We have obtained spectra of 16 PNe in the disk of M31 and determined the abundances of He, N, O, Ne, S and Ar. Here we present the median abundances and compare them with previous M31 PN disk measurements and with PNe in the Milky Way. We also derive the radial oxygen gradient in M31, which is shallower than that in the Milky Way, even accounting for M31's larger disk scale length.

During the transition from an AGB star to a planetary nebula, a large number of low/intermediate initial mass stars loses its spherical symmetry. The process responsible for that change of morphology is, so far, not well understood. The candidates responsible for shaping these objects are (i) a companion to the star (binary/heavy planet) and its tidal forces, (ii) disk interaction and (iii) magnetic fields - or a combination of these. In particular a binary induced magnetic field is a promising option. To study this we observed the polarization of H2O masers in the known binary pre-Planetary Nebula (pPN) OH231.8+4.2. Our results show a magnetic field B|| of ~45 mG is present in the H2O maser region of this pPN.

The aim of the FRATs project is to detect single dispersed pulses from Fast Radio Transients with LOFAR in real time. The pulses can originate from pulsars, RRATS and other classes of known or unknown objects. To detect the pulses a trigger algorithm is run on an incoherent beam from the different LOFAR stations. The beam has a wide field of view and can be formed parallel to other observations. A precise localisation is achieved by storing and processing off-line the data from each dipole, giving all-sky coverage with a spatial resolution of the order of arc-seconds. The source is identified by making high-time-resolution images. The method has been tested by detecting and identifying a giant pulse from the Crab pulsar.

The Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER) is a rocket-borne absolute photometry imaging and spectroscopy experiment optimized to detect signatures of first-light galaxies present during reionization in the unresolved IR background. CIBER-I consists of a wide-field two-color camera for fluctuation measurements, a low-resolution absolute spectrometer for absolute EBL measurements, and a narrow-band imaging spectrometer to measure and correct scattered emission from the foreground zodiacal cloud. CIBER-I was successfully flown in February 2009 and July 2010 and four more flights are planned by 2014, including an upgrade (CIBER-II). We propose, after several additional flights of CIBER-I, an improved CIBER-II camera consisting of a wide-field 30 cm imager operating in 4 bands between 0.5 and 2.1 microns. It is designed for a high significance detection of unresolved IR background fluctuations at the minimum level necessary for reionization. With a FOV 50 to 2000 times larger than existing IR instruments on satellites, CIBER-II will carry out the definitive study to establish the surface density of sources responsible for reionization.

We introduce a new computer program that is able to determine the flux ratio between the components of SB2 stars from time series of composite spectra. The spectra of the components are decomposed using the KOREL program and compared to synthetic spectra computed on a grid of fundamental stellar parameters. In the result, we obtain the optimized stellar parameters together with the flux ratio. The program is tested and applied to the oscillating eclipsing binary KIC 10661783 observed by the Kepler satellite mission.

The detection of sources in interferometric radio data typically relies on extracting information from images, formed by Fourier transform of the underlying visibility dataset, and CLEANed of contaminating sidelobes through iterative deconvolution. Variable and transient radio sources span a large range of variability timescales, and their study has the potential to enhance our knowledge of the dynamic universe. Their detection and classification involve large data rates and non-stationary PSFs, commensal observing programs and ambitious science goals, and will demand a paradigm shift in the deployment of next-generation instruments. Optimal source detection and classification in real time requires efficient and automated algorithms. On short time-scales variability can be probed with an optimal matched filter detector applied directly to the visibility dataset. This paper shows the design of such a detector, and some preliminary detection performance results.

EMU is a wide-field radio continuum survey planned for the new Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope, due to be completed in 2012. The primary goal of EMU is to make a deep (~10μJy/bm rms) radio continuum survey of the entire Southern Sky at 1.4 GHz, extending as far North as +30° declination, with a 10 arcsec resolution. EMU is expected to detect and catalog about 70 million galaxies, including typical star-forming galaxies up to z = 1, powerful starbursts to even greater redshifts, and AGNs to the edge of the Universe. EMU will undoubtedly discover new classes of object. Here I present the science goals and survey parameters.

Binaries are not always neatly aligned. Previous observations of the DI Herculis system showed that the spin axes of both stars are highly inclined with respect to one another and the orbital axis. Here, we report on our ongoing survey to measure relative orientations of spin-axes in a number of eclipsing binary systems.

These observations will hopefully lead to new insights into star and planet formation, as different formation scenarios predict different degrees of alignment and different dependencies on the system parameters. Measurements of spin-orbit angles in close binary systems will also create a basis for comparison for similar measurements involving close-in planets.

We present our long-term monitoring, using both ground-based telescopes and the HST, of the expansion in the plane of the sky of the outflows from evolved stars. They include the PN M2–9 (suspected of hosting a symbiotic nucleus), the classical nova remnant GK Per, the symbiotic Miras R Aqr, Hen 2–147 and Hen 2–104, and the proto-PNe CRL 618, CRL 2688, and Hen 3–1475.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a telescope comprising 66 antennas that is located in the Atacama Desert in Chile, one of the driest locations on Earth. When the telescope is fully operational, it will perform observations over ten receiver bands at wavelengths from 9.5-0.32 mm (31-950 GHz) with unprecedented sensitivities to continuum emission from cold (<20 K) dust, Bremsstrahlung, and synchrotron emission as well as submillimetre and millimetre molecular lines. With baselines out to 16km and dynamic reconfiguration, ALMA will achieve spatial resolutions ranging from 3″ to 0.010″, allowing for detailed imaging of continuum or molecular line emission from 0.1-1 kpc scale gas and dust discs in high-redshift sources or 10-100 pc scale molecular clouds and substructures within nearby galaxies. Science observations started on 30 September 2011 with 16 antennas and four receiver bands on baselines up to 400 m. The telescope's capabilities will steadily improve until full operations begin in 2013.

The enigmatic long period (P = 27.1 yr) eclipsing binary, ε Aurigae, recently emerged from its 2009–2011 eclipse. We have analyzed out-of-eclipse observations (Chadima et al. 2010) obtained over the past 17 years: 306 medium-resolution, high S/N, spectroscopic observations from 6300–6700 Å. Of these, 105 spectra were obtained at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) near Victoria, Canada, from 1994–2010, and 201 spectra were obtained at Ondřejov Observatory (OND), from 2006–2010. Analyzing these data, Chadima et al. (these proceedings) reported on a positive, but ultimately spurious, detection of a secondary spectrum. Their attempts at disentangling the binary spectra were foiled by line profile variations of the F star primary. The 6300-6700 Å spectral region contains several strong stellar lines but space limitations allow us to present only the results for Si II 6347 Å. We examine the centroids and higher moments of this prominent F star spectral line for any evidence of a secondary spectrum. Even if secondary contributions are blended with the F star lines, contamination by the secondary star should produce a centroid shift that is anti-correlated with the orbit of the F star primary.

We describe an ongoing project to migrate the emission-line analysis package nebular from its current environment, IRAF, to a modern programming environment where it can be used from command line, a local GUI, or the web. We are also updating the supporting atomic data where they have been superseded by superior calculations or measurements.

We present the Wide-Field Plate Database, a basic source of data and meta-data for astronomy's more than 2.4 million wide-field photographic images obtained with professional telescopes worldwide. The technology developed in Sofia for plate digitization with commercial high-quality flatbed scanners yields low-resolution digital images for quick visualization and easy online access, and optimal high-resolution ones for photometric and astrometric investigations.

We discuss the effects on the time variation of the gradients resulting from our determinations of the age distributions of CSPN. The main conclusions are: (i) for most CSPN with accurate radial velocities the kinematic ages are usually under 3 Gyr, so that the differences between the gradients of these objects and of younger objects are expected to be small; (ii) results based on age-metallicity relations suggest that there is an older PN population for which the gradients are steeper, in agreement with open cluster data.

During our recent spectroscopic study of ε Aur (Chadima et al. 2011), we made an attempt to detect weak spectral lines of the secondary, hidden in a dark disk, using the spectral disentangling technique of Simon & Sturm (1994) and Hadrava (1995, 1997, 2004). We used the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) and Ondřejov (OND) red electronic spectra, which cover more than one half of the orbital period. To our surprise, two different programs that disentangled the spectrum in Fourier space, KOREL (Hadrava 1995, 2004) and FDBINARY (Ilijić et al. 2001), both yielded apparently good, similar reconstructions of two well-defined spectra for mass ratios near unity. The results (Solution 1) are shown in Fig. 1 (left panels) and Table 1 (left column). This result is hard to accept as real given the existing knowledge about the system: ε Aur is an F-type star with an unseen companion embedded in a cool, dark disk (temperature ~ 500–600 K). A detailed search for any trace of spectral signatures of the secondary in the spectra was carried out (see Bennett et al., these proceedings). Although they found line profile variations that were correlated with orbital phase, these variations were not consistent with the presence of a secondary.

The GEOS data base for RR Lyr stars has been analysed to search for secondary (Blazhko) periods in several stars for which over 100 years of measurements are available. The results indicate that, even when there is a secondary period present, its behaviour can be dramatically different from star to star or even over time in the same star. In one star there is a clear correlation between the O–C diagrams for both the pulsation and Blazko periods; that has implications for the origins of the Blazhko periods.

The MeerKAT (64 x 13.5m dish radio interferometer) is South Africa's precursor instrument for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), exploring dish design, instrumentation, and the characteristics of a Karoo desert site and is projected to be on sky in 2016. One of two top-priority, Key Projects is a single deep field, integrating for 5000 hours total with the aim to detect neutral atomic hydrogen through its 21 cm line emission out to redshift unity and beyond. This first truly deep HI survey will help constrain fueling models for galaxy assembly and evolution. It will measure the evolution of the cosmic neutral gas density and its distribution over galaxies over cosmic time, explore evolution of the gas in galaxies, measure the Tully-Fisher relation, measure OH maser counts, and address many more topics. Here we present the observing strategy and envisaged science case for this unique deep field, which encompasses the Chandra Deep Field-South (and the footprints of GOODS, GEMS and several other surveys) to produce a singular legacy multi-wavelength data-set.

Motivated by recent discoveries of isolated, dispersed radio pulses of possible extragalactic origin, we are performing a commensal search for short-duration (ms) continuum radio pulses using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The geographically separated antennæ of the VLBA make the system robust to local RFI and allow events to be verified and localised on the sky with milli-arcsec accuracy. We report sky coverage and detection limits from the experiment to date.