1,955 research outputs found
The second US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC2)
The second USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog, UCAC2 was released in July 2003.
Positions and proper motions for 48,330,571 sources (mostly stars) are
available on 3 CDs, supplemented with 2MASS photometry for 99.5% of the
sources. The catalog covers the sky area from -90 to +40 degrees declination,
going up to +52 in some areas; this completely supersedes the UCAC1 released in
2001. Current epoch positions are obtained from observations with the USNO
8-inch Twin Astrograph equipped with a 4k CCD camera. The precision of the
positions are 15 to 70 mas, depending on magnitude, with estimated systematic
errors of 10 mas or below. Proper motions are derived by utilizing over 140
ground-and space-based catalogs, including Hipparcos/Tycho, the AC2000.2, as
well as yet unpublished re-measures of the AGK2 plates and scans from the NPM
and SPM plates. Proper motion errors are about 1 to 3 mas/yr for stars to 12th
magnitude, and about 4 to 7 mas/yr for fainter stars to 16th magnitude. The
observational data, astrometric reductions, results, and important information
for the users of this catalog are presented.Comment: accepted by AJ, AAS LaTeX, 14 figures, 10 table
The KELT-South Telescope
The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) project is a survey for new
transiting planets around bright stars. KELT-South is a small-aperture,
wide-field automated telescope located at Sutherland, South Africa. The
telescope surveys a set of 26 degree by 26 degree fields around the southern
sky, and targets stars in the range of 8 < V < 10 mag, searching for transits
by Hot Jupiters. This paper describes the KELT-South system hardware and
software and discusses the quality of the observations. We show that KELT-South
is able to achieve the necessary photometric precision to detect transits of
Hot Jupiters around solar-type main-sequence stars.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figure
Airborne imaging of tropospheric emission at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths
In September 1993, the NASA Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (MIR) flew on board the NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft during CAMEX, and obtained the first wideband millimeter- and submillimeter-wavelength images of tropospheric emission. The MIR is a cross-track radiometer with channels at 89, 150, 183 +/- 1, 3, 7, 220, and 325 +/- 1, 3, 8 GHz. This set provides upwelling brightness information at the two strong rotational water vapor lines at 183.310 and 325.153 GHz and three nearby atmospheric transmission windows. The wideband MIR images of convective raincells reveal unique cloud and precipitation mapping capabilities that are not available from lower frequency microwave channels. Comparisons between the 183 and 325 GHz spectra also reveal differential brightness temperature modes that are related to cloud water
Discovery of a bright eclipsing cataclysmic variable
We report on the discovery of J0644+3344, a bright deeply eclipsing
cataclysmic variable (CV) binary. Spectral signatures of both binary components
and an accretion disk can be seen at optical wavelengths. The optical spectrum
shows broad H I, He I, and He II accretion disk emission lines with deep narrow
absorption components from H I, He I, Mg II and Ca II. The absorption lines are
seen throughout the orbital period, disappearing only during primary eclipse.
These absorption lines are either the the result of an optically-thick inner
accretion disk or from the photosphere of the primary star. Radial velocity
measurements show that the H I, He I, and Mg II absorption lines phase with the
the primary star, while weak absorption features in the continuum phase with
the secondary star. Radial velocity solutions give a 150+/-4 km/s
semi-amplitude for the primary star and 192.8+/-5.6 km/s for the secondary. The
individual stellar masses are 0.63-0.69 Mdot for the primary and 0.49-0.54 Mdot
for the secondary. The bright eclipsing nature of this binary has helped
provide masses for both components with an accuracy rarely achieved for CVs.
This binary most closely resembles a nova-like UX UMa or SW Sex type of CV.
J0644+3344, however, has a longer orbital period than most UX UMa or SW Sex
stars. Assuming an evolution toward shorter orbital periods, J0644+3344 is
therefore likely to be a young interacting binary. The secondary star is
consistent with the size and spectral type of a K8 star, but has an M0 mass.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figure, accepted for publication in A&
Late-Type Red Supergiants: Too Cool for the Magellanic Clouds?
We have identified seven red supergiants (RSGs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud
(LMC) and four RSGs in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), all of which have
spectral types that are considerably later than the average type observed in
their parent galaxy. Using moderate-resolution optical spectrophotometry and
the MARCS stellar atmosphere models, we determine their physical properties and
place them on the H-R diagram for comparison with the predictions of current
stellar evolutionary tracks. The radial velocities of these stars suggest that
they are likely all members of the Clouds rather than foreground dwarfs or halo
giants. Their locations in the H-R diagram also show us that those stars are
cooler than the current evolutionary tracks allow, appearing to the right of
the Hayashi limit, a region in which stars are no longer in hydrodynamic
equilibrium. These stars exhibit considerable variability in their V
magnitudes, and three of these stars also show changes in their effective
temperatures (and spectral types) on the time-scales of months. One of these
stars, [M2002] SMC 055188, was caught in an M4.5 I state, as late as that seen
in HV 11423 at its recent extreme: considerable later, and cooler, than any
other supergiant in the SMC. In addition, we find evidence of variable
extinction due to circumstellar dust and changes in the stars' luminosities,
also consistent with our recent findings for HV 11423 - when these stars are
hotter they are also dustier and more luminous. We suggest that these stars
have unusual properties because they are in an unstable (and short-lived)
evolutionary phase.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures; submitted to the Astrophysical Journa
Deep Astrometric Standards (DAS) and Galactic Structure
The advent of next-generation imaging telescopes such as LSST and Pan-STARRS
has revitalized the need for deep and precise reference frames. The proposed
weak-lensing observations with these facilities put the highest demands on
image quality over wide angles on the sky. It is particularly difficult to
achieve a sub-arcsecond PSF on stacked images, where precise astrometry plays a
key role. Current astrometric standards are insufficient to achieve the science
goals of these facilities. We thus propose the establishing of a few selected
deep (V=25) astrometric standards (DAS). These will enable a reliable geometric
calibration of solid-state mosaic detectors in the focal plane of large
ground-based telescopes and make a substantial contribution to our
understanding of stellar populations in the Milky Way. In this paper we
motivate the need for such standards and discuss the strategy of their
selection and acquisition and reduction techniques. The feasibility of DAS is
demonstrated by a pilot study around the open cluster NGC 188, using the KPNO
4m CCD Mosaic camera, and by Subaru Suprime-Cam observations. The goal of
reaching an accuracy of 5-10 mas in positions and obtaining absolute proper
motions good to 2 mas/yr over a several square-degree area is challenging, but
reachable with the NOAO 4m telescopes and CCD mosaic imagers or a similar
set-up. Our proposed DAS aims to establish four fields near the Galactic plane,
at widely separated coordinates. In addition to their utilitarian purpose for
DAS, the data we will obtain in these fields will enable fundamental Galactic
science in their own right. The positions, proper motions, and VI photometry of
faint stars will address outstanding questions of Galactic disk formation and
evolution, stellar buildup and mass assembly via merger events.Comment: 41 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in PAS
AN ULTRA-FAINT GALAXY CANDIDATE DISCOVERED in EARLY DATA from the MAGELLANIC SATELLITES SURVEY
We report a new ultra-faint stellar system found in Dark Energy Camera data from the first observing run of the Magellanic Satellites Survey (MagLiteS). MagLiteS J0644-5953 (Pictor II or Pic II) is a low surface brightness (ÎĽ = 28.5+1 -1 mag arcsec-2 within its half-light radius) resolved overdensity of old and metal-poor stars located at a heliocentric distance of 45+5 -4 kpc. The physical size (r1/2 = 46+15 -11) and low luminosity (Mv = -3.2+0.4 -0.5 mag) of this satellite are consistent with the locus of spectroscopically confirmed ultra-faint galaxies. MagLiteS J0644-5953 (Pic II) is located 11.3+3.1 -0.9 kpc from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and comparisons with simulation results in the literature suggest that this satellite was likely accreted with the LMC. The close proximity of MagLiteS J0644-5953 (Pic II) to the LMC also makes it the most likely ultra-faint galaxy candidate to still be gravitationally bound to the LMC.Peer reviewe
All-Sky spectrally matched UBVRI-ZY and u'g'r'i'z' magnitudes for stars in the Tycho2 catalog
We present fitted UBVRI-ZY and u'g'r'i'z' magnitudes, spectral types and
distances for 2.4M stars, derived from synthetic photometry of a library
spectrum that best matches the Tycho2 BtVt, NOMAD Rn and 2MASS JHK_{2/S}
catalog magnitudes. We present similarly synthesized multi-filter magnitudes,
types and distances for 4.8M stars with 2MASS and SDSS photometry to g<16
within the Sloan survey region, for Landolt and Sloan primary standards, and
for Sloan Northern (PT) and Southern secondary standards.
The synthetic magnitude zeropoints for BtVt, UBVRI, ZvYv, JHK_{2/S},
JHK_{MKO}, Stromgren uvby, Sloan u'g'r'i'z' and ugriz are calibrated on 20
calspec spectrophotometric standards. The UBVRI and ugriz zeropoints have
dispersions of 1--3%, for standards covering a range of color from -0.3 < V-I <
4.6; those for other filters are in the range 2--5%.
The spectrally matched fits to Tycho2 stars provide estimated 1-sigma errors
per star of ~0.2, 0.15, 0.12, 0.10 and 0.08 mags respectively in either UBVRI
or u'g'r'i'z'; those for at least 70% of the SDSS survey region to g<16 have
estimated 1-sigma errors per star of ~0.2, 0.06, 0.04, 0.04, 0.05 in u'g'r'i'z'
or UBVRI.
The density of Tycho2 stars, averaging about 60 stars per square degree,
provides sufficient stars to enable automatic flux calibrations for most
digital images with fields of view of 0.5 degree or more. Using several such
standards per field, automatic flux calibration can be achieved to a few
percent in any filter, at any airmass, in most workable observing conditions,
to facilitate inter-comparison of data from different sites, telescopes and
instruments.Comment: 36 pages, 30 figures, 3 printed tables, several electronic tables,
accepted PASP Dec 201
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