Related papers: The ASTRA Spectrophotometer: A July 2004 Progress …
The previous decade saw the discovery of the first four known interstellar objects due to advances in astronomical viewing equipment. Future sky surveys with greater sensitivity will allow for more frequent detections of such objects,…
As the frontier of precision astronomical photometry continues to advance, correcting for time-variable atmospheric transmission becomes increasingly important. We describe an observational approach to monitoring optical attenuation due to…
A low-amplitude periodic signal in the radial velocity (RV) time series of Barnard's Star was recently attributed to a planetary companion with a minimum mass of ${\sim}$3.2 $M_\oplus$ at an orbital period of $\sim$233 days. The relatively…
The GAMA survey aims to deliver 250,000 optical spectra (3--7Ang resolution) over 250 sq. degrees to spectroscopic limits of r_{AB} <19.8 and K_{AB}<17.0 mag. Complementary imaging will be provided by GALEX, VST, UKIRT, VISTA, HERSCHEL and…
The next generation of ground-based interferometric gravitational wave detectors will observe mergers of black holes and neutron stars throughout cosmic time. A large number of the binary neutron star merger events will be observed with…
Earth-mass exoplanets on year-long orbits and cool gas giants (CGG) on decade-long orbits lie at the edge of current detection limits. The Terra Hunting Experiment (THE) will take nightly radial velocity (RV) observations on HARPS3 of at…
We have assessed how well stellar parameters (T_eff, logg and [Fe/H]) can be retrieved from low-resolution dispersed images to be obtained by the DIVA satellite. Although DIVA is primarily an all-sky astrometric mission, it will also obtain…
Aims. The Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) on board the ESA satellite mission Gaia has no calibration device. Therefore, the radial velocity zero point needs to be calibrated with stars that are proved to be stable at a level of 300 m/s…
Although not designed as an astrometric instrument, Kepler is expected to produce astrometric results of a quality appropriate to support many of the astrophysical investigations enabled by its photometric results. On the basis of data…
The impact of rapid rotation on stellar evolution theory remains poorly understood as of today. Vega is a special object in this context as spectroscopic and interferometric studies have shown that it is a rapid rotator seen nearly pole…
We report on speckle observations of binary stars carried out at the WIYN Telescope over the period from September 2010 through February 2012, providing relative astrometry for 2521 observations of 883 objects, 856 of which are double stars…
We present the first results of the site testing performed at Mt.~Shatdzhatmaz at Northern Caucasus, where the new Sternberg astronomical institute 2.5-m telescope will be installed. An automatic site monitor instrumentation and…
We present preliminary results from a programme to obtain multi-object near-infrared spectroscopy of galaxies at redshifts $0.7<z<1.5$. We are using the instrument CIRPASS (the Cambridge Infra-Red PAnoramic Survey Spectrograph), in…
Stellar activity interferes with precise radial velocity measurements and limits our ability to detect and characterize planets, particularly Earth-like planets. We introduce \aestra (Auto-Encoding STellar Radial-velocity and Activity), a…
We report initial performance results emerging from 600 hours of observations with the Automated Planet Finder (APF) telescope and Levy Spectrometer located at UCO/Lick Observatory. We have obtained multiple spectra of 80 G, K and M-type…
We used 1,477,047 data from DR1-TGAS, in order to analyse the minimum require- ments of accuracy, necessary to detect sub-stellar objects in the astrometric mea- surements of Gaia. We found that the first set of data (DR1) does not have…
Astrometry is one of the oldest branches of astronomy which measures the position, the proper motion and parallax of celestial objects. Following the Hipparcos and Gaia missions that have measured several billions of them using global…
We present precise photometry and spectroscopy for 23 candidate spectrophotometric standard white dwarfs. The selected stars are distributed in the Northern hemisphere and around the celestial equators and are all fainter than r ~ 16.5 mag.…
After eight observing Cycles, the Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA) is capable of observing in eight different bands (covering a frequency range from 84 to 950 GHz), with 66 antennas and two correlators. For the current…
The Beta Pictoris Moving Group is a nearby stellar association of young (12Myr) co-moving stars including the classical debris disk star beta Pictoris. Due to their proximity and youth they are excellent targets when searching for…