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The image subtraction method is a powerful tool to analyze the light variations in crowded fields. This method is able to achieve a nearly optimal differential photometry, even in very dense regions. However, image subtraction is not…
Measuring scattered light is central to many laser-based gas diagnostic techniques, e.g., coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) and filtered Rayleigh scattering (FRS). To produce quantitative measurements with such techniques, a…
Cosmic shear measurements rely on our ability to measure and correct the Point Spread Function (PSF) of the observations. This PSF is measured using stars in the field, which give a noisy measure at random points in the field. Using Wiener…
Focal Ratio Degradation (FRD) in fibres is a crucial factor to control in astronomical instruments in order to minimize light loss. As astronomical instrumentation has advanced, the integration of large populations of fibres has become…
Much of the science that is made possible by multiwavelength redshift surveys requires the use of photometric redshifts. But as these surveys become more ambitious, and as we seek to perform increasingly accurate measurements, it becomes…
We present the design and testing of a prototype in-plane echelle spectrograph based on an actively controlled fibre-fed double-pass design. This system aims to be small and efficient with the minimum number of optical surfaces - currently…
The calibration of ground-based submillimetre observations has always been a difficult process. We discuss how to overcome the limitations imposed by the submillimetre atmosphere. Novel ways to improve line-of-sight opacity estimates are…
The near future of astrophysics involves many large solid-angle, multi-epoch, multi-band imaging surveys. These surveys will, at their faint limits, have data on large numbers of sources that are too faint to be detected at any individual…
The detection and characterization of the physical properties of very distant galaxies will be one the prominent science case of all future Extremely Large Telescopes, including the 39m E-ELT. Multi-Object Spectroscopic instruments are…
We have designed a fiber scrambler as a prototype for the Keck HIRES spectrograph, using double scrambling to stabilize illumination of the spectrometer and a pupil slicer to increase spectral resolution to R = 70,000 with minimal slit…
We describe an update to the Herschel-SPIRE Fourier-Transform Spectrometer (FTS) calibration for extended sources, which incorporates a correction for the frequency-dependent far-field feedhorn efficiency, $\eta_\mathrm{FF}$. This…
The spectral width and sharpness of unfolded, observed GRB spectra have been presented as a new tool to infer physical properties about GRB emission via spectral fitting of empirical models. Following the tradition of the 'line-of-death',…
The BRITE mission is a pioneering space project aimed at the long-term photometric monitoring of the brightest stars in the sky by means of a constellation of nano-satellites. Its main advantage is high photometric accuracy and time…
Space-based ultra-high-energy cosmic ray detectors observe fluorescence light from extensive air showers produced by these particles in the troposphere. Clouds can scatter and absorb this light and produce systematic errors in energy…
Single-exposure spectra in large spectral surveys are valuable for time domain studies such as stellar variability, but there is no available method to eliminate cosmic rays for single-exposure, multi-fiber spectral images. In this paper,…
Resolving fine details of astronomical objects provides critical insights into their underlying physical processes. This drives in part the desire to construct ever-larger telescopes and interferometer arrays and to observe at shorter…
The science goals for ground-based large-area surveys, such as the Dark Energy Survey, Pan-STARRS, and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, require calibration of broadband photometry that is stable in time and uniform over the sky to…
We study the impact of the atmospheric differential chromatic refraction on the measurements and precision of relative astrometry. Specifically, we address the problem of measuring the separations of close pairs of binary stars with…
Optimal error estimation is key to achieve accurate photometry and astrometry. Stellar fluxes and positions in high angular resolution images are typically measured with PSF fitting routines, such as StarFinder. However, the formal…
Accurate astrometry and photometry of saturated and coronagraphic point spread functions (PSFs) are fundamental to both ground- and space-based high contrast imaging projects. For ground-based adaptive optics imaging, differential…