Related papers: Extragalactic Fields Optimized for Adaptive Optics
It has been well established in the local universe that galaxy properties differ based on the large-scale environment in which they reside. As luminous Lyman-alpha nebulae have been shown to trace overdense environments at z~2-3, comparing…
With a new generation of observatories coming online this decade, the process of characterizing exoplanet atmospheres will need to be reinvented. Currently mostly on the instrumental side, characterization bottlenecks will soon stand by the…
We present a combined X-ray and optical analysis of the ABCG 85/87/89 complex of clusters of galaxies, based on the ROSAT PSPC image, optical photometric catalogues (Slezak et al. 1998), and an optical redshift catalogue (Durret et al.…
We overview the current status of photometric analyses of images collected with Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) at 8-10m class telescopes that operated, or are operating, on sky. Particular attention will be payed to resolved stellar…
Several astronomical surveys aimed at the investigation of the extragalactic components were carried out in order to map systematically the universe and its constituents. An excellent level of detail is needed, and it is possible only using…
We introduce and publicly release a new code, ADAPTSMOOTH, which serves to smooth astronomical images in an adaptive fashion, in order to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). The adaptive smoothing scheme allows to take full advantage…
(Abridged) We present the first Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics (LGS-AO) observations of the Galactic center. LGS-AO has dramatically improved the quality, robustness, and versatility with which high angular resolution infrared images of…
Sky survey is one of the most important motivations to improve the astrophysics development, especially when using new photometric bands. We are performing the SAGE (Stellar Abundance and Galactic Evolution) survey with a self-designed SAGE…
A prototype cross-dispersed optical echelle spectrograph of very high resolution has been designed and built at Steward Observatory and tested at the Starfire Optical Range (SOR) 1.5 m telescope. It is the first spectrograph to take…
Since the year 2000, adaptive optics (AO) has seen the emergence of a variety of new concepts addressing particular science needs; multiconjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) is one of them. By correcting the atmospheric turbulence in 3D using…
In order to increase the corrected field of view of an adaptive optics (AO) system, several deformable mirrors (DM) have to be placed in the conjugate planes of the dominant turbulent layers (multi-conjugate adaptive optics, MCAO [Beckers…
Looking to the future of exo-Earth imaging from the ground, core technology developments are required in visible extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) to enable the observation of atmospheric features such as oxygen on rocky planets in visible…
We present a detailed discussion of how to obtain precise stellar photometry in crowded fields using images from multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) systems, with the intent of informing the scientific development of this key technology…
We report the first results from the Hubble Infrared Pure Parallel Imaging Extragalactic Survey, which utilizes the pure parallel orbits of the Hubble Space Telescope to do deep imaging along a large number of random sightlines. To date,…
Both lucky imaging techniques and adaptive optics require natural guide stars, limiting sky coverage, even when laser guide stars are used. Lucky imaging techniques become less successful on larger telescopes unless adaptive optics is used,…
We present an all sky map of the diffuse Galactic far ultraviolet (1344-1786 Angstroms) background using GALEX data, covering 65% of the sky with 11.79 arcmin square pixels. We investigate the dependence of the background on Galactic…
Context. Modern space telescopes are currently providing high-precision light curves for a large fraction of the sky, such that many new variable stars are being discovered. However, some stars have periodic variability with periods of…
SPHERE is the high-contrast exoplanet imager and spectrograph installed at the Unit Telescope 3 of the Very Large Telescope. After more than two years of regular operations, we analyse statistically the performance of the adaptive optics…
During the Core Programme, INTEGRAL has surveyed a large portion of the sky (around 9000 square degrees); although INTEGRAL is not optimized for extra-galactic studies its observations have nevertheless given us the opportunity to explore…
We present a $\approx 11.5$ year adaptive optics (AO) study of stellar variability and search for eclipsing binaries in the central $\sim 0.4$ pc ($\sim 10''$) of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster. We measure the photometry of 563 stars…