Related papers: On-sky tests of sky-subtraction methods for fiber-…
In this paper we present the first on-sky results with the fibered aperture masking instrument FIRST. Its principle relies on the combination of spatial filtering and aperture masking using single-mode fibers, a novel technique that is…
Image subtraction is essential for transient detection in time-domain astronomy. The point spread function (PSF), photometric scaling, and sky background generally vary with time and across the field-of-view for imaging data taken with…
We demonstrate for the first time an efficient, photonic-based astronomical spectrograph on the 8-m Subaru Telescope. An extreme adaptive optics system is combined with pupil apodiziation optics to efficiently inject light directly into a…
Massively multiplexed spectrographs will soon gather large statistical samples of stellar spectra. The accurate estimation of uncertainties on derived parameters, such as line-of-sight velocity $v_\mathrm{los}$, especially for spectra with…
The existing large scale weak lensing surveys typically reserve the best seeing conditions for a certain optical band to minimize shape measurement errors and maximize the number of usable background galaxies. This is because most popular…
Observations with ground-based telescopes are affected by differential atmospheric dispersion due to the wavelength-dependent index of refraction of the atmosphere. The usage of an Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC) is fundamental to…
Despite its scientific importance, the low-surface-brightness universe has yet to be fully explored due to various systematic uncertainties that affect the achievable surface-brightness limit. Reducing these uncertainties requires very…
We describe several techniques developed by the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment for measuring aerosol vertical optical depth, aerosol horizontal attenuation length, and aerosol phase function. The techniques are based on measurements…
We present a performance analysis of SparsePak and the WIYN Bench Spectrograph for precision studies of stellar and ionized gas kinematics of external galaxies. We focus on spectrograph configurations with echelle and low-order gratings…
We investigate the potential of photonic lantern (PL) fiber fed spectrometers for two-dimensional spectroastrometry. Spectroastrometry, a technique for studying small angular scales by measuring centroid shifts as a function of wavelength,…
A method of obtaining approximate redshifts and spectral types of galaxies using a photometric system of six broad-bandpass filters is developed. The technique utilizes a smallest maximum difference approach rather than a least-squares…
We describe a new approach to obtaining very high surface densities of optical spectra in astronomical observations with extremely accurate subtraction of night sky emission. The observing technique requires that the telescope is nodded…
Clouds significantly affect the quality of optical satellite images, which seriously limits their precise application. Recently, deep learning has been widely applied to cloud detection and has achieved satisfactory results. However, the…
The principles and practice of astronomical imaging Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTS) at far-infrared wavelengths are described. The Mach-Zehnder interferometer design has been widely adopted for current and future imaging FTS…
This paper describes the general characteristics of raw data from fiber-fed spectrographs in general and fiber-fed IFUs in particular. The different steps of the data reduction are presented, and the techniques used to address the unusual…
Airglow emission lines, which dominate the optical-to-near-IR sky radiation, show strong, line-dependent variability on various time scales. Therefore, the subtraction of the sky background in the affected wavelength regime becomes a…
The Faint Sky Variability Survey is aimed at finding photometric and/or astrometric variable objects in the brightness range between 16<V<24 on timescales between tens of minutes and years with photometric precisions ranging from 3…
We present a method for calibrating images acquired by the Dawn Framing Camera (FC) that is based on the results of an in-flight calibration campaign performed during the cruise from Earth to Vesta. We describe this campaign and the data…
We investigate a new scheme for astronomical spectrograph calibration using the laser frequency comb at the Solar Vacuum Tower Telescope on Tenerife. Our concept is based upon a single-mode fiber channel, that simultaneously feeds the…
We present a method that enables wide field ground-based telescopes to scan the sky for sub-second stellar variability. The method has operational and image processing components. The operational component is to take star trail images. Each…