Astrokit -- an Efficient Program for High-Precision Differential CCD Photometry and Search for Variable Stars

Having a need to perform differential photometry for tens of thousands stars in a several square degrees field, we developed Astrokit program. The software corrects the star brightness variations caused by variations of atmospheric transparency: to this end, the program selects for each star an individual ensemble of reference stars having similar magnitudes and positions in the frame. With ten or more reference stars in the ensemble, the differences between their spectral types and the spectral type of the object studied become unimportant. Astrokit searches for variable stars using Robust Median Statistics criterion, which allows candidate variables to be selected more efficiently than by analyzing the standard deviation of star magnitudes. The software allows very precise automatic analysis of long inhomogeneous sets of photometric observations of a large number of objects to be performed, making it possible to find "hot Jupiter" type exoplanet transits and low-amplitude variables. We describe the algorithm of the program and the results of its application to reduce the data of the photometric sky survey in Cygnus as well as observations of the open cluster NGC188 and the transit of the exoplanet WASP-11 b / HAT-P-10 b, performed with the MASTER-II-URAL telescope of the Kourovka Astronomical Observatory of the Ural Federal University.Comment: to be published in Astrophysical Bulletin, Vol. 69, No.

Trajectory Retrieval and Component Investigations of Southern Polar Stratosphere Based on High Resolution Spectroscopy of Totally Eclipsed Moon Surface

Abstract. In this paper we present the high resolution spectral observations of the fragment of lunar surface during the total lunar eclipse of December 10, 2011. The observations were carried out with the fiber-fed echelle spectrograph at 1.2-m telescope in Kourovka Astronomical observatory (Ural mountains, central Russia). The observed radiation is transferred by tangent trajectory through the southern polar stratosphere before the reflection from the Moon and spectra contain a number of absorption bands of atmospheric gases (O 2 , O 3 , O 4 , NO 2 , H 2 O). High resolution analysis of three O 2 bands and O 4 absorption effects is used to trace the effective trajectory of solar emission through the stratosphere and to detect the contribution of scattered light. Bands of other gases allow us to measure their abundances along the trajectory

Master Robotic Net

The main goal of the MASTER-Net project is to produce a unique fast sky survey with all sky observed over a single night down to a limiting magnitude of 19 - 20mag. Such a survey will make it possible to address a number of fundamental problems: search for dark energy via the discovery and photometry of supernovas (including SNIa), search for exoplanets, microlensing effects, discovery of minor bodies in the Solar System and space-junk monitoring. All MASTER telescopes can be guided by alerts, and we plan to observe prompt optical emission from gamma-ray bursts synchronously in several filters and in several polarization planes.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

MASTER prompt and follow-up GRB observations

There are the results of gamma-ray bursts observations obtained using the MASTER robotic telescope in 2007 - 2009. We observed 20 error-boxes of gamma-ray bursts this period.The limits on their optical brightnesses have been derived. There are 5 prompt observations among them, obtained at our very wide field cameras. Also we present the results of the earliest observations of the optical emission of the gamma-ray bursts GRB 050824 and GRB 060926.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Transient detections and other real-time data processing from wide-field chambers MASTER-VWF

At present time Robotic observatory making is of current importance. Having a large field of view and being able to point at anywhere, Robotic astronomical systems are indispensable when they looking for transients like grb, supernovae explosions, novae etc, as it's impossible in these cases to foresee what you should point you telescope at and when. In work are described prompt GRB observations received on wide-field chambers MASTER-VWF, and also methods of the images analysis and transients classifications applied in real-time data processing in this experiment. For 7 months of operation 6 synchronous observations of gamma-ray burst had been made by MASTER VWF in Kislovodsk and Irkutsk. In all cases a high upper limits have been received (see tabl \ref {tab_grbwf} and fig. \ref {allgrb}).Comment: 21 pages, 21 figure, 2 tables, Advances in Astronomy in pres

First results of the Kourovka Planet Search: discovery of transiting exoplanet candidates in the first three target fields

We present the first results of our search for transiting exoplanet candidates as part of the Kourovka Planet Search (KPS) project. The primary objective of the project is to search for new hot Jupiters which transit their host stars, mainly in the Galactic plane, in the $R_c$ magnitude range of 11 to 14 mag. Our observations were performed with the telescope of the MASTER robotic network, installed at the Kourovka astronomical observatory of the Ural Federal University (Russia), and the Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph, installed at the private Acton Sky Portal Observatory (USA). As test observations, we observed three celestial fields of size $2\times2$ deg$^2$ during the period from 2012 to 2015. As a result, we discovered four transiting exoplanet candidates among the 39000 stars of the input catalogue. In this paper, we provide the description of the project and analyse additional photometric, spectral, and speckle interferometric observations of the discovered transiting exoplanet candidates. Three of the four transiting exoplanet candidates are most likely astrophysical false positives, while the nature of the fourth (most promising) candidate remains to be ascertained. Also, we propose an alternative observing strategy that could increase the project's exoplanet haul.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figures; Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 201

Supernova search with active learning in ZTF DR3

We provide the first results from the complete SNAD adaptive learning pipeline in the context of a broad scope of data from large-scale astronomical surveys. The main goal of this work is to explore the potential of adaptive learning techniques in application to big data sets. Our SNAD team used Active Anomaly Discovery (AAD) as a tool to search for new supernova (SN) candidates in the photometric data from the first 9.4 months of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey, namely, between March 17 and December 31 2018 (58194 < MJD < 58483). We analysed 70 ZTF fields at a high galactic latitude and visually inspected 2100 outliers. This resulted in 104 SN-like objects being found, 57 of which were reported to the Transient Name Server for the first time and with 47 having previously been mentioned in other catalogues, either as SNe with known types or as SN candidates. We visually inspected the multi-colour light curves of the non-catalogued transients and performed fittings with different supernova models to assign it to a probable photometric class: Ia, Ib/c, IIP, IIL, or IIn. Moreover, we also identified unreported slow-evolving transients that are good superluminous SN candidates, along with a few other non-catalogued objects, such as red dwarf flares and active galactic nuclei. Beyond confirming the effectiveness of human-machine integration underlying the AAD strategy, our results shed light on potential leaks in currently available pipelines. These findings can help avoid similar losses in future large-scale astronomical surveys. Furthermore, the algorithm enables direct searches of any type of data and based on any definition of an anomaly set by the expert.Comment: 22 pages with appendix, 12 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Trajectory Retrieval and Component Investigations of Southern Polar Stratosphere Based on High Resolution Spectroscopy of Totally Eclipsed Moon Surface

In this paper we present the high resolution spectral observations of the fragment of lunar surface during the total lunar eclipse of December 10, 2011. The observations were carried out with the fiber-fed echelle spectrograph at 1.2-m telescope in Kourovka Astronomical observatory (Ural mountains, central Russia). The observed radiation is transferred by tangent trajectory through the southern polar stratosphere before the reflection from the Moon and spectra contain a number of absorption bands of atmospheric gases (O2, O3, O4, NO2, H2O). High resolution analysis of three O2 bands and O4 absorption effects is used to trace the effective trajectory of solar emission through the stratosphere and to detect the contribution of scattered light. Bands of other gases allow us to measure their abundances along the trajectory.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure