Related papers: On-sky tests of sky-subtraction methods for fiber-…
The Pan-STARRS1 survey is acquiring multi-epoch imaging in 5 bands (grizy) over the entire sky north of declination -30deg (the $3\pi$ survey). In July 2011 a test area of about 70 sq.deg. was observed to the expected final depth of the…
Engineering quantum states of light represents a crucial task in the vast majority of photonic quantum technology applications. Direct manipulation of the number of photons in the light signal, such as single-photon subtraction and…
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…
Direct imaging instruments have the spatial resolution to resolve exoplanets from their host star. This enables direct characterization of the exoplanets atmosphere, but most direct imaging instruments do not have spectrographs with high…
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…
We investigate the limitations of statistical absorption measurements with the SDSS optical spectroscopic surveys. We show that changes in the data reduction strategy throughout different data releases have led to a better accuracy at long…
We report Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 $\mu$m photometry of 11 bright stars relative to Sirius, exploiting the unique optical stability of the Spitzer Space Telescope point spread function (PSF). Spitzer's extremely stable beryllium optics in its…
We explore the use of remapping techniques to improve the efficiency of highly-multiplexed fibre systems for astronomical spectroscopy. This is particularly important for the implementation of Diverse Field Spectroscopy (DFS, described in…
Deriving atmospheric parameters of a large sample of stars is of vital importance to understand the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. Photometric surveys, especially those with near-ultraviolet filters, can offer accurate…
We present a method, based on Bayesian statistics, to fit the dust emission parameters in the far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths. The method estimates the dust temperature and spectral emissivity index, plus their relationship,…
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…
In fiber-based spectroscopy within telescopes, a prevailing limitation has been the necessity to align the fiber diameter with the telescope's seeing conditions, often characterized by the Full Width at Half Maximum of the point spread…
Sky models have been used in the past to calibrate individual low radio frequency telescopes. Here we generalize this approach from a single antenna to a two element interferometer and formulate the problem in a manner to allow us to…
We discuss the effects of finite sky coverage and the uncertainty in extracting information about the power spectrum from experiments on small angular scales. In general the cosmic variance is enhanced by a factor of $4\pi/A$, where $A$ is…
In a sky-averaged 21-cm signal experiment, the uncertainty on the extracted signal depends mainly on the covariance between the foreground and 21-cm signal models. In this paper, we construct these models using the modes of variation…
We report a weighing metrology experiment of a single silica microsphere optically trapped and immersed in air. Based on fluctuations about thermal equilibrium, three different mass measurements are investigated, each arising from one of…
Online Digital Sky Survey (DSS) material is often used to obtain information on newly discovered variable stars for older epochs (e.g. Nova progenitors, flare stars, ...). We present here the results of an investigation of photometry on…
We present a direct experimental investigation of the optical field distribution around a suspended tapered optical nanofiber by means of a fluorescent scanning probe. Using a 100 nm diameter fluorescent bead as a probe of the field…
We present a method for correcting near-infrared medium-resolution spectra for telluric absorption. The method makes use of a spectrum of an A0V star, observed near in time and close in airmass to the target object, and a high-resolution…
The quest for extrasolar planets and their characterisation as well as studies of fundamental physics on cosmological scales rely on capabilities of high-resolution astronomical spectroscopy. A central requirement is a precise wavelength…