We present a brief overview of MeerTRAP, a real-time, fully commensal survey for pulsars and fast transients with the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. MeerTRAP will combine the excellent sensitivity of MeerKAT with an unprecedented amount of on-sky time in order to significantly extend the parameter space covered by similar, previous or ongoing, surveys with other radio telescopes. Here, we will give a brief overview of the project.

We have observed the Vela pulsar for 1 year using a Phased Array Feed (PAF) receiver on the 12-m antenna of the Parkes Test-Bed Facility (PTF). These observations have allowed us to investigate the stability of the PAF beam weights over time, to demonstrate that pulsars can be timed over long periods using PAF technology and to detect and study the most recent glitch event that occurred on 12 December 2016. The beam weights are shown to be stable to 1% on time scales on the order of three weeks.

Observations at low frequencies (<8GHz) are dominated by distinct direction dependent ionospheric propagation errors, which place a very tight limit on the angular separation of a suitable phase referencing calibrator and astrometry. To increase the capability for high precision astrometric measurements an effective calibration strategy of the systematic ionospheric propagation effects that is widely applicable is required. The MultiView technique holds the key to the compensation of atmospheric spatial-structure errors, by using observations of multiple calibrators and two dimensional interpolation. In this paper we present the first demonstration of the power of MultiView using three calibrators, several degrees from the target, along with a comparative study of the astrometric accuracy between MultiView and phase-referencing techniques. MultiView calibration provides an order of magnitude improvement in astrometry with respect to conventional phase referencing, achieving ~100micro-arcseconds astrometry errors in a single epoch of observations, effectively reaching the thermal noise limit.

We discuss specific aspects of space-ground VLBI (SVLBI) data processing of spectral line experiments (H2O & OH masers) in Radioastron project. In order to meet all technical requirements of the Radioastron mission a new software FX correlator (ASCFX) and the unique data archive which stores raw data from all VLBI stations for all experiments of the project were developed in Astro Space Center. Currently all maser observations conducted in Radioastron project were correlated using the ASCFX correlator. Positive detections on the space-ground baselines were found in 38 sessions out of 144 (detection rate of about 27%). Finally, we presented upper limits on the angular size of the most compact spots observed in two galactic H2O masers, W3OH(H2O) and OH043.8-0.1.

In August 2017 a new radio telescope, the Ghana Radio Astronomy Observatory (GRAO), was officially inaugurated at Kuntunse, Ghana. The GRAO is a former satellite Earth station and now the first operational station in the African VLBI Network (AVN). The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA), supported by the UK’s STFC/Newton Fund, has developed a new pulsar timing system (Hebe) for the GRAO. We present some aspects of the design of Hebe and an outline of the first pulsar detection at GRAO.

Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre (VIRAC) has two fully steerable Cassegrean System 32 and 16 m radio telescopes. After renovation and modernization program the Galactic masers, particularly CH3OH research and monitoring program became one of the most important realized on these telescopes. Both telescopes are equipped with broadband cryogenic receivers covering 4.5-8.8 GHz frequency band. Digital backend consisting from DBBC-2 (Digital Base Band Convertor developed by HAT-LAB, Italy) and FLEXBUFF (data storage system based on commercially available server system) is used for data digitalization and registration. A special program complex for spectral line data reduction and correction was developed and implemented.

We have used sensitive LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) observations of PSR B0809+74 at 15–62 MHz to study the anomalously intensive pulses, first reported by Ulyanov et al. (2006) at 18–30 MHz. Similarly to Ulyanov et al., we found that the spectra of strong pulses consist of distinct bright patches. Moreover, these spectral patches were spotted to drift upwards in frequency over the course of several pulse sequences. We established that this drift is not pulsar-intrinsic, but is caused by the broadband ~20 second-long enhancements of recorded signal, which influenced the dispersed tracks of several pulses at once. We speculate on the cause of such enhancements (i.e. propagation or telescope-related) and the ramifications they bring to the single-pulse studies at the very low radio frequencies. Depending on the origin, the phenomenon may also affect the analysis of highly dispersed single pulses at higher radio frequencies, e.g. Fast Radio Bursts.

Here, we present initial results from the ALFABURST radio transient survey, which is currently running in a commensal mode with the ALFA receiver at the Arecibo telescope. We observed for a total of 1400 hours and have detected single pulses from known pulsars but did not detect any FRBs. The non-detection of FRBs is consistent with the current FRB sky rates.

We present estimates of brightness temperature for 5 galactic masers in star-forming regions detected at space baselines. Very compact features with angular sizes of ~23-60 μas were detected in these regions with corresponding linear sizes of ~4-10×106 km. Brightness temperatures range from 1014 up to 1016 K.

In the past few years, we have performed a 22 GHz H2O maser survey towards hundreds of BGPS sources using the 25-meter Nanshan Radio Telescope (NSRT) of the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, and detected more than one hundred masers. Our aim is to study star formation activities associated with these sources, as well as search for any correlations that may exist between 22 GHz H2O masers and the evolutionary stage of high-mass star formation regions. The NSRT has been upgraded and have now an effective diameter of 26 meter. Besides, cryogenically cooled dual-beam receiver systems covering seven millimeter-wave observing bands have been installed on the NSRT. For the next step of maser observation, we will continue to do H2O and SiO masers survey of massive dust clumps and monitor some maser sources.

Studying the polarised properties of pulsars has a rich history giving unique geometric information about pulsars as well as testing the theories of pulsar emission physics. Performing such studies with the MWA has the attraction that the percentage of linear polarisation of many pulsars increases as the observing frequency decreases. Here we discuss the strategies being employed to verify the polarimetric response of the MWA’s high time resolution data.

IAU Symposium 336, Astrophysical Masers: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe, took place between 4 - 8 September, 2017 in Cagliari, on the beautiful island of Sardinia. The Symposium, the fifth focusing on masers as a tool for astrophysics, was dedicated to our friend and colleague Malcolm Walmsley, who sadly passed away shortly before the meeting. To quote Karl Menten: “Malcolm made numerous fundamental contributions to our understanding of the physics and chemistry of star formation and the interstellar medium. He was an exceptional scientist, a highly esteemed colleague and a true gentleman”. Vale Malcolm. The topics discussed at the symposium covered a huge range, from star-formation, evolved stars, galaxies and their constituents, super-massive black-holes to cosmology.

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) have a great potential to set standards in timekeeping, positioning and metadata communication.

Follow-up of unidentified Fermi sources has expanded the number of known galactic-field “black widow” and “redback” millisecond pulsar binaries from four to nearly 30. Several systems observed by Chandra, XMM-Newton, Suzaku, and NuSTAR exhibit double-peaked X-ray orbital modulation. This is attributed to synchrotron emission from electrons accelerated in an intrabinary shock and Doppler boosting by mildly relativistic bulk flow. We briefly discuss the rich complexity of these systems, their astrophysical utility, and open questions.

The majority of fast radio bursts (FRBs) are poorly localised, hindering their potential scientific yield as galactic, intergalactic, and cosmological probes. LOFT-e, a digital backend for the U.K.’s e-MERLIN seven-telescope interferometer will provide commensal search and real-time detection of FRBs, taking full advantage of its field of view (FoV), sensitivity, and observation time. Upon burst detection, LOFT-e will store raw data offline, enabling the sub-arcsecond localisation provided by e-MERLIN and expanding the pool of localised FRBs. The high-time resolution backend will additionally introduce pulsar observing capabilities to e-MERLIN.

PSRSalsa is a versatile open-source pulsar data-analysis project designed to obtain a comprehensive picture of the radio properties of your pulsar of choice. Here its usefulness is demonstrated through the analysis of the radio pulsar B1839–04, thereby revealing the extremely rare phenomenon of “bi-drifting” where the drift direction of subpulses is systematically different in different pulse profile components.

In 1975 the carousel model was proposed by Ruderman & Sutherland to explain the beautiful phenomenon of drifting subpulses. However the simultaneous appearance of subpulse bands which drift in opposing directions - a feature now found in two pulsars - is difficult to reconcile with this model, both geometrically and physically. Here we propose a geometric resolution of this problem which also may shed light on a range of previously baffling phenomena. The model places significant constraints on the underlying physics of pulsar emission.

We study the possibility of two types of inhomogeneous phases in core of neutron stars: one is the Coulomb crystal, which is known as quark-hadron pasta structures, and another one is chiral crystal. In the Coulomb crystal, the inhomogeneous phase appears as the result of the balance between the surface tension and the Coulomb interaction. In chiral crystal, we study the inhomogeneous chiral condensate, which has spatial modulation. In the simple model in 1+1 dimensions, this condensate has the same feature with the FFLO state, which is well known in the condensed matter physics.