First detection of polarization of the submillimeter diffuse Galactic dust emission by Archeops

We present the first determination of the Galactic polarized emission at 353 GHz by Archeops. The data were taken during the Arctic night of February 7, 2002 after the balloon-borne instrument was launched by CNES from the Swedish Esrange base near Kiruna. In addition to the 143 and 217 GHz frequency bands dedicated to CMB studies, Archeops had one 545 GHz and six 353 GHz bolometers mounted in three polarization sensitive pairs that were used for Galactic foreground studies. We present maps of the I,Q,U Stokes parameters over 17% of the sky and with a 13 arcmin resolution at 353 GHz (850 μm). They show a significant Galactic large scale polarized emission coherent on the longitude ranges [100°,120°] and [180°,200°] with a degree of polarization at the level of 4–5%, in agreement with expectations from starlight polarization measurements. Some regions in the Galactic plane (Gem OB1, Cassiopeia) show an even stronger degree of polarization in the range 10–20%. Those findings provide strong evidence for a powerful grain alignment mechanism throughout the interstellar medium and a coherent magnetic field coplanar to the Galactic plane. This magnetic field pervades even some dense clouds. Extrapolated to high Galactic latitude, these results indicate that interstellar dust polarized emission is the major foreground for PLANCK-HFI CMB polarization measurement.     

Initial Results from the Southern Edgeworth-Kuiper belt Survey

We present preliminary results of the analysis of the first 500 squaredegrees of the Southern Edgeworth-Kuiper belt Survey, a large sky survey whichran from January 2000 to January 2003 and comprises 2900° in total. Early testspredict that we should discover ～10 bright TNOs in our data, doubling the currentknown population.     

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). Its legacy of UV surveys,and science highlights

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) imaged the sky in the Ultraviolet (UV) for almost a decade, delivering the first sky surveys at these wavelengths. Its database contains far-UV (FUV, λ _eff～1528 Å) and near-UV (NUV, λ _eff～2310 Å) images of most of the sky, including deep UV-mapping of extended galaxies, over 200 million source measurements, and more than 100,000 low-resolution UV spectra. The GALEX archive will remain a long-lasting resource for statistical studies of hot stellar objects, QSOs, star-forming galaxies, nebulae and the interstellar medium. It provides an unprecedented road-map for planning future UV instrumentation and follow-up observing programs in the UV and at other wavelengths. We review the characteristics of the GALEX data, and describe final catalogs and available tools, that facilitate future exploitation of this database. We also recall highlights from the science results uniquely enabled by GALEX data so far.     

A hard X-ray sky survey with the SIGMA telescope of the GRANAT observatory

The SIGMA X-ray telescope accumulated the images of more than a quarter of the sky during the in-orbit operation of the GRANAT observatory. The longest exposure time (～9 million s) was spent on the observations of the Galactic center region. We give an overview of the SIGMA X-ray observations and report the sensitivities achieved in various regions of the sky.     

Eigenvector Sky Subtraction

We develop a new method for estimating and removing the spectrum of the sky from deep spectroscopic observations. Our method does not rely on simultaneous measurement of the sky spectrum with the object spectrum. The technique is based on the iterative subtraction of continuum estimates and eigenvector sky models derived from singular value decompositions of sky spectra and sky spectra residuals. Using simulated data derived from small-telescope observations, we demonstrate that the method is effective for faint objects on large telescopes. We discuss simple methods to combine our new technique with the simultaneous measurement of sky to obtain sky subtraction very near the Poisson limit.     

INTEGRAL observations of the gamma-ray burst on March 11, 2007

On March 11, 2007, the INTEGRAL observation discovered and localized a gamma-ray burst in the sky from which an early infrared afterglow was then detected. We present our timing and spectral analyses of the data from the ISGRI detector of the IBIS telescope. The burst consists of one ～40-s-long peak during which a fluence of ～3 × 10^?6 erg cm^?2 was released in the energy range 20–200 keV. The 18–300-keV spectrum is characterized by a slope Γ ≈ ?0.8 at the rise phase and Γ ≈ ?1.4 at the maximum and decay phase. The basic characteristics of GRB 070311 suggest that it is a typical cosmological gamma-ray burst.     

现代日晕光度计多波段测光系统初步测试结果分析

现代日晕光度计是用于精确测定监测址点的多种大气参量的精密仪器,它已列为我国西部太阳设备选址工作中的重要设备。利用同一架日晕光度计首先对昭通大山包进行了多波段数据采集。在仔细分析初步测光结果的基础上,进一步完善日晕光度计的光学系统。使用改进后的设备对昆明凤凰山址点进行了多次数据采集,都获得了理想数据。这表明日晕光度计的多波段测光系统已能够用于西部太阳选址工作中。     

Using a New Sky Brightness Monitor to Observe the Annular Solar Eclipse on 15 January 2010

For the future development of Chinese Giant Solar Telescope (CGST) in Western China, a new sky brightness monitor (SBM) has been produced for the site survey for CGST. To critically examine the performance and sensitivity of SBM, we used it in the observation of the annular solar eclipse in Dali City, Yunnan, on 15 January 2010. The observation met good weather conditions with an almost clear sky during the eclipse. The SBM measurement translates into the solar illuminance changes at a level of 2.4×10^?4 I?s^?1 during the eclipse. The time of the minimal sky brightness in the field of view (FOV) is found consistent with the time of maximum eclipse. Two local sky regions in the FOV are chosen to make a time series of the calibrated skylight profiles. The evolution of the sky brightness thus calibrated also shows good consistency with the eclipse, particularly between the second and the third contacts. The minimal sky brightness in each local sky region took place within half a minute from the corresponding predicted contact time. Such small time delays were mainly caused by occasional cirri. The minimal sky brightness measured during the eclipse is a few millionths of I _?? with standard deviation of 0.11 millionths of I _??. The observation supports that the single-scattering process (optically thin conditions) is the main contributor to the atmospheric scattering. We have demonstrated that many important aerosol optical parameters can be deduced from our data. We conclude that the new SBM is a sensitive sky photometer that can be used for our CGST and coronagraph site surveys.     

High energy gamma-ray emission from the region of the galactic center

In two balloon flights carried out in the Southern Hemisphere, a region of the sky near the galactic center has been explored with a Spark Chamber telescope with the aim of investigating the gamma-ray emission at energies above 20 MeV from possible celestial sources.     

Sky subtraction for LAMOST

Sky subtraction is a key technique in data reduction of multi-fiber spectra. Knowledge of characteristics related to the instrument is necessary to determine the method adopted in sky subtraction.In this study, we describe the sky subtraction method designed for the Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST) survey. The method has been integrated into the LAMOST 2D Pipeline v2.6 and applied to data from LAMOST DR3 and later. For LAMOST, calibration using sky emission lines is used to alleviate the position-dependent(and thus time-dependent) ~ 4% fiber throughput uncertainty and small wavelength instability(0.1 A) during observation. Sky subtraction using principal component analysis(PCA) further reduces 25% of the sky line residual from OH lines in the red part of LAMOST spectra after the master sky spectrum, which is derived from a B-spline fit of 20 sky fibers in each spectrograph. Using this approach, values are adjusted by a sky emission line and subtracted from each fiber. Further analysis shows that our wavelength calibration accuracy is about 4.5 km s~(-1), and the averages of residuals after sky subtraction are about 3% for sky emission lines and 3% for the continuum region. The relative sky subtraction residuals vary with moonlight background brightness, and can reach as low as 1.5% for regions that have sky emission lines during a dark night.Tests on F stars with both similar sky emission line strength and similar object continuum intensity show that the sky emission line residual of LAMOST is smaller than that of the SDSS survey.     

Computation of the atmosphere-less light intensity curve during a total solar eclipse by using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter topography data and the DE430 astronomical ephemeris

Observations of the sky irradiation intensity in the visible wavelengths during a solar eclipse permit to model the Sun diameter,a key number to constrain the internal structure of our star.In this paper,we present an algorithm that takes advantage of the precise Moon topography from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to compute,with a high resolution in time,the geometrical part(i.e.top-of-atmosphere,and for a given wavelength)of the sky irradiation at any given location on the Earth during these events.The algorithm is also able to model the Baily’s beads.We give as an application the theoretical computation of the light curve corresponding to the solar eclipse observed at Lakeland(Queensland,North Australia)on 2012 November 13.The application to real data,with the introduction of atmospheric and instrumental passbands,will be considered in a forthcoming paper.     

The First Solar Seeing Profile Measurement with Two Apertures and Multiple Guide Regions

The sky brightness is a critical parameter for estimating the coronal observation conditions for a solar observatory. As part of a site-survey project in Western China, we measured the sky brightness continuously at the Lijiang Observatory in Yunnan province in 2011. A sky brightness monitor (SBM) was adopted to measure the sky brightness in a region extending from 4.5 to 7.0 apparent solar radii based on the experience of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) site survey. Every month, the data were collected manually for at least one week. We collected statistics of the sky brightness at four bandpasses located at 450, 530, 890, and 940 nm. The results indicate that aerosol scattering is of great importance for the diurnal variation of the sky brightness. For most of the year, the sky brightness remains under 20 millionths per airmass before local Noon. On average, the sky brightness is less than 20 millionths, which accounts for 40.41% of the total observing time on a clear day. The best observation time is from 9:00 to 13:00 (Beijing time). The Lijiang Observatory is therefore suitable for coronagraphs investigating the structures and dynamics of the corona.     

Atmospheric behavior and extreme beginning heights of the thirteen brightest photographic Leonid meteors from the ground‐based expedition to China

Abstract— Precise atmospheric trajectories including dynamic and photometric data on thirteen of the brightest Leonid fireballs have been determined from the double‐station photographic observations of Leonid meteors during the ground‐based expedition to China in 1998 November. the expedition was organized as a collaboration between the dutch and chinese academy of sciences and was supported by the leonid multi‐instrument aircraft campaign (mac) program (jenniskens and butow, 1999). All data presented here were taken at Xinglong Observatory and at a remote station, Lin Ting Kou near Beijing, on the night of 1998 November 16/17. At the Xinglong station, photographic cameras were accompanied by an all‐sky television camera equipped with an image intensifier and 15 mm fish‐eye objective in order to obtain precise timings for all observed meteors up to magnitude +2. Whereas beginning heights of photographed meteors are all lower than 130 km, those observed by the all‐sky television system are at ～160 km, and for three brightest events, even > 180 km. Such high beginnings for meteors have never before been observed. We also obtained a precise dynamic single‐body solution for the Leonid meteor 98003, including the ablation coefficient, which is an important material and structural quantity (0.16 s² km^?2). From this and from known photometry, we derived a density of this meteoroid of 0.7 g/cm³. Also, all PE coefficients indicate that these Leonid meteors belonged to the fireball group IIIB, which is typical for the most fragile and weak interplanetary bodies. From a photometric study of the meteor lightcurves, we found two typical shapes of light curves for these Leonid meteors.     

Prospects for detecting light echoes of galactic supernovae by wide-angle polarimetry

We propose to use a global (wide-angle, of the order of several degrees) distribution of linearly polarized emission over the sky to detect light echoes of historical supernovae exploded in our Galaxy. The echo emission must be polarized tangential to the direction of the supernova explosion site, and its degree of polarization must exhibit a characteristic dependence on angular distance. The near infrared is an optimum spectral range for detection. A spotted structure in the shape of a ring ～5° in diameter and ～3° in width with a total brightness of ～12–13^m in polarized light with a tangential orientation of the electric vector must be currently seen in the direction where Tycho Brahe observed a supernova explosion in 1572. A comparison of the expected intensity of the echo with the intensities of the zodiacal light and the atmosphere shows that it can be detected in principle during long-term observations from space and, under favorable conditions, even from the ground.     

A simple flux integration photometer for day time site testing at Oukaimeden

We describe here a simple irradiance photometer built at Astrophysical and Geophysical Laboratory (LAG) for the integrated photometry of sun light at Oukaimeden, a 2700m summit in the Morrocan High Atlas. The solar irradiance measurement is performed simultaneously at three wavelengths to sample different levels of the sky transparency. The total of 1182 days in the data base shows that the number of clear hours is about 3086 per year which represents 65.32% of clear sky. The extinction coefficient is computed to evaluate the quality of the sky transparency at the site. We find that there is a seasonal effect for the sky transparency, and the monthly average of the extinction coefficient has a minimum value of about 0.05 in winter (oct-nov-dec) and a maximum of about 0.15 in summer (jun-jul) at 700 nm.     

The first results of observations of the transient pulsar SAX J2103.5+4545 by the INTEGRAL observatory

We present the preliminary results of our analysis of the observations of the X-ray pulsar SAX J2103.5+4545 by the INTEGRAL Observatory in December 2002. We mapped this region of the sky in a wide energy range, from 3 to 200 keV. The detection of the source is shown to be significant up to energies of ～100 keV. The hard X-ray flux in the energy range 15–100 keV is variable and presumably depends on the orbital phase. We show that the shape of the pulsar spectrum and its parameters derived from 18–150-keV IBIS data are compatible with the RXTE observations of the source.     

The Spin-X wide-field X-ray monitor of the Spectrum-X-Gamma astrophysical observatory

The Spin-X wide-field X-ray monitor of the Spectrum-X-Gamma astrophysical observatory, which is based on the principle of a coded-aperture telescope, is designed to detect and localize cosmic gammaray-burst (GRB) sources; to survey large areas of the sky in search of new transients; and to carry out long-term observations of bright Galactic sources, including X-ray bursters. The monitor consists of two noncoaxial identical modules, Spin-X1 and Spin-X2, which together cover 6.8% of the sky. The high-apogee, four-day orbit of the Spectrum-XG satellite allows the instrument to be in observing mode more than 50% of the time. Having simulated the rate of GRB detection by Spin-X, we show that extrapolating BATSE 50–300-keV average data on the number of GRBs, their duration, and their mean energy spectrum to the X-ray energy band leads to disagreement with the observed detection rate of GRBs in the X-ray band. The number of GRBs that can be detected and localized with an accuracy r≤3′ (3σ) (the error-circle radius) by Spin-X is estimated to be ten bursts per year. We present data on the Spin-X sensitivity achievable during long-term observations of persistent and transient sources and on its sensitivity to X-ray bursts from Galactic sources in the 2–30-keV energy band.     

The “European Fireball Network”: Current status and future prospects

Abstract— Among the three large camera networks carrying out fireball observations through the seventies and eighties, the “European Fireball Network” is the last one still in operation. The network today consists of more than 34 all-sky and fish-eye cameras deployed with ～100 km spacing and covering an area of ～10⁶ km², in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Germany, as well as parts of Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria. Network operation results in ～10 000 image exposures per year, which represent on average 1200 h of clear sky observations—as imaging periods are restricted due to daylight, moonlight, and clouds. The cameras detect currently large meteors at a rate of ～50 per year; this is in good agreement with the encounter rates determined in previous fireball studies. From sightings of “meteorite candidates” (fireballs that may have deposited meteorites) and meteorite recoveries in the network area, we estimate that 15% of the influx of meteoritic matter is currently observed by the cameras, whereas <1% is recovered on the ground. Issues to be addressed by future fireball observations include the study of very large meteoroids (>1000 kg) for which statistics are currently very poor and an examination of their relationship to NEOs (near-Earth objects) identified by current NEO search programs.     

Harmonic analysis of cosmic microwave background data – I. Ring reductions and point-source catalogue

We present a harmonic model for the data analysis of an all-sky cosmic microwave background survey, such as Planck , where the survey is obtained through ring-scans of the sky. In this model, resampling and pixelization of the data are avoided. The spherical transforms of the sky at each frequency, in total intensity and polarization, as well as the bright-point-source catalogue, are derived directly from the data reduced on to the rings. Formal errors and the most significant correlation coefficients for the spherical transforms of the frequency maps are preserved. A clean and transparent path from the original samplings in the time domain to the final scientific products is thus obtained. The data analysis is largely based on Fourier analysis of rings; the positional stability of the instrument's spin axis during these scans is a requirement for the data model and is investigated here for the Planck satellite. Brighter point sources are recognized and extracted as part of the ring reductions and, on the basis of accumulated data, used to build the bright-point-source catalogue. The analysis of the rings is performed in an iterative loop, involving a range of geometric and detector response calibrations. The geometric calibrations are used to reconstruct the paths of the detectors over the sky during a scan and the phase offsets between scans of different detectors; the response calibrations eliminate short- and long-term variations in detector response. Point-source information may allow the reconstruction of the beam profile. The reconstructed spherical transforms of the sky in each frequency channel form the input to the subsequent analysis stages. Although the methods in this paper were developed with the data processing for the Planck satellite in mind, there are many aspects which have wider implementation possibilities, including the construction of real-space pixelized maps.     

Compiled catalog of the proper motions and infrared photometry of stars at the north Galactic pole

We describe the procedure we used to compile a catalog of the proper motions of 23 633 stars in the sky area covering about 700 square degrees at the north Galactic pole. The compiled catalog combines the data from the UCAC2, Tycho-2, and FONAC catalogs for stars down to V ～ 14 ^m in this sky area. In addition to proper motions, the catalog also contains the near-infrared magnitudes J, H, and K _s in the 2MASS system. The mean accuracy is 2.5 mas/yr for proper motions and 0.03 ^m for magnitudes.