Determination semi-automatique des diametres de crateres lunaires a partir de plaques photographiques de la Lune

Résumé Nous comparons les valeurs des diamètres de cratères lunaires obtenues à partir de mesures visuelles et semi-automatiques de plaques photographiques de la Lune. Nous montrons que le tracé du contour d'un cratère obtenu à partir d'un nouvel algorithme de calcul est équivalent au contour estimé par l'il.

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We compare two methods for the determination of lunar crater diameters: visual and semiautomatic. We show that the lunar crater contour obtained either by application of the new algorithm or by visual measure are equivalent.

     

Mesures absolues de la temperature apparente des mers lunaires en infra-rouge

A series of measurements of infra-red apparent temperatures of ten selected sites in lunar maria has been undertaken in CERGA, using an infra-red receiver (11.3 m). The experimental procedures are described. The theory of the receiver is developed and the theory of two methods of calibration of the measurements is given. This method was applied during two campaigns in 1977 and 1978, giving 142 values of temperatures.     

Sur La comparaison des profils lunaires de C. B. Watts et Th. Weimer

The reduction of occultations observed by means of a double-image micrometer leads us to use limb profiles in order to determine limb corrections. After these corrections the dispersion of the results amounts to 0″.26 for reductions using C. B. Watts' lunar charts and 0″.35 for those using Th. Weimer's lunar profiles. The comparison of 18 profiles effectively used in our reductions permits us, in 17 cases, to show a difference between the adopted radii of the reference curves, sometimes with an offset. We translate this result in terms of a correction to the elevations given by Th. Weimer; this reduces to 0″.29 the dispersion of the results in the present case.     

Remarques sur l'utilisation des profils lunaires pour la reduction des observations d'occultations

It is shown that a rigourous determination of the argument in the limb charts of the Moon leads to a limb correction which, in some cases, may differ perceptibly from the one obtained by the traditional method. In the case of central occultations, the discrepancy may reach a maximum of 0″.9 when the Moon is near its maximum or minimum declination and introduces a statistical uncertainty of 0″.2 in the determination of the position of the Moon.     

Photometric catalogues: Present and future

Current sources of stellar photometric data are described, together with a summary of the quality of such data. The main future problem is the adequate dissemination of the information collected.Presented at the Symposium Star Catalogues, Positional Astronomy and Celestial Mechanics, held in honor of Paul Herget at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, November 30, 1978.     

Evaluation of catalogues of extragalactic radio sources

A combined catalogue is constructed from the observations of extragalactic radio sources compiled in independent catalogues providing precise positions determined by radio interferometric techniques. Positions and catalogue differences are derived and discussed. The average precision of the combined catalogue is at the level of 0.7 mas in right ascension and 1.3 mas in declination. For the more recent catalogues the systematic differences amount to a fraction of a millisecond of arc.     

Fundamental catalogues,past, present and future

Presented is a review of the main achievements of fundamental astrometry from earliest times through the present century. At all times the construction of a celestial reference coordinate system has tormed an important task for describing motions in the sky. The positions of fundamental stars and their centennial variations have been laid down in fundamental catalogues which-beginning with the 18th century-have facilitated famous discoveries and have given rise to the improvement of the techniques of observation. This review culminates in the documentation of the observational achievements of the latest 25 years where in a world-wide campaign of about 50 observatories considerable contributions have been made to the improvement of the current conventional reference coordinate system given in the Fourth Fundamental Catalogue (FK4). The observations analysed in an ambitious program at Heidelberg will yield the FK5 which also will introduce the System of Astronomical Constants adopted by the IAU in 1976. This report ends with an outlook on contributions of space techniques and of radioastrometry of extragalactic sources to progress in fundamental astrometry.Dedication: This review is an extended version of the Dirk Brouwer Lecture 1983 of the Division on Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society. With the topics of this lecture the author honors Dirk Brouwer's contributions to astrometry and gratefully acknowledges the support given to astronomy by Ministerialdirigent Karl Otto Schlau in the Government of Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart, Federal Republic of Germany.     

OB stars in the Tycho-2 and 2MASS catalogues

The Tycho-2 proper motions and five-band Tycho-2 and 2MASS photometry for approximately 2.5 million common stars have been used to select OB stars and to determine the extinction and photometric distance for each of them. We have selected 37 485 stars and calculated their reddenings based on their positions in the two-color V _T -H, J-Ks diagrams relative to the zero-age main sequence and the theoretical reddening line for B5 stars. Tests confirm that the selected stars belong to the spectral types O-B with a small admixture of later types. We calculate the extinction coefficient R and its variations with Galactic longitude based on the positions of the selected stars in the two-color B _T -V _T , V _T -Ks diagram. The interstellar extinction for each star is calculated as the product of the reddening found and the coefficient R. The extinction and its variations with Galactic longitude agree well with the extinction based on the model by Arenou et al. (1992). Calibration of the relation between the absolute magnitude and reduced proper motion V _T − + 5 + 5 log μ for Hipparcos stars has allowed us to calculate the absolute magnitudes and photometric distances for the selected stars. The distances found agree with those derived from the Hipparcos parallaxes within 500 pc. The distribution of the stars and the extinction variations with distance found show that the selected stars form an almost complete sample of stars with spectral types earlier than B5 within about 750 pc of the Sun. The sample includes many noticeably reddened stars in the first and second Galactic quadrants that are absent from the Hipparcos and Tycho Spectral Types Catalogues. This slightly changes the pattern of the distribution of OB stars compared to the classical pattern based on Hipparcos. Original Russian Text ? G.A. Goncharov, 2008, published in Pis’ma v Astronomicheskiĭ Zhurnal, 2008, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 10–20.     

Finding outlier light curves in catalogues of periodic variable stars

We present a methodology to discover outliers in catalogues of periodic light curves. We use a cross-correlation as the measure of 'similarity' between two individual light curves, and then classify light curves with lowest average 'similarity' as outliers. We performed the analysis on catalogues of periodic variable stars of known type from the MACHO and OGLE projects. This analysis was carried out in Fourier space and we established that our method correctly identifies light curves that do not belong to those catalogues as outliers. We show how an approximation to this method, carried out in real space, can scale to large data sets that will be available in the near future such as those anticipated from the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) and Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).     

Surface brightness bias in galaxy catalogues; distance effects

We have investigated the apparent variation of the surface brightness distribution of disc galaxies with distance within three different samples 1) a diameter limited sample of ESO catalogue galaxies in the direction of the cluster A3574 in Centaurus, 2) all ESO catalogue disc galaxies with redshifts, and 3) a sample of fainter galaxies from our surveys of the Fornax Cluster area. In each case we find, as predicted for a sample dominated by surface brightness selection effects, that the distribution narrows with distance. Both high and low surface brightness galaxies are underrepresented in galaxy catalogues. Not because they are rare, but because the volume over which they are sampled is considerably smaller than that of their normal surface brightness counterparts. The question of how many galaxies there are in the Universe remains un-answered. In addition, since selection is byapparent surface brightness, the most distant sample (where cosmological dimming becomes important) contains galaxies of higher intrinsic surface brightness than do the nearby samples, again confirming a previous theoretical prediction. The galaxies we observe in the distant Universe are very different to those we observe close by because of observational selection.     

OB association members in the ACT and TRC catalogues

The Hipparcos Catalogue contains members of nearby OB associations brighter than 12th magnitude in V . However, membership lists are complete only to magnitude V =7.3. In this paper we discuss whether proper motions listed in the 'Astrographic Catalogue+Tycho' reference catalogue (ACT) and the Tycho Reference Catalogue (TRC), which are complete to V ∼10.5 mag, can be used to find additional association members. Proper motions in the ACT/TRC have an average accuracy of ∼3 mas yr⁻¹. We search for ACT/TRC stars which have proper motions consistent with the spatial velocity of the Hipparcos members of the nearby OB associations already identified by de Zeeuw et al. These stars are first selected using a convergent-point method, and then subjected to further constraints on the proper-motion distribution, magnitude and colour to narrow down the final number of candidate members. Monte Carlo simulations show that the proper-motion distribution, magnitude, and colour constraints remove ∼97 per cent of the field stars, while at the same time retain more than 90 per cent of the cluster stars.
The procedure has been applied to five nearby associations: the three subgroups of Sco OB2, plus Per OB3 and Cep OB6. In all cases except Cep OB6, we find evidence for new association members fainter than the completeness limit of the Hipparcos Catalogue. However, narrow-band photometry and/or radial velocities are needed to pinpoint the cluster members, and to study their physical characteristics.     

Reconstruction of cosmological initial conditions from galaxy redshift catalogues

We present and test a new method for the reconstruction of cosmological initial conditions from a full-sky galaxy catalogue. This method, called ZTRACE, is based on a self-consistent solution of the growing mode of gravitational instabilities according to the Zel'dovich approximation and higher order in Lagrangian perturbation theory. Given the evolved redshift-space density field, smoothed on some scale, ZTRACE finds, via an iterative procedure, an approximation to the initial density field for any given set of cosmological parameters; real-space densities and peculiar velocities are also reconstructed. The method is tested by applying it to N -body simulations of an Einstein–de Sitter and an open cold dark matter universe. It is shown that errors in the estimate of the density contrast dominate the noise of the reconstruction. As a consequence, the reconstruction of real-space density and peculiar velocity fields using non-linear algorithms is little improved over those based on linear theory. The use of a mass-preserving adaptive smoothing, equivalent to a smoothing in Lagrangian space, allows an unbiased (although noisy) reconstruction of initial conditions, as long as the (linearly extrapolated) density contrast does not exceed unity. The probability distribution function of the initial conditions is recovered to high precision, even for Gaussian smoothing scales of ∼5  h ⁻¹ Mpc, except for the tail at δ ≥1. This result is insensitive to the assumptions of the background cosmology.     

Homogenized effective temperatures for metal deficient stars from stellar catalogues

Homogeneous independent subsamples from selected catalogues and libraries of effective temperatures for metal deficient F–G stars are treated here by combining them in triples and pairs for the stars in common to determine their external errors from data intercomparisons. The effective temperatures are then averaged (with the weights inversely proportional to the squared errors) to produce mean homogenized catalogues which may be used for calibration of spectral and photometric data in large Galactic surveys. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Kiev photographic catalogues of stellar proper motions: Compilation and application

The works of the Goloseevo Observatory (Kiev, U.S.S.R.) on the compilation of catalogues of absolute proper motions measured with respect to faint galaxies are discussed. Using these catalogues, some astrometric and stellar characteristics have been obtained. Particular attention is paid to the problem of improving the accuracy of stellar position and proper motion determinations. The optimum procedure for compiling the consolidated catalogue intended for the improvement of fundamental reference frame, kinematic characteristics of stars as well as for the solution of applied problems is developed.