效.对各种观测误差来源进行了分析,包含大气折射、仪器热稳定性和光学分辨能力的影响等,指出采用更长焦距的望远镜可以提高空间分辨率,优化形变控制可以提高观测稳定性.改进多视场同时观测中的光学设计也有助于精度的提高.     

用于自适应光学系统的激光引导星

自适应光学系统应用于天文观测时应满足一些技术要求,其中的关键技术之一是自适应光学系统为了对畸变的光波进行采样,需要在其很小的等晕角内有足够的信标强度。激光引导星,即人造信标,就是解决这种问题的方法之一。特别是在观测天文暗目标时,其自身的光强度不能为有探测提供信息,激光引导星就蛤得非常重要。根据国际上的最新进展对激光引导星技术给予了介绍。重点介绍了激光引导星的局限性,对近几年提出的对激光引导星可能的     

赤道式天文望远镜极轴调整分析及观测结果

天文望远镜的指向精度和跟踪精度是评判一架天文望远镜的重要指标。赤道式天文望远镜的指向精度和跟踪精度受到极轴位置准确性的影响。正确地安装好极轴位置显得非常重要。极轴校正是一项很重要的工作。介绍了用观测恒星的方法来校正极轴位置,分析了合理地选择目标恒星,得出结论:在调整极轴东西方向时选择子午圈上的恒星作为观测目标恒星,在调整极轴俯仰方向时选择90°时角圈上的恒星作为观测目标恒星。经过多次调整极轴东西方向和极轴俯仰方向并对两个方向交替进行调整,望远镜的极轴将处于相当准确的位置。     

Matching CCD images to a stellar catalog using locality-sensitive hashing

The usage of a subset of observed stars in a CCD image to find their corresponding matched stars in a stellar catalog is an important issue in astronomical research. Subgraph isomorphic-based algorithms are the most widely used methods in star catalog matching. When more subgraph features are provided, the CCD images are recognized better. However, when the navigation feature database is large, the method requires more time to match the observing model. To solve this problem, this study investigates further and improves subgraph isomorphic matching algorithms. We present an algorithm based on a locality-sensitive hashing technique, which allocates quadrilateral models in the navigation feature database into different hash buckets and reduces the search range to the bucket in which the observed quadrilateral model is located. Experimental results indicate the effectivity of our method.     

The Dushak-Erekdag survey of roAp stars

The search of roAp stars at Mt. Dushak-Erekdag Observatory was started in 1992 using the 0.8 m Odessa telescope equipped with a two-star high-speed photometer. We have observed more than a dozen stars so far and discovered HD 99563 as roAp star while BD+8087 is suspected to have rapid oscillations. Negative results of our observations for the search of rapid oscillations in four stars in NGC 752 are also discussed.     

由斑点图重建天文图像的方法

首先介绍了斑点图形成机制以及获取方法,并借助计算机模拟了斑点图的生成。然后重点描述斑点图的图像重建方法,包括频率域和空间域重建方法。在频率域重建方法部分依次详细叙述了用于复原模信息的斑点干涉法和用于复原相位信息的由模复原相位法、Knox-Thompson法、斑点掩模法;空间域重建方法部分介绍了典型的LWH法和迭代位移叠加法;另外,盲消卷积法也为斑点图重建提供了新的思路,文章对此方法也做了介绍;特别地,还对国内在该领域的相关工作做了介绍;关于斑点图重建方法在天文学、天体物理学等领域的应用,文章做了有针对性的介绍;最后一章是斑点图图像重建方法的总结。     

多星中天时角法精密测定天文方位角

在高精度天文方位角测定方法中,北极星任意时角法只适用于北半球中纬度地区,子午星对法则受限于选星配对条件.提出可适用于全球地区的多星中天时角法,观测多颗任意中天位置的南星和北星,通过线性回归模型修正测站经度误差和计时误差对方位角解算的影响.该方法只需已知测站的概略位置,对观测天体的中天位置没有限制.实测数据表明,与北极星任意时角法相比,在相同精度指标要求下,观测量可以减少一半.     

Searching for Variable Stars in the Field of NGC 7789

We present the results of a time-series CCD photometric survey of variable stars in the field of the open cluster NGC 7789. In a field of about one degree centering on the cluster, a total of 28 new variable stars are discovered (14 W UMa systems, nine EA-type eclipsing binaries, one RR Lyr star, and four unclassified). In addition, we recovered 11 old variables previously discovered by other authors. Preliminary parameters are given for some of these variables.     

Methods of detecting extrasolar planets: I. Imaging

It is proposed that the presence or absence of Jupiter-like planets, and perhaps even Venus-like planets, around nearby stars be studied with a 2-m telescope in Earth orbit. According to the Abbe theory of imaging, the coherence of the light from an unresolvable star can be used to discriminate between planet light and scattered light from the star. Most scattered light is shown to arise from the imperfect figure of the telescope surface, but an analog of a phase contrast trast microscope can be used to control the figure automatically. A number of arrangements are possible for using the interference properties of light to cancel the residual scattered starlight by two to three orders of magnitude without affecting the planet light.     

Astrokit-an efficient program for high-precision differential CCD photometry and search for variable stars

Having a need to perform differential photometry for tens of thousands stars in a several square degrees field, we developed Astrokit program. The software corrects the star brightness variations caused by variations of atmospheric transparency: to this end, the program selects for each star an individual ensemble of reference stars having similar magnitudes and positions in the frame. With ten or more reference stars in the ensemble, the differences between their spectral types and the spectral type of the object studied become unimportant. A strokit searches for variable stars using Robust Median Statistics criterion, which allows candidate variables to be selected more efficiently than by analyzing the standard deviation of star magnitudes. The software allows very precise automatic analysis of long inhomogeneous sets of photometric observations of a large number of objects to be performed, making it possible to find “hot Jupiter” type exoplanet transits and low-amplitude variables. We describe the algorithm of the program and the results of its application to reduce the data of the photometric sky survey in Cygnus as well as observations of the open cluster NGC188 and the transit of the exoplanet WASP-11 b /HAT-P-10 b, performed with the MASTER-II-URAL telescope of the Kourovka Astronomical Observatory of the Ural Federal University.