Related papers: Seeing, Wind and Outer Scale Effects on Image Qual…
Adaptive optics to correct current telescopes over wide fields, or future very large telescopes over even narrow fields, will require real-time wavefront measurements made with a constellation of laser beacons. Here we report the first such…
We present the first results of the site testing performed at Mt.~Shatdzhatmaz at Northern Caucasus, where the new Sternberg astronomical institute 2.5-m telescope will be installed. An automatic site monitor instrumentation and…
We investigate the performance of the MAGIC telescopes under three simulated atmospheric conditions: an increased aerosol content in the lower part of the troposphere, the presence of thin aerosol over-densities at different heights, and an…
The strength and vertical distribution of atmospheric turbulence is a key factor determining the performance of optical and infrared telescopes, with and without adaptive optics. Yet, this remains challenging to measure. We describe a new…
If the microlensing events now being detected toward the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) are due to lenses in the Milky Way halo, then the events should typically have asymmetries of order 1% due to parallax from the reflex motion of the…
We present a power spectral analysis of Spitzer images of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The power spectra of the FIR emission show two different power laws. At larger scales (kpc) the slope is ~ -1.6, while at smaller ones (tens to few…
The characterization of the wind speed vertical distribution V(h) is fundamental for an astronomical site for many different reasons: (1) the wind speed shear contributes to trigger optical turbulence in the whole troposphere, (2) a few of…
The results on the vertical distribution of optical turbulence above the five mountains which were investigated by the site testing for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) are reported. On San Pedro Martir in Mexico, the 13 North site on Mauna…
The nearby dwarf irregular galaxies the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds have metallicities of about half and a fifth solar, respectively, which offers the unique opportunity to study astrophysical processes as a function of metallicity.…
We present comprehensive seeing statistics for the San Pedro M\'artir site derived from the Thirty Meter Telescope site selection data. The observations were obtained between 2004 and 2008 with a Differential Image Motion Monitor (DIMM) and…
Ground-based solar observations are severely affected by Earth's turbulent atmosphere. As a consequence, observed image quality and prevailing seeing conditions are closely related. Partial correction of image degradation is nowadays…
We present first results of a new instrument, the Generalized Differential Image Motion Monitor (GDIMM), aiming at monitoring parameters of the optical turbulence (seeing, isoplanatic angle, coherence time and outer scale). GDIMM is based…
Two of the most sensitive probes of the large scale structure of the universe are the clustering of galaxies and the tangential shear of background galaxy shapes produced by those foreground galaxies, so-called galaxy-galaxy lensing.…
This study analyzes twelve years of wind speed and direction data collected at the proposed National Large Solar Telescope (NLST) site near Pangong Tso, Merak village, Leh-Ladakh. A weather station from Campbell Scientific Instruments,…
The low wind effect is a phenomenon disturbing the phase of the wavefront in the pupil of a large telescope obstructed by spiders, in the absence of wind. It can be explained by the radiative cooling of the spiders, creating air temperature…
In this paper we describe the method of measurement of optical turbulence in twilight with MASS-DIMM. Some results of such observations carried out with SAI ASM installed on Mt. Shatdzatmaz: 1) characteristics of optical turbulence don't…
We report results of a two-year campaign of measurements, during arctic winter darkness, of optical turbulence in the atmospheric boundary-layer above the Polar Environment Atmospheric Laboratory in northern Ellesmere Island (latitude +80…
The Generalised Differential Image Motion Monitor (GDIMM) was proposed a few years ago as a new generation instrument for turbulence monitoring. It measures integrated parameters of the optical turbulence, i.e the seeing, isoplanatic angle,…
We probe turbulence structure from centimetric to metric scales by simultaneous imagery at mid-infrared and visible wavelengths at the VLT telescope and show that it departs significantly from the commonly used Kolmogorov model. The data…
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is expected to detect N ~ 22 [x10^(+/- 1)] close white dwarf binaries in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) through their gravitational radiation with signal-to-noise ratios greater than 10 in…