Research on the panel adjustment method of an active main reflector for a large radio telescope

The surface accuracy of a large parabolic antenna is an important indicator to evaluate the quality of the antenna.It not only directly affects the antenna’s aperture efficiency,thereby determining the shortest wavelength that the antenna can work,but also affects the main lobe width and side lobe structure of the antenna pattern.Microwave holography is an important method for parabolic antenna profile detection.In this article we adopt a new algorithm to adjust the panels for the large radio telescope with an active main reflector through the TM65 m antenna’s aperture phase profile.The panels of the TM65 m radio telescope is in a radial pattern with 14 rings.Each corner of the panel is fixed on the screw of the actuator to move up and down,and the adjacent corners of the four panels share an actuator.We use the method of plane fitting to calculate the adjustment value of every panel’s corner.But one actuator,which simultaneously controls the common corner of the adjacent panels,will have different adjustment values according to the different plane fitting equation based on adjacent panels.In this paper,the adjustment value of the adjacent panels’crosspoints are constrained to be equal to the constraint condition to calculate each actuator’s adjustment value of the TM65 m radio telescope.Through multiple adjustments and application of the new algorithms,the accuracy of the TM65 m antenna reflector profile has been improved from the original 0.28 mm to the current 0.19 mm.     

An open-loop control algorithm of the active reflector system of FAST

An open-loop control algorithm is put forward for continuous paraboloid deformation of the active reflector system of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST).The method is based on a calibration database and interpolation in 2D spatial domain and temperature domain,respectively.It is completely independent of real-time measurement of cable nodes so that it has advantage of working all-weather and no additional electro-magnetic interference(EMI).Furthermore,its control accuracy can be effectively improved via reasonable layout of the calibrated paraboloids and increasing calibration accuracy.Meanwhile deformation safety is considered via calibration as well.Finally its control accuracy is also confirmed via site measurements of paraboloid deformations.     

The control system of the active main reflector for FAST

The main reflector of FAST consists of about 1800 elementary units. Each unit has three adjustable supports to fix its position, and its position is adjusted by mean of mechanical actuators. According to the radio source position at any given time, all the actuators are continuously adjusted to form a proper paraboloid in real time during the course of the observation. The basic requirements of such a control system are discussed. A field bus control system based on LonWorks technology is suggested to control all 1800actuators. The main advantages of this distributed control system are its reliability, flexibility, efficiency and economics. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The observation of intrinsically different emergences for large and small active regions

The analysis of high-resolution H and white-light observations on the emergence of 73 active regions shows an intrinsically different behaviour for both the large and small ones. The small active regions (magnetic flux as 5 × 10²¹ Mx) display circular structures of supergranular size with pores only at the borders, whereas the large active regions show elongated structures with pores which develop at the center and later migrate towards the extremes. These observations are used to suggest two different models for the emergence of these two kinds of active regions: the small ones are produced by the superficial convective concentration of loosely packed dux and the large ones are the result of tightly wound flux ropes.     

A hybrid mode of diffuse and specular reflector for computation of the emergent radiation by the adding method

A method of computing the diffuse reflection and transmission radiation from an inhomogenous, plane-parallel planetary atmosphere bounded by the hybrid surface of a diffuse and specular reflector is discussed by using the addition method. If the atmosphere is simulated by a number of homogeneous sublayers, the radiation diffusely reflected and transmitted by the atmosphere can be expressed in terms of the diffuse reflection and transmission matrices of radiation of sublayers (Laciset al., 1974; Takashima, 1973, 1975). With this method (Takashima, 1975), the troublesome treatment due to the effect of polarity of radiation is overcome. Moreover, if the surface reflects radiation in accordance with the Lambert law as well as a quite arbitrary phase matrix (Takashima, 1974), the addition method can be easily extended. It is shown in this paper that the addition method is suitable for numerical computation even if the surface reflects light according to the hybrid mode of the diffuse and specular law (Uenoet al., 1974; Mukai, 1976).On leave from the Meterological Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan.     

A method for manufacturing and testing large mirrors for space telescopes

A method for finishing the surface shape of large mirrors for space telescopes that are accurate up to λ/20 is described, as well as training of the method for manufacturing a systall mirror 2.6 m in diameter for the ZTSH telescope.     

An array of lens-coupled antennas for cosmic microwave background measurements in the 30 Ghz band

An array of bow-tie slot antennas coupled through an extended hemispherical lens is proposed to operate in the 30?GHz frequency band. The design includes a combination of three microstrip Wilkinson power dividers (WPD) and transitions to coplanar wave guides (CPW) to form the feeding antenna network. This configuration is suitable for the integration with heterodyne imaging detectors commonly used in radioastronomy. Measurements and simulation results exhibit a frequency range of operation from 20 to 40?GHz with a bandwidth of 24% achieved for ?10?dB return loss at the central frequency. The measured radiation patterns show a maximum peak gain of around 13?dB with HPBW of 10° for the E-plane, and whose first side lobes are lower than 13?dB below the main lobe in both angular shift sides. The presented results will be considered as preliminary feasibility studies in the 30?GHz QUIJOTE-CMB Instrument, which is designed to study the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).     

Research on key technologies for installation and maintenance of reflector of FAST

The reflector of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)consists of 4450 reflector units.Installation of the reflector faces the challenges of large span,complex terrain,serious interference,complex processes,high position and inability to use conventional equipment.The installation technology for the flexible reflector with a large span was specially studied and designed.Two half-span arc-moving cable cranes and two transfer trucks were jointly operated along a path that follows a circular beam.After installation of the reflector was completed,two half-span cable cranes were merged into a set of full-span cable cranes for maintenance of the reflector.Installation of the reflector combines features of unit and site topography of FAST.The installation technology follows scientific and reasonable practices,and is highly efficient and convenient.It represents a breakthrough in many key technologies in construction and maintenance techniques.It has promoted related technical progress in the construction and maintenance of complex projects.It has also provided an important reference for the construction and maintenance of similar projects,and has strong significance and applicability.     

Numerical calculation of force-free field in solar active regions. II. An improved Chiu-Hilton method

A good method of finding the magnetic field above an active region from the normal field at the photosphere in the linear force-free field model is the one by Chiu and Hilton [1]. In its previous applications, however, the eigenfunctions that appear in the problem were simply discarded for lack of a practical way of their determination. In this paper we examine the effect of the eigenfunctions on the field configuration in the solution. We propose a method of estimating the eigenfunctions from Hα photographs and hence to get a more realistic solution.     

An explication of the radiometric method for size and albedo determination

A new radiometric model for disk-integrated photometry of asteroids is presented. With empirical support from photometry of Mercury and the Moon, the model assumes that observed sunward beaming of the infrared emission is due to craters. In contrast to earlier theoretical studies of the lunar emission, the observable flux ratio between a cratered sphere and a smooth sphere is calculated for large ranges in wavelength, temperature, and phase angle. Revised diameters and albedos based on the crater model are given for 84 asteroids. The revised values are in good agreement with Morrison's (1977) radiometric results. It is shown that the systematic discrepancy between radiometric and polarimetric albedos (Zellner and Gradie, 1976) is probably a double-valued function of albedo. Some typical geometric albedos from this paper, Morrison (1977), and Zellner and Gradie (1976), respectively, are: Ceres (0.050 ± 0.005, 0.053 ± 0.004, 0.068), Vesta (0.235 ± 0.032, 0235 ± 0.11, 0.271), mean C type (0.031 ± 0.009, 0.035 ± 0.009, 0.061 ± 0.005), mean S type (0.117 ± 0.030, 0.136 ± 0.032, 0.181 ± 0.23), and mean M type (0.105 ± 0.037, 0.115 ± 0.033, 0.157 ± 0.079). Areas of disagreement between radiometry and polarimetry are underscored, and research to resolve them is suggested.     

An analysis of the X and UV emissions of active galactic nuclei

Under the assumption of spherical accretion, we used the synchrotron radiation mechanism to derive the relation between the 2 keV X luminosity (1_X) and the 2500 A UV luminosity (1_op) of active galactic nuclei. We found that, when the accretion rate is low, 1_X is directly proportional to 1_op. When the accretion rate is high, because the X photons come from a dense region close to the central black hole, they are repeatedly Compton scattered by the thermal electrons and “dragged” into the black hole. In this case, by calculating the relation between the dragging region and the accretion rate, we found 1_X proportional to 1_opp to the power 0.30, thus explaining the tendency towards “saturation” in the observed 1_X − 1_op curve.     

An iterative method of general perturbations programmed for a computer

Hansen's classical method of general perturbations was revised from its basis on a Taylor Series expansion in the masses of the disturbing planets to an iterative method, which can start with the best theory known, or with only the mean, or osculating, orbit of the planet. The article describes the iterative Hansen's method together with some of the necessary subroutines which have been programmed to handle the series on a digital computer.The method has been tested by generating the theory of a major planet and the theory of a minor planet having a near commensurability with Jupiter and some of the results have been described in the last section of the paper.This paper is a summary of dissertation presented to the University of Cincinnati in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.     

An iterative method for simultaneously computing the synthesis of light and heavy elements

We propose an iterative algorithm for computing the synthesis of heavy elements through the rapid capture of neutrons (r-process) and, at sufficiently high temperatures, protons by simultaneously using two distinct computer codes. One of the codes describes the kinetics of nuclear reactions between light and intermediate chemical elements, which are the source of free neutrons and protons used by the second code to synthesize heavy elements from seed nuclides (isotopes near the iron peak of the cosmic abundance curve). The two codes interact through the neutron and proton reaction channels. We demonstrate the efficiency of our method with an example of the nucleosynthesis in a supernova’s helium shell triggered by the evaporation of neutrons and protons from α particles exposed to the neutrino flux from a collapsing stellar core. In this case, three or four iterations are enough to obtain an almost exact self-consistent solution.     

An iterative method for constructing equilibrium phase models of stellar systems

We present a new method for constructing equilibrium phase models for stellar systems, which we call the iterative method. It relies on constrained, or guided evolution, so that the equilibrium solution has a number of desired parameters and/or constraints. This method is very powerful, to a large extent due to its simplicity. It can be used for mass distributions with an arbitrary geometry and a large variety of kinematical constraints. We present several examples illustrating it. Applications of this method include the creation of initial conditions for N -body simulations and the modelling of galaxies from their photometric and kinematic observations.     

An instrument for commissioning the active and adaptive optics of modern telescopes: the Infrared Test Camera for the Large Binocular Telescope

We describe the design, integration, and operation of the infrared test cameras for the commissioning of the Large Binocular Telescope. The design and construction phase lasted slightly more than one year from February 2007 to April 2008 and was the result of a joint collaboration among INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Università di Bologna Dipartimento di Astronomia (Italy) and the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (Heidelberg, Germany). Thereafter, the camera was delivered to the LBT Observatory (USA) for commissioning of the telescope active optics and, more recently, for commissioning of the first light adaptive optics.     

An efficient method for studying the stability and dynamics of the rotational motions of celestial bodies

We use the alternative MEGNO (Mean Exponential Growth of Nearby Orbits) technique developed by Cincotta and Simó to study the stability of orbital—rotational motions for plane oscillations and three-dimensional rotations. We present a detailed numerical—analytical study of a rigid body in the case where the proper rotation of the body is synchronized with its orbital motion as 3: 2(Mercurian—type synchronism). For plane rotations, the loss of stability of the periodic solution that corresponds to a 3: 2 resonance is shown to be soft, which should be taken into account to estimate the upper limit for the ellipticity of Mercury. In studying stable and chaotic translational—rotational motions, we point out that the MEGNO criterion can be effectively used. This criterion gives a clear picture of the resonant structures and allows the calculations to be conveniently presented in the form of the corresponding MEGNO stability maps for multidimensional systems. We developed an appropriate software package.     

Dynamics of line-of-sight velocities and magnetic field in the solar photosphere during the formation of the large active region NOAA 10488

Analysis of SOHO longitudinal magnetograms and Dopplergrams has revealed the appearance of a region of enhanced upflow of matter in the photosphere when the top of a loop-shaped magnetic flux tube forming a large active region passed through it. The maximum upflow velocity reached 2 km s^?1, the maximum size exceeded 20 000 km, and the lifetime was about 2 h.