Related papers: BlueWalker 3 Redux
There is a growing concern about an impact of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite constellations on ground-based astronomical observations, in particular, on wide-field surveys in the optical and infrared. The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF),…
The apparent brightness of satellites is calculated as a function of satellite position as seen by a ground-based observer in darkness. Both direct illumination of the satellite by the Sun as well as indirect illumination due to reflection…
The potential effect of the lunar exosphere on the near-ultraviolet sky background emission is predicted for Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope (LUT: a funded Chinese scientific payload for the Chang'e-III mission). Using the upper limit on…
Large constellations of artificial satellites are beginning to interfere with astronomical observing. Visual magnitude measurements of these spacecraft are useful for monitoring and characterizing their brightness. This paper describes the…
Spatial scan observations using WFC3's IR channel exhibit time-dependent systematics (in the form of a ramp or hook) that have been attributed to the effects of persistence. The amplitude of these systematics is often two orders of…
We propose the 3rd harmonic lasing in a new FLASH undulator as a way to produce intense, narrow-band, and stable SASE radiation down to 1.3 nm with the present accelerator energy of 1.25 GeV. To provide optimal conditions for harmonic…
A Time of Flight monitoring system has been developed for BES3. The light source is a 442-443 nm laser diode, which is stable and provides a pulse width as narrow as 50 ps and a peak power as large as 2.6 W. Two optical-fiber bundles with a…
In the past six years, Betelgeuse has been in the news and drawn significant public interest. Starting in October 2019, Betelgeuse underwent a striking dimming event, fading from magnitude 0.5 to 1.7 by mid February 2020 a threefold…
Since April 2020, the SuperKEKB has been operating with the crab waist scheme. The luminosity record achieved in June 2022 was $4.71 \times 10^{34} \text{ cm}^{-2}\text{s}^{-1}$, which overtook its predecessor KEKB by more than a factor of…
Very recent work has identified a new satellite galaxy, Ursa Major III/UNIONS I, which is the faintest such system ever observed. Dynamical considerations indicate that if the system is in equilibrium, it is likely to be highly dark matter…
On large telescopes trails of MegaConstellation's satellites will appears significantly defocused because of their relatively short distance. Because of such effect their apparent surface brightness will be, under a range of conditions,…
The LHCb detector optimised its performance in Runs~1 and~2 by stabilising the instantaneous luminosity during a fill. This was achieved by tuning the distance between the two colliding beams according to the measurement of instantaneous…
In July 2007, the blazar 3C 454.3 underwent a flare in the optical, reaching R~13 on July 19. Then the optical flux decreased by one magnitude, being R~14 when the source was detected by the gamma-ray satellite AGILE, that observed the…
The observed extragalactic background light (EBL) is affected by light attenuation due to absorption of light by galactic and intergalactic dust in the Universe. Even galactic opacity of 10-20 percent and minute universe intergalactic…
The current cycle minimum appears to be deeper and broader than recent cycle minima, and this minimum appears similar to the minima in the early 1900s. With the best-ever solar irradiance measurements from several different satellite…
The impact of large-scale constellations of satellites, is a concern for ground-based astronomers. In recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of satellites in Low-Earth Orbit and this trend is set to continue. The…
We report optical Cousins R and I band monitoring observations of the high redshift (z = 4.67) QSO SDSS J153259.96-003944.1 that does not show detectable emission lines in its optical spectrum. We show this object varies with a maximum…
We report strict upper limits to the radio luminosities of three neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries obtained with the Very Large Array while they were in hard X-ray states as observed with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer: 1E 1724-307, 4U…
Observations of Beta Lyr in four months of 2018 by three BRITE Constellation satellites (the red-filter BTr and BHr, and the blue-filter BLb) permitted a first, limited look into the light-curve variability in two spectral bands. The…
We present the discovery of Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1, the least luminous known satellite of the Milky Way, which is estimated to have an absolute V-band magnitude of $+2.2^{+0.4}_{-0.3}$ mag, equivalent to a total stellar mass of…