The Concordia station on the Antarctic plateau: The best site on earth for the 21st century astronomers

On the Antarctic plateau, a joint project of French and Italian polar programmes is nearing completion: the Concordia station will be open for winter-over operation in 2005. The high altitude and high latitude of this site, the exceptionally cold, clear and stable atmosphere, its incredible astronomical seeing, the almost indefinitely flat snow surface and the not-so-difficult access make this site the most promising on Earth for future ground-based astronomical projects in various fields, including long term photometry, infrared high sensitivity imaging and high angular resolution and high contrast imaging.     

PRIMA for the VLTI – Science

The four main scientific objectives of PRIMA – the Phase-Referenced Imaging and Micro-arc second Astrometry facility for the VLTI – will be described:– extra-solar system characterization with astrometry, to detect planets and evaluate their mass, and imaging of the dust accretion disk,– galactic center study with astrometry(dynamics of the bulge stars) and imaging at 10μm (piercing the gas and dust clouds surrounding the galactic center),– observations of AGNs and other extra-galactic objects, too faint to be observed without PRIMA, for which partial imaging is needed to constrain their structuremodels,– micro-gravitational lensing event resolution (imaging and astrometry of their photo-center) in the Galactic Bulge and Magellanic Clouds, helping to determine directly the lens mass and distance. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Astrometric control of the inertiality of the Hipparcos catalog

Based on the most complete list of the results of an individual comparison of the proper motions for stars of various programs common to the Hipparcos catalog, each of which is an independent realization of the inertial reference frame with regard to stellar proper motions, we redetermined the vector ω of residual rotation of the ICRS system relative to the extragalactic reference frame. The equatorial components of this vector were found to be the following: ω_x=+0.04±0.15 mas yr^?1, ω_y=+0.18±0.12 mas yr^?1, and ω_z=?0.35±0.09 mas yr^?1.     

Probing the close environment of young stellar objects with interferometry

The study of Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) is one of the most exciting topics that can be undertaken by long baseline optical interferometry. The magnitudes of these objects are at the edge of capabilities of current optical interferometers, limiting the studies to a few dozen, but are well within the capability of coming large aperture interferometers like the VLT Interferometer, the Keck Interferometer, the Large Binocular Telescope or 'OHANA. The milli-arcsecond spatial resolution reached by interferometry probes the very close environment of young stars, down to a tenth of an astronomical unit. In this paper, I review the different aspects of star formation that can be tackled by interferometry: circumstellar disks, multiplicity, jets. I present recent observations performed with operational infrared interferometers, IOTA, PTI and ISI, and I show why in the next future one will extend these studies with large aperture interferometers. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

50 m 射电望远镜的时间标准问题的讨论

定量分析了原子钟的时间频率特性产生的守时时差,估算了原子时频标准的守时时差对有关物理量测量所产生的影响．给出了现代实用型原子钟的性能指标比较表,和用现代无线电手段传递、比对时频标准信号达到的指标．论述了高精度时间频率标准在大地、深空间探测、VLBI及毫秒脉冲星计时应用测量中的重要地位、作用．阐述了50 m射电望远镜的科学目标、“嫦娥”1号探月卫星任务对时间标准提出的高精度要求和选用原则．为了实现其科学目标和任务,必须建设与其研究目标相适宜的、标准尽可能高的原子时频标准,才能获得高质量的数据信息和高效能的研究成果．并对建设怎样的时间标准等问题进行讨论和提出具体建议．     

Ska and Evla Computing Costs for Wide Field Imaging

I investigate the problem of high dynamic range continuum synthesis imaging in the presence of confusing sources, using scaling arguments and simulations. I derive a quantified cost equation for the computer hardware needed to support such observations for the EVLA and the SKA. This cost has two main components – from the data volume, scaling as D⁻⁶ (where D is the antenna diameter), and from the non-coplanar baselines effect, scaling as D⁻², for a total scaling of D⁻⁸. A factor of two in antenna diameter thus corresponds to 12 years of Moore’s law (18 month doubling time) cost reduction in computing hardware. For a SKA built with 12.5 m antennas observing with 1 arcsecond at 1.4 GHz, I find the computing load to be about 150 Petaflops (costing about $500 million in 2015). For 25 m antennas, the load is about 256 times lower, costing $2 million in 2015. This new cost equation differs from that of Perley and Clark (2003), which has scaling as D⁻⁶. This is because I find that the excellent Fourier plane coverage of the small antenna design does not significantly change the convergence rate of the Clean algorithm, which is already satisfactory in this regime.The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is operated by Associated Universities, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.     

较差相位参考技术：VLTI-PRIMA

简述了窄角天体测量中地面较差相位参考技术在射电波段以及近年来在红外波段的应用。给出了较差相位参考技术计算两颗星之间角距的基本公式;详细介绍了地面上红外波段实现较差相位参考技术VLTI-PRIMA的发展过程,和其结构、主要部件、科学能力,以及达到的目标和局限性。描述了2008年VLTI-PRIMA研制成功后进行的几次试验观测,并给出了与VLTI和NACO成像的比较结果。最后介绍了该工作的展望,如仪器硬件和软件的改进、VLTI第二代仪器GRAVITY的研制,以及根据PRIMA研制的经验,对我国研制仅有窄角天体测量功能的地基中等口径大视场光学望远镜提出几点建议。     

Observational Accuracy of Sunrise and Sunset Times in the Sixth Century China

The Daye Calendar was compiled in AD 597 in the Sui Dynasty. We investigate the records of sunrise and sunset times on the 24 solar-term days in the calendar. By converting the ancient Chinese time units, Chen, Ke and Fen to hour, minute and second, and carrying out a comparison between the ancient records and values computed with modern astronomical theory, we find that the accuracy of solar measurements in the Sui period is remarkably high: for sunrise times, the average absolute deviation is 3.63 min (this value can be further reduced to 3.03 min when erroneous data are excluded), and for sunset times it is 3.48 min. We also find that the observed sunrise and sunset times are strictly symmetrically distributed with respect to both the Winter Solstice and the Summer Solstice, with their deviations showing a similar symmetrical distribution as well. We give a discussion on the date of observation, the feature of the data, and possible reasons of the deviation.     

古本今本《竹书纪年》的天象记载和纪年

对《竹书纪年》记载的天象和纪年进行了初步的分析研究,结果表明,今本《竹书纪年》中新增的天象如日食等,并非汲冢出土佚书的原有内容,而为宋元以后学者所加.     

Potential of the VLTI for linking stellar frames to ICRF

The question of positioning the optical counterparts of the ICRF quasars is outlined in the perspective of future space astrometry missions, which ultimately will bring a new realization of the ICRS in the optical range. Ground-based interferometry with a dual-field observing mode (PRIMA/VLTI),together with the missions DIVA and FAME, will have a key role in building an extragalactic reference frame in the optical/near-IR range with about the same accuracy as that of the present (VLBI) primary frame. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

适用于古天文研究的计算机软件

天文软件是进行古天文研究非常有用的辅助工具。对一些常见的商业软件与专业软件的计算结果进行了分析比较,发现它们在两三百年的短期内都是足够可靠的,但是若干商业软件并不适用于涉及几千年跨度的古天文研究。分析表明:无论从数据精确度和长期稳定性,还是从功能的强大程度来说,SkyMap都是值得推广的天文计算软件。     

Observations of circumstellar disks with infrared interferometry

The study of circumstellar disks around young stellar objects is arguably the area of astrophysics on which the technique of infrared interferometry has had the biggest impact. Here I will review the existing set of observations in this field, concentrating on disks but also including jets/winds and stellar properties. At the end, there is a brief discussion of how ongoing technical developments and observational improvements will expand the impact of infrared interferometry on the study of star formation.     

《金史》《元史》天象记录的统计分析

在用现代天文计算方法全部检验的基础上,分类统计和分析《金史》和《元史》各种天象记录的数量和特征。统计中将所有天象记录分为可计算检验和不可计算检验2大类,并计算了各种记录的错误率,大多数错误记录可以考出其原貌。搜索了《金史》、《元史》以外的金元天象记录。     

天文光子学研究现状及其应用展望

天文学是一门观测学科, 其发展受观测技术及仪器进步所推动, 而天文科学发展同样不断对观测仪器提出新的要求. 天文学发展至今, 对观测仪器的要求逐渐走向极致和极端, 这在实现成本及难度两方面均带来极大挑战. 为应对上述挑战, 基于新原理、新技术的下一代天文光学技术及观测仪器已成为天文学发展的内在需要. 近年来, 集成光子学的发展为天文光学技术带来了新的变革性机遇, 在此基础上产生的新兴交叉学科天文光子学(Astrophotonics)可为天文观测提供低成本、高度集成化(芯片化)的新一代高性能光学终端仪器, 这类仪器将在空间天文观测、大规模光谱巡天、高分辨高精度光谱成像等应用中起到关键作用. 主要从仪器/器件功能出发介绍天文光子学主要研究内容及现状, 并简要讨论其发展所面临的主要问题, 最后对其发展趋势做出展望.     

The Potsdam plates of the Carte du Ciel project: I. Present inventory and plate catalogue

We present an inventory ofthe Carte du Ciel (CdC) plates stored in the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam. The Potsdam CdC zone (+32° to +39°) was divided into 1232 areas and about 2200 plates from the first and second epochs were obtained within the framework of the CdC project. At present, only 977 plates (45% of all) are stored in AIP, the others got lost during the Second World War. The plates for the first epoch measurements had been obtained during the period 1893 May– 1900 February. The plates for the second epoch (1913 August–1924 February) can be separated into two time intervals according to the observer and the observing method used: from 1913 August till 1914 July, and from 1916 February to 1924 February. The present work aims to provide online access to the plate information, given in the plate catalogue and is the first step to online access to the plate images digitized with flatbed scanners.     

Infrared speckle interferometry of eleven binaries using a bispectral analysis

Infrared speckle-masking observations of eleven binary systems with the 6-m Special Astrophysical Observatory telescope are presented. A resolution of 43 mas in J (1.25 µm) and 76 mas in K (2.2 µm) has been achieved in reconstructed images. Accurate magnitude differences, separations, and position angles have been determined for all the resolved binaries. The pair HR 1071 with an abnormally low lithium abundance is considered in more detail.     

天再旦日食的根据与计算——对Keenan质疑的注释

作者由“天再旦”日食说证实西周懿王元年为公元前 899年。夏商周断代工程以此为支点之一 ,得到西周年代表。针对读者的质疑 ,在历史文献的可靠性、天光视亮度的表达和计算方法、地球自转长期参数等方面做了进一步的阐述。     

Using nicmos arrays to study galaxies

The 256×256 HgCdTe arrays developed for the NICMOS (Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-object Spectrometer) project have proven to be very capable devices for extragalactic imaging. This paper describes a sampling of extragalactic results from NICMOS arrays. A brief summary of the history of the development of these arrays, and their outstanding performance characteristics is also given.