Prospects for the GLAS Rayleigh laser beacon on the 4.2-m WHT

The scientific exploitation of adaptive optics (AO) with natural guide stars is severely constrained by the limited presence of bright guide stars for wavefront sensing. Use of a laser beam as an alternative means to provide a source for wavefront sensing has the potential of drastically improving the sky coverage for AO. For this reason at the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope a project was started to develop a Rayleigh laser beacon to work together with the existing NAOMI adaptive optics instrumentation and the OASIS integral field spectrograph. This paper presents the rationale for this development, highlights some of the technical aspects, and gives some expected performance measures.     

Analysis of high-resolution spectra of mildly metal-poor stars I. Spectral data and equivalent widths

A number of high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio spectra of mildly metal-poor stars were obtained with the coudé echelle spectrograph attached to the 2.16m telescope at Xinglong Observation Base of Beijing Astronomical Observatory. The spectra of seven mildly metal-poor stars were processed with the MIDAS software package, and the equivalent widths of their spectral lines were measured. The measured equivalent widths together with an error analysis are presented.     

大质量年轻星体新的C18O(1-0)发射

利用紫金山天文台青海观测站13.7米的毫米波望远镜对74个大质量年轻星体或候选进行了C^18O(1-0)的谱线观测。在63个源中观测到了C^18O(1-0)发射，其中57个天体第一次探测到C^18O(1-0)谱线发射。根据谱线辐射温度（TR^*)和半宽（△V），利用LTE方法计算了每个测量源的C^18O(1-0)发射的光学厚度和C^18O(1-0)分子的柱密度。讨论了^13CO(1-0)和C^18O(1-0)的谱线强度比和积分强度比。     

具有硅酸盐尘埃特征碳星的新的候选者

本文根据红外天文卫星的宽波段测光及低分辨率光谱资料，给出了两颗新的可能具有硅酸尘埃特征的碳星及４颗可能的候选者。     

A High-accuracy, Small Field of View Star Guider with Application to SNAP

To accomplish its mission, the spaceborne observatory SNAP (SuperNova Acceleration Probe) requires a pointing stability of <0.03 arcseconds during exposures lasting up to 500 sec. A Monte Carlo simulation of the photoelectron statistics from the guiding star investigates geometrical (such as the pixel size of the detector or the plate scale) and physical parameters (such as the magnitude of the star). It is shown that simple centroiding calculations can lead to the desired accuracy with guide stars as faint as magnitude 16. Availability of these stars is verified thanks to the HST Guide Star Catalog complemented with a statistical model of the distribution of stars. Thus a through-the-lens sensor that uses stars as faint as magnitude 16 to provide the necessary guiding signals is feasible. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Narrow-band CCD photometry of giant H ii regions

We have obtained accurate CCD narrow-band Hβ and Hα photometry of giant H  ii regions (GEHRs) in M33, NGC 6822 and M101. Comparison with previous determinations of emission-line fluxes shows large discrepancies; their probable origins are discussed. Combining our new photometric data with global velocity dispersion ( σ ) derived from emission linewidths, we review the     relation. A re-analysis of the properties of the GEHRs included in our sample shows that age spread and the superposition of components in multiple regions introduce a considerable spread in the regression. Combining the information available in the literature regarding ages of the associated clusters, evolutionary footprints on the interstellar medium, and kinematical properties of the knots that build up the multiple GEHRs, we find that a subsample – which we refer to as young and single GEHRs – do follow a tight relation in the     plane.     

Comparisons of Infrared Colors and Emission-line Intensities between Two types of Seyfert 2 Galaxies

We study the relation between the infrared colors[ OⅢ] emission lines,gaseous absorbing column density(NH) ,and the detectability of the polarized (hidden)broad-line region(HBLR) in a large sample of 75 Seyfert 2 galaxies(Sy2s).From the indicators of star-formation activity,f60/f100 and LFIR/LB,we find some evidence that the Sy2s without HBLR show higher star-formation activities than those with HBLR,in agreement with previous prediction.Also,we confirm that the HBLR Sy2s tend to have a larger luminosity ratio of the core to the host galaxy,suggesting that the HBLR Sy2s display more powerful AGN activity.Howerver,the level of obscuration found in previous papers in nearly indistinguishable between the two types of Sy2s.The results support the statement that the non-HBLR Sy2s,with a weaker core component and a stronger star-formation activity component,are intrinsically different from the HBLR Sy2s,which are Sy1 systems with a hidden powerful AGN core and a low star-formation activity.The indications are that the non-HBLR Sy2s might be at an earlier evolutionary phase than the HBLR Sy2s.