A determination of the spin-orbit alignment of the anomalously dense planet orbiting HD 149026

We report 35 radial velocity measurements of HD 149026 taken with the Keck Telescope. Of these measurements, 15 were made during the transit of the companion planet HD 149026b, which occurred on 2005 June 25. These velocities provide a high-cadence observation of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, the shifting of photospheric line profiles that occurs when a planet occults a portion of the rotating stellar surface. We combine these radial velocities with previously published radial velocity and photometric data sets and derive a composite best-fit model for the star-planet system. This model confirms and improves previously published orbital parameters, including the remarkably small planetary radius, the planetary mass, and the orbital inclination, found to be Rp/RJup = 0.718 ± 0.065, Mp/MJup = 0.352 ± 0.025, and I = 86.1° ± 1.4°, respectively. Together the planetary mass and radius determinations imply a mean planetary density of 1.18(-0.30)(+0.38)g cm(-3). The new data also allow for the determination of the angle between the apparent stellar equator and the orbital plane, which we constrain to be λ = -12° ± 15°

The quadruple-lined, doubly-eclipsing system V482 Persei

We report spectroscopic and differential photometric observations of the A-type system V482 Per that reveal it to be a rare hierarchical quadruple system containing two eclipsing binaries. One has the previously known orbital period of 2.4 days and a circular orbit, and the other a period of 6 days, a slightly eccentric orbit (e = 0.11), and shallow eclipses only 2.3% deep. The two binaries revolve around their common center of mass in a highly elongated orbit (e = 0.85) with a period of 16.67 yr. Radial velocities are measured for all components from our quadruple-lined spectra, and are combined with the light curves and with measurements of times of minimum light for the 2.4 day binary to solve for the elements of the inner and outer orbits simultaneously. The line-of-sight inclination angles of the three orbits are similar, suggesting they may be close to coplanar. The available observations appear to indicate that the 6 day binary experiences significant retrograde apsidal motion in the amount of about 60 degrees per century. We derive absolute masses for the four stars good to better than 1.5%, along with radii with formal errors of 1.1% and 3.5% for the 2.4 day binary and about 9% for the 6 day binary. A comparison of these and other physical properties with current stellar evolution models gives excellent agreement for a metallicity of [Fe/H] = -0.15 and an age of 360 Myr.Comment: 15 pages in emulateapj format, including figures and tables. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

A combined spectroscopic and photometric stellar activity study of Epsilon Eridani

We present simultaneous ground-based radial velocity (RV) measurements and space-based photometric measurements of the young and active K dwarf Epsilon Eridani. These measurements provide a data set for exploring methods of identifying and ultimately distinguishing stellar photospheric velocities from Keplerian motion. We compare three methods we have used in exploring this data set: Dalmatian, an MCMC spot modeling code that fits photometric and RV measurements simultaneously; the FF$'$ method, which uses photometric measurements to predict the stellar activity signal in simultaneous RV measurements; and H$\alpha$ analysis. We show that our H$\alpha$ measurements are strongly correlated with photometry from the Microvariability and Oscillations of STars (MOST) instrument, which led to a promising new method based solely on the spectroscopic observations. This new method, which we refer to as the HH$'$ method, uses H$\alpha$ measurements as input into the FF$'$ model. While the Dalmatian spot modeling analysis and the FF$'$ method with MOST space-based photometry are currently more robust, the HH$'$ method only makes use of one of the thousands of stellar lines in the visible spectrum. By leveraging additional spectral activity indicators, we believe the HH$'$ method may prove quite useful in disentangling stellar signals

Separated Fringe Packet Observations with the CHARA Array III. The Very High Eccentricity Binary HR 7345

After an eleven year observing campaign, we present the combined visual{spectroscopic orbit of the formerly unremarkable bright star HR 7345 (HD 181655, HIP 94981, GJ 754.2). Using the Separated Fringe Packet (SFP) method with the CHARA Array, we were able to determine a difficult to complete orbital period of 331.609 +/- 0.004 days. The 11 month period causes the system to be hidden from interferometric view behind the Sun for 3 years at a time. Due to the high eccentricity orbit of about 90% of a year, after 2018 January the periastron phase will not be observable again until late 2021. Hindered by its extremely high eccentricity of 0.9322 +/- 0.0001, the double-lined spectroscopic phase of HR 7345 is observable for 15 days. Such a high eccentricity for HR 7345 places it among the most eccentric systems in catalogs of both visual and spectroscopic orbits. For this system we determine nearly identical component masses of 0.941 +/- 0.076 Msun and 0.926 +/- 0.075 Msun as well as an orbital parallax of 41.08 +/- 0.77 mas.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, 4 table

Health and physical education 2013

In 2013 the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement assessed student achievement in two learning areas of the New Zealand Curriculum–health and physical education, and mathematics and statistics. This report focuses on health and physical education. Summary The National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement–Wānangatia Te Putanga Tauira–is designed to assess and understand student achievement across the New Zealand Curriculum at Year 4 and Year 8 in New Zealand’s English-medium state schools. The main purposes of National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement are: • to provide a snapshot of student achievement against the New Zealand Curriculum; • to identify factors that are associated with achievement; • to assess strengths and weaknesses across the curriculum; • to measure change in student achievement over time; and • to provide high quality, robust information for policy makers, curriculum planners and educators. National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement assessed achievement inhealth and physical education in two ways: by using a measure of Critical Thinking in Health and Physical Education; and descriptive reporting of students’ understanding of well-being, and the demonstration of a range of movement and strategic action skills within the contexts of games, and movement sequences. The Critical Thinking in Health and Physical Education achievement measure was aligned to the levels of the New Zealand Curriculum.Other data related to students’, teachers’ and principals’views of  teaching and learning in health and physical education were also collected via questionnaires. &nbsp

The NASA-UC Eta-Earth Program: II. A Planet Orbiting HD 156668 with a Minimum Mass of Four Earth Masses

We report the discovery of HD 156668b, an extrasolar planet with a minimum mass of M_P sin i = 4.15 M_Earth. This planet was discovered through Keplerian modeling of precise radial velocities from Keck-HIRES and is the second super-Earth to emerge from the NASA-UC Eta-Earth Survey. The best-fit orbit is consistent with circular and has a period of P = 4.6455 d. The Doppler semi-amplitude of this planet, K = 1.89 m/s, is among the lowest ever detected, on par with the detection of GJ 581e using HARPS. A longer period (P ~ 2.3 yr), low-amplitude signal of unknown origin was also detected in the radial velocities and was filtered out of the data while fitting the short-period planet. Additional data are required to determine if the long-period signal is due to a second planet, stellar activity, or another source. Photometric observations using the Automated Photometric Telescopes at Fairborn Observatory show that HD 156668 (an old, quiet K3 dwarf) is photometrically constant over the radial velocity period to 0.1 mmag, supporting the existence of the planet. No transits were detected down to a photometric limit of ~3 mmag, ruling out transiting planets dominated by extremely bloated atmospheres, but not precluding a transiting solid/liquid planet with a modest atmosphere.Comment: This planet was announced at the 2010 AAS meeting in Wash. DC; 12 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, submitted to Ap