天文电子照相机

电子照相机是一种高效能的天文微光图像探测器。过去50多年以来,国外一些天文台曾付出了巨大的努力,成功地研制出几种不同结构型式的实用化整机,并将其同望远镜及摄谱仪配合使用,分别在地面和空间条件下,对天文光度学和天文光谱学领域中众多类型的研究课题,从事观测研究,取得了许多极有科学价值的研究结果。本文将扼要描述我们从事的     

近十年来我国业余天文界

近十年来,我国业余天文界在彗星发现上,一改过去沉寂,默默无闻的现象,有了质的跨越。这得益于国家政策的开放,经济的繁荣;国家专业天文机构,国家和各地有关部门,比如中国天文学会普及工作委员会,特别是2002年以后,对天文普及,业余天文发现的重视、推动和支持;以及各地天文爱好者的积极交流（包括与境外,两岸三地）和全身心的投入。     

计算机打印口用作天文仪器接口

目前基本上所有天文仪器都是数字化的，几乎所有天文设备与计算机都有接口问题。我们在多套系统中采用计算机打印口来控制天文终端，认为这样做有不少好处。本文介绍了利用打印机接口天文仪器控制的技术，并给出两个例子。     

2011全球天文月

继2010年第一个全球天文月（GAM）成功举办后,2011年4月第二个全球天文月在世界各地掀起新的天文高潮,再度成为业余和专业天文学家、教育工作者和天文爱好者的繁忙月份。     

数字图像压缩方式在天文上的应用

概述了数字图像压缩技术在天文领域应用的必要性。针对天文观测的特点和研究的需要，经过研究，分析和比较，提出了天文图像压缩的可行方案。通过应用计算机编程及压缩实验给出相应的结果。     

世界天文协会徽标巡礼

本文简要介绍了国内外众多天文组织徽标的现状与发展情况。这些天文徽标多数属于天文爱好者协会,也有少量属于天文机构。作者在其收藏的众多天文徽标藏品中精心挑选了32款供读者赏析。这些徽标不但非常美观,而且具有很强的代表性,也可供大学天文社团设计自己的徽标时参考。     

欧洲天文节

2009年2月6日、7日,为期两天的欧洲天文节在英国伦敦的肯辛顿会议和活动中心举行。国际天文年和阿波罗登月40周年成为此次大会的两大议题。天文节的内容包括演讲和展览等。     

天文风景摄影入门

从天文风景摄影开始 初学天文摄影,你不要去想马上就拍到多么精美的天体照片,这是不现实的。你也不要担心需要购买昂贵的天文望远镜或者其他装备,这暂时还用不着。我认为,最初步、最易上手的天文摄影门类是天文风景摄影。它不需要你有任何专业的装备,哪怕是一台最普通的相机都能拍摄许多题材的天文风景。而如果你的器材再稍微专业一点,那你将获得令人惊讶的漂亮天文照片。     

非同一般的天文奥赛

2010年3月13日,全国十多个考点同时进行了全国中学生天文奥林匹克竞赛。怀着对天文的强烈兴趣,BoJone也赶赴广州参加了这一次竞赛。这是我第一次参加全国性的天文竞赛,所以感触甚多。特别是看到众多的天文牛人,心中甚是激动……不过,最让我铭记于心的,是天文奥赛那非同一般的意义。     

软件质量管理在某天文工程中的应用

本文讨论软件工程中有关质量管理方面的概念和技术,以及在天文软件开发工作中的一些应用。特别讨论了天文软件工程的测试问题,给出了测试控制程序的结构,以及测试用例及其数据生成模式。     

The climatic and physiographic controls of the eastern Mediterranean over the late Pleistocene climates in the southern Levant and its neighboring deserts

Modern-day synoptic-scale eastern Mediterranean climatology provides a useful context to synthesize the diverse late Pleistocene (60–12 ka) paleohydrologic and paleoenvironmental indicators of past climatic conditions in the Levant and the deserts to its south and east. We first critically evaluate, extract, and summarize paleoenvironmental and paleohydrologic records. Then, we propose a framework of eastern Mediterranean atmospheric circulation features interacting with the morphology and location of the southeast Mediterranean coast. Together they strongly control the spatial distribution of rainfall and wind pattern. This cyclone–physiography interaction enforces the observed rainfall patterns by hampering rainfall generation south and southeast of the latitude of the north Sinai coast, currently at 31°15′.The proposed framework explains the much-increased rains in Lebanon and northern Israel and Jordan as deduced from pollen, rise and maintenance of Lake Lisan, and speleothem formation in areas currently arid and semiarid. The proposed framework also accounts for the southward and eastward transition into semiarid, arid, and hyperarid deserts as expressed in thick loess accumulation at the deserts' margins, dune migration from west to east in the Sinai and the western Negev, and the formation of hyperarid (< 80 mm yr^− 1) gypsic–salic soils in the southern Negev and Sinai. Our climatic synthesis explains the hyperarid condition in the southern Negev, located only 200–250 km south of the much-increased rains in the north, probably reflecting a steeper rainfall gradient than the present-day gradient from the wetter Levant into its bordering southern and eastern deserts.At present, the rainiest winter seasons in Lebanon and northern and central Israel are associated with more frequent (+ 20%), deeper Cyprus Lows traversing the eastern Mediterranean at approximately the latitude of southern Turkey. Even these wettest years in northern Israel do not yield above average annual rainfall amounts in the hyperarid southern Negev. This region is mainly influenced by the Active Red Sea Troughs that produce only localized rains. The eastern Mediterranean Cyprus Lows also produce more dust storms and transport higher amounts of suspended dust to the loess area than any other atmospheric pattern. Concurrent rainfall and dust are essential to the late Pleistocene formation of the elongated thick loess zone along the desert northern margin. Even with existing dust storms, the lack of rain and very sparse vegetation account for the absence of late Pleistocene loess sequences from the southern Negev and the formation of hyperarid soils.When the north Sinai coast shifted 30–70 km northwest due to last glacial global sea level lowering, the newly exposed coastal areas supplied the sand and dust to these active eastern Mediterranean cyclones. This enforced the latitude of the northern boundary of the loess zone to be directly due east of the LGM shoreline. This shift of coast to the northwest inhibited rainfall in the southern Levant deserts and maintained their hyperaridity. Concurrently, frequent deep eastern Mediterranean Cyprus Lows were funneled along the northern Mediterranean increasing (probably doubling) the rains in central and northern Israel, Lebanon, southwestern Syria and northern Jordan. These storms and rains formed lakes, forests, and speleothems only a short distance north of the deserts in the southern Levant.     

Report of the IAU/IAG Working Group on cartographic coordinates and rotational elements: 2006

Every three years the IAU/IAG Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements revises tables giving the directions of the poles of rotation and the prime meridians of the planets, satellites, minor planets, and comets. This report introduces improved values for the pole and rotation rate of Pluto, Charon, and Phoebe, the pole of Jupiter, the sizes and shapes of Saturn satellites and Charon, and the poles, rotation rates, and sizes of some minor planets and comets. A high precision realization for the pole and rotation rate of the Moon is provided. The expression for the Sun’s rotation has been changed to be consistent with the planets and to account for light travel time     

The photochemical model of Titan’s atmosphere and ionosphere: A version without hydrodynamic escape

There are observational and theoretical evidences both in favor of and against hydrodynamic escape (HDE) on Titan, and the problem remains unsolved. A test presented here for a static thermosphere does not support HDE on Titan and Triton but favors HDE on Pluto. Cooling of the atmosphere by the HCN rotational lines is limited by rotational relaxation above 1100 km and self-absorption below 900 km on Titan. HDE can affect the structure and composition of the atmosphere and its evolution. Hydrocarbon, nitrile, and ion chemistries are strongly coupled on Titan, and attempts to calculate them separately may result in significant errors. Here we apply our photochemical model of Titan’s atmosphere and ionosphere to the case of no hydrodynamic escape. Our model is still the only after-Cassini self-consistent model of coupled neutral and ion chemistry. The lack of HDE is a distinct possibility, and comparing models with and without HDE is of practical interest. The mean difference between the models and the neutral and ion compositions observed by INMS are somewhat better for the model with HDE. A reaction of NH₂ with H₂CN suggested by Yelle et al. (2009) reduces but does not remove a significant difference between the ammonia abundances in the models and INMS observations. Losses of methane and nitrogen and production and deposition to the surface of hydrocarbons and nitriles are evaluated in the model, along with lifetimes and evolutionary aspects.     

Multi-spacecraft investigation of space turbulence: Lessons from Cluster and input to the Cross-Scale mission

Investigating space plasma turbulence from single-point measurements is known to be characterized by unavoidable ambiguities in disentangling temporal and spatial variations. Solving this problem has been one of the major goals of the Cluster mission. For that purpose multipoint measurements techniques, such as the k-filtering, have been developed. Such techniques combine several time series recorded simultaneously at different points in space to estimate the corresponding energy density in the wavenumber space. Here we apply the technique to both simulated and Cluster magnetometer data in the solar wind (SW) and investigate the errors and limitations that arise due to the separation of the spacecraft and the quality of the tetrahedral configuration. Specifically, we provide an estimation of the minimum and maximum scales that can be accurately measured given a specific distance between the satellites and show the importance of the geometry of the tetrahedron and the relationship of that geometry to spatial aliasing. We also present recent results on characterizing small scale SW turbulence and provide scientific arguments supporting the need of new magnetometers having better sensitivity than the existing ones. Throughout the paper we emphasize technical challenges and their solutions that can be considered for a better preparation of the Cross-Scale mission.     

A Research on the Relation between the Widths of Core and Cone Components of Pulsars

The central and outer components from the radiation beam of a pulsar are called the core and cone components, respectively. It was found in some early researches that a proportion of 0.7 exists between the widths of core and cone components of pulsars. 33 pulsars with signi?cant core and cone components are selected to verify it. The component separations are made by ?tting the integrated pulse pro?les of these pulsars with Gaussian functions, so as to obtain the widths and errors of all the core and cone components. The relation between the widths of core and cone components is investigated for the triple-peaked and quintuple-peaked pulsars, respectively. We ?nd that there are no signi?cant differences between the widths of core and cone components, the proportion of between the widths of core and cone components that reported by previous studies does not exist.     

Report of the IAU/IAG Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements: 2003

Every three years the IAU/IAG Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements revises tables giving the directions of the north poles of rotation and the prime meridians of the planets, satellites, and asteroids. This report introduces a system of cartographic coordinates for asteroids and comets. A topographic reference surface for Mars is recommended. Tables for the rotational elements of the planets and satellites and size and shape of the planets and satellites are not included, since there were no changes to the values. They are available in the previous report (Celest. Mech. Dyn. Astron., 82, 83–110, 2002), a version of which is also available on a web site.     

Solar-cycle Time Delay of Rotating Sunspots

As shown by statistical results, in the 23rd solar activity cycle the variation of the latitudes of rotating sunspots with time exhibits a butterfly pattern. We have studied the variations with phase for the mean square errors among the 4 fitting curves of the 2 wings of the butterfly diagram of sunspots and the 2 wings of the butterfly diagram of rotating sunspots in the 23rd solar activity cycle. The results show that a systematic time delay exists not only between the northern and southern hemispheres of the butterfly diagram of sunspots, but also between the northern and southern hemispheres of the butterfly diagram of rotating sunspots, even between the butterfly diagrams of the sunspots and rotating sunspots in the same hemisphere. This means that the 23rd-cycle sunspot activities in the northern and southern hemispheres happened not simultaneously, that a systematic time delay or advance (phase difference) exists between the northern and southern hemispheres, that the southern hemisphere lags behind the northern hemisphere, that a phase difference exists between the butterfly diagram of rotating sunspots and the butterfly diagram of sunspots in the 23rd cycle, and that the butterfly diagram of rotating sunspots lags behind that of sunspots. The observed delay is a little less than the theoretical value predicted by the dynamo model.     

The international outer planets watch atmospheres node database of giant-planet images

The Atmospheres Node of the International Outer Planets Watch (IOPW, formerly known as International Jupiter Watch; Russell et al., 1990) intends to encourage and coordinate the imaging observations and study of the atmospheres of the Giant Planets. The main activity of the atmospheres node is to provide an interaction between the professional and amateur astronomical communities maintaining a large database of images of the giant planets (primarily Jupiter and Saturn but with increasing contributions of Uranus and Neptune too). The observational datasets of Jupiter and Saturn correspond to images obtained in the visible range (300 nm-1 μm), during the last decade, most of them performed by amateur observers. We here describe the organization and structure of the database as posted on the Internet and in particular the PVOL software (Planetary Virtual Observatory Laboratory) designed to manage the site in the spirit of the Virtual Observatory projects. We also describe with examples the important role of the amateur-professional collaboration in the study of the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn in an epoch of large telescopes and spacecraft observations of both planets.     

活动星系和类星体中的喷流（Ⅱ）

喷流的研究是天文学和天体物理学中最使人兴趣的课题之一。在本文中，陈述了河外射电源中喷流在现阶段的观测阶段，讨论了某些典型的高能天体中喷流的特性。第一部分所涉及的内容包括喷流的定义，产生和传播；也包括喷流的不对称性和统一的解释模式的讨论。     

星载SAR干涉技术最新研究进展

简要介绍了SAR、InSAR、D-InSAR的发展概况,以及InSAR、D-InSAR的基本原理．重点讨论了InSAR、D-InSAR技术的最新理论及存在的问题,包括多基线SAR干涉技术、极化干涉技术、大气效应的削弱、永久散射体方法、InSAR与LIDAR和GPS等数据源的融合技术,以及InSAR并行算法等。详细论述InSAR、D-InSAR技术在地球科学及气象学等领域所取得的最新进展。最后对InSAR技术的发展前景作了展望。