Related papers: A seeing measurement device for the PoET solar tel…
High precision fast photometry from ground-based observatories is a challenge due to intensity fluctuations (scintillation) produced by the Earth's atmosphere. Here we describe a method to reduce the effects of scintillation by a…
The ESPRESSO spectrograph at ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has, since it began science operations in October 2018, revolutionised exoplanet science. The combination of the large VLT mirrors and the high resolution and stability of the…
At optical wavelengths, an exoplanet's signature is essentially reflected light from the host star - several orders of magnitude fainter. Since it is superimposed on the star spectrum its detection has been a difficult observational…
A Low Humidity and Temperature Profiling (LHATPRO) microwave radiometer, manufactured by Radiometer Physics GmbH (RPG), is used to monitor sky conditions over ESO's Paranal observatory in support of VLT science operations. In addition to…
Observations of interplanetary scintillation (IPS - the scintillation of compact radio sources due to density variations in the solar wind) enable the velocity of the solar wind to be determined, and its bulk density to be estimated,…
This report models the refractive index above a telescope site by an atmosphere with exponential decay of the refractive index (susceptibility) as a function of altitude. The air is represented as a spherical hull around the surface. We…
Recent observations of interplanetary scintillation (IPS) at radio frequencies have proved to be a powerful tool for probing the solar environment from the ground. But how far back does this tradition really extend? Our survey of the…
Measurements of the spectrum of the fluctuations of the output current of the quadratic detector of a telescope can be used to find unresolved astronomical gravitational lenses and determine time delays between their image components. These…
Conventional techniques that measure rapid time variations are inefficient or inadequate to discover and observe rapidly pulsating astronomical sources. It is therefore conceivable that there exist some classes of objects pulsating with…
Astronomical seeing is quantified by a single parameter, turbulence integral, in the framework of the Kolmogorov turbulence model. This parameter can be routinely measured by a Differential Image Motion Monitor, DIMM. A new instrument,…
The next generation of large ground-based optical and infrared telescopes will provide new challenges for designers of astronomical instrumentation. The varied science cases for these extremely large telescopes (ELTs) require a large range…
The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project of a new-generation solar telescope. It has a large aperture of 4~m, which is necessary for achieving high spatial and temporal resolution. The high polarimetric sensitivity of the EST will…
Every 11 years, the Sun goes through periods of activity, with the occurrence of many solar flares and mass ejections, both energetic phenomena of magnetic origin. Due to its effects on Earth, the study of solar activity is of paramount…
CODEX, a high resolution, super-stable spectrograph to be fed by the E-ELT, the most powerful telescope ever conceived, will for the first time provide the possibility of directly measuring the change of the expansion rate of the Universe…
Users of astronomical observatories rely on Exposure Time Calculators (ETC) to prepare their proposals and then their observations. The ETC is therefore a crucial element in an observatory's data workflow and in particular is key to…
We investigate the role of active region spicules in the mass balance of the solar wind and energy supply for heating the solar atmosphere. We use high cadence observations from the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) onboard the Hinode satellite…
The possibilities of organizing an observation service for solar activity in order to provide space weather forecasting are considered. The most promising at this stage is the creation of a ground-based observation network. Such a network…
POET (Polarimeters for Energetic Transients) is a Small Explorer mission concept proposed to NASA in January 2008. The principal scientific goal of POET is to measure GRB polarization between 2 and 500 keV. The payload consists of two wide…
In this paper we review the main issues that are relevant for the detection of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) from space. EAS are produced by the interaction of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Particles (UHECP) with the atmosphere and can be observed…
A key goal of the Solar Orbiter mission is to connect elemental abundance measurements of the solar wind enveloping the spacecraft with EUV spectroscopic observations of their solar sources, but this is not an easy exercise. Observations…