Related papers: AIROPA III: Testing Simulated and On-Sky Data
We present a robust and fast algorithm for performing astrometry and source cross-identification on two dimensional point lists, such as between a catalogue and an astronomical image, or between two images. The method is based on minimal…
The accuracy of astrometric observations conducted via a space-borne optical interferometer orbiting the Earth is expected to approach a few microarcseconds. Data processing of such extremely high-precision measurements requires access to a…
Astronomical Site testing data plays a vital role in the simulation, design, evaluation and operation of adaptive optics systems for large telescope. We present the example of TMT and its first light facilitiy adaptive optics system…
Astronomical data are typically irregular in time, e.g. the space (HIPPARCOS/TYCHO, KEPLER, GAIA, WISE etc.) and ground-based CCD (NSVS, ASAS, CRTS, SuperWASP etc.) and photographic (Harvard, Sonneberg, Odessa etc.) photometrical surveys.…
The Earth's turbulent atmosphere results in speckled and blurred images of astronomical objects when observed by ground based visible and near-infrared telescopes. Adaptive optics (AO) systems are employed to reduce these atmospheric…
We present first results of an experiment to combine data from Keck aperture masking and the Infrared-Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) to image the circumstellar environments of evolved stars with ~20 milliarcsecond resolution. The unique…
We present an algorithm to photometrically calibrate wide field optical imaging surveys, that simultaneously solves for the calibration parameters and relative stellar fluxes using overlapping observations. The algorithm decouples the…
Image subtraction in astronomy is a tool for transient object discovery and characterization, particularly useful in wide fields, and is well suited for moving or photometrically varying objects such as asteroids, extra-solar planets and…
The Adaptive Optics (AO) performance significantly depends on the available Natural Guide Stars (NGSs) and a wide range of atmospheric conditions (seeing, Cn2, windspeed,...). In order to be able to easily predict the AO performance, we…
The most common instrument used by the exoplanet/brown dwarf direct imaging community at the W.M. Keck Observatory is currently the NIRC2 near-infrared imager. We performed on-sky testing to investigate three effects which may be limiting…
The internal antarctic plateau revealed in the last years to be a site with interesting potentialities for the astronomical applications due to the extreme dryness and low temperatures, the typical high altitude of the plateau, the weak…
Context. Adaptive optics (AO) systems greatly increase the resolution of large telescopes, but produce complex point spread function (PSF) shapes, varying in time and across the field of view. This PSF must be accurately known since it…
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,…
Monitoring turbulence parameters is crucial in high-angular resolution astronomy for various purposes, such as optimising adaptive optics systems or fringe trackers. The former are present at most modern observatories and will remain…
Adaptive optics systems are critical in any application where highly resolved imaging or beam control must be performed through a dynamic medium. Such applications include astronomy and free-space optical communications, where light…
Direct detection and spectroscopy of exoplanets requires high contrast imaging. For habitable exoplanets in particular, located at small angular separation from the host star, it is crucial to employ small inner working angle (IWA)…
Model fitting is frequently used to determine the shape of galaxies and the point spread function, for examples, in weak lensing analyses or morphology studies aiming at probing the evolution of galaxies. However, the number of parameters…
We present an analytical derivation of the on-axis performance of Adaptive Optics systems using a given number of guide stars of arbitrary altitude, distributed at arbitrary angular positions in the sky. The expressions of the residual…
The precise astrometric observation of small near-Earth objects (NEOs) is an important observational research topic in the astrometric discipline, which greatly promotes multidisciplinary research, such as the origin and evolution of the…
An algorithm is developed and tested for the problem posed by photometric observations of the bulge of the Milky Way. The latter subtends a non-trivial solid angle on the sky, and we show that this permits inversion of the projected…