Astronomical Image Co-adding Method based on Wide-field Image Deconvolution

Due to the atmospheric turbulence, the static aberration, tracking and pointing errors of telescopes, the point spread functions (PSFs) in different fields of view are different. Meanwhile, there are different PSFs in the images obtained by different telescopes. The quality of co-adding image is limited by the image with the poorest quality, and finally the resolution and sensitivity of the quad-channel telescope will also be affected. Dividing the image into some regions with the same type of PSF, and deconvolving these regions can improve the quality of the co-adding image. According to this theory, an image restoration algorithm based on the PSF clustering is proposed. Firstly, this paper makes the PSF clustering analysis by using Self-Organizing Maps, and makes the image segmentation based on the result of the PSF clustering analysis, then using the clustered PSFs to make deconvolutions on the sub-images. Then, the restored sub-images after deconvolution are joined together. Finally, by through the image registration and co-adding, the image with a high signal to noise ratio can be obtained. The result shows that the signal to noise ratio of the astronomical images are improved with our method, and the detection capability on faint stars is also improved.     

Research and Test of Real-time Search Algorithm of Fast Radio Bursts Based on GPU Acceleration

In order to satisfy the research need of Nanshan 25 m radio telescope of Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory (XAO) and study the key technology of the planned QiTai radio Telescope (QTT), on the basis of the original CPU (Central Processing Unit)-based real-time search algorithm of FRBs (Fast Radio Bursts), we have studied the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)-based real-time search algorithm of FRBs, and built the corresponding real-time search system of FRBs. We have made the comparison and analysis on the GPU system and CPU system, the test result shows that under a given searching accuracy, the speed of the GPU-accelerated algorithm is improved by 35–45 times compared with that of the CPU algorithm.     

SONG-China Project: A Global Automated Observation Networktwo

Driven by the technological advancements and scientific objectives, the data acquisition in observational astronomy has been changed greatly in recent years. Fully automated or even autonomous ground-based network of telescopes has now become a tendency for time-domain observational projects. The Stellar Observations Network Group (SONG) is an international collaboration with the participation and contribution of the Chinese astronomy community. The scientific goal of SONG is time-domain astrophysics, such as the astroseismology and the research of variable stars in open clusters. The SONG project aims to build a global network of one-meter telescopes equipped with high-precision and high-resolution spectrographs, and two-channel lucky-imaging cameras. It is the Chinese initiative to install a 50 cm binocular photometry telescope at each SONG node to share the network platform and infrastructure. This work is focused on the design and implementation of SONG/50BiN in technology and methodology, for the ground-based network composed of multiple sites and a variety of instruments.     

1.2米地平式望远镜指向模型的研究 (1.全天指向模型的建立)

介绍了云南天文台1.2米地平式望远镜用于天文观测和图像采集处理的方法,建立了新的、独特的全天指向模型,大大提高了该望远镜的指向精度,达到1″,并在多年的实际应用中得到验证。     

Doing Research on Eclipsing Binary Stars with Small Telescopes and PC computers

Astronomical research with a small telescope (20 cm – 40 cm) has always been a challenging problem. The invention of CCD cameras and personal computers has now put this question to past as small telescopes can do good and practicle science. This paper describes the use of small telescope in the study of eclipsing binary stars. Binary stars play an important role as astrophysical laboratories in our quest to understand the evolution and structure of stars. The most useful aspects of research with a small telescope in binary star research is; 1) as a viable teaching laboratory for begining students 2) to teach and learn the fundamental observational techniques that are common to many types of astronomical research areas 3) as a starting point to initiate research programs in observational astronomy, optics, instrumentation, computational astrophysics and 4) as a foundation to develop an infrastructure and technical know how for larger telescope facility. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

面向航空影像匀光的改进马斯克法

针对光学遥感影像匀光中的马斯克匀光方法的实现需要较大的滤波窗口,易导致匀光的结果对影像中的水体、阴影等存在较大的辐射增强,以及对影像的边缘处理有较大的误差等问题,该文提出改进的马斯克匀光方法:首先生成背景影像;然后对输入影像与获得的背景影像复合进行锐化增强;最后对锐化增强的结果进行拉伸处理。试验结果表明,该方法可以在滤波器窗口为3或5的情况下在对影像匀光的同时实现锐化增强。     

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope project: A progress report

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope is a project to map the microwave background radiation at arcminute angular resolution and high sensitivity in three frequency bands over substantial sky areas. Cosmological signals driving such an experiment are reviewed, and current progress in hardware construction is summarized. Complementary astronomical observations in other wavebands are also discussed.     

Future goals for imaging

The demands imposed on the imaging system of an astronomical gamma-ray telescope are numerous; it must identify and resolve individual point sources, often in crowded regions of the sky; extended emission structures must be measured on angular dimensions which can extend up to the size scale of the Galactic plane; it must achieve these goals with high sensitivity for both the wide band continuum radiation as well a for discrete spectral line emissions, and ideally have as large a field of view as possible to enhance the probability of registering the unpredictable transient events which pervade the high energy sky. True imaging systems are currently under development for operation for energies up to about 100 keV, however the most practical tool for higher energies, for the time being, remains the coded mask. Some options are briefly reviewed.     

Study on the Stressed Mirror Polishing with a Continuous Polishing Machine for Large Aperture Off-axis Aspheric Mirrors

A special stressed annular polishing technique is proposed to mill the off-axis aspheric sub-mirrors of a large segmented mirror with an annular polishing machine. Based on the basic principle of stressed annular polishing technique, a set of special stressing mechanisms are designed to convert milling the aspheric surfaces of sub-mirrors with different off-axis distances into milling the spherical surfaces with identical radii of curvature, so that they can be pol- ished simultaneously on a continuous polishing machine. It took about contin- uous 40 hours to polish a scaled-down mirror of the planning Chinese Future Giant Telescope (CFGT) using this technique. This mirror has the 330 mm di- ameter, 3.6 m off-axis distance, and the 21.6 m radius of curvature, and its max- imum asphericity is 16 micron. The experiment shows that this method has a high effciency, suits batch manufacturing, especially the batch manufacturing of aspheric sub-mirrors of the segmented primary mirror of an extremely large aperture telescope.     

The Centurion 18 telescope of the Wise Observatory

We describe the second telescope of the Wise Observatory, a 0.46-m Centurion 18 (C18) installed in 2005, which enhances significantly the observing possibilities. The telescope operates from a small dome and is equipped with a large-format CCD camera. In the last two years this telescope was intensively used in a variety of monitoring projects. The operation of the C18 is now automatic, requiring only start-up at the beginning of a night and close-down at dawn. The observations are mostly performed remotely from the Tel Aviv campus or even from the observer’s home. The entire facility was erected for a component cost of about 70k$ and a labor investment of a total of one man-year. We describe three types of projects undertaken with this new facility: the measurement of asteroid light variability with the purpose of determining physical parameters and binarity, the following-up of transiting extrasolar planets, and the study of AGN variability. The successful implementation of the C18 demonstrates the viability of small telescopes in an age of huge light-collectors, provided the operation of such facilities is very efficient.