We used the data of 701 stars covering the colour index interval 0.32 < B − V ≤ 1.16, with metallicities −1.76 ≤ [Fe/H]≤+0.40 dex. The data were taken from the PASTEL catalogue and estimated metallicity-dependent guillotine factors, which provide a more accurate metallicity calibration. We reduced the metallicities of 11 different authors to the metallicities of Valenti & Fischer (2005), and thus obtained a homogeneous set of data which increased the accuracy of the calibration, i.e. [Fe/H]= −14.316δ20.6 − 3.557δ0.6+0.105. Comparison of the metallicity residuals for two sets of data based on the metallicity-dependent guillotine factors with the ones obtained via metal-free guillotine factors shows that metallicities estimated by means of the new guillotine factors are more accurate than the other ones. This advantage can be used in the metallicity gradient investigation of the Galactic components, i.e. thin disc, thick disc, and halo.

We report the results of a successful 7-hour 1.4 GHz Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) experiment using two new stations, ASKAP-29 located in Western Australia and WARK12M located on the North Island of New Zealand. This was the first geodetic VLBI observing session with the participation of these new stations. We have determined the positions of ASKAP-29 and WARK12M. Random errors on position estimates are 150–200 mm for the vertical component and 40–50 mm for the horizontal component. Systematic errors caused by the unmodeled ionosphere path delay may reach 1.3 m for the vertical component.

We study the effect of drag induced by the Galactic hot halo on the two neutral hydrogen (HI) cloud complexes associated with the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds: the Magellanic Stream (MS) and the Leading Arm (LA). In particular, we adopt the numerical models of previous studies and re-simulate the tidal formation of the MS and LA with the inclusion of a drag term. We find that the drag has three effects which, although model-dependent, may bring the tidal formation scenario into better agreement with observations: correcting the LA kinematics, reproducing the MS column density gradient, and enhancing the formation of MS bifurcation. We furthermore propose a two-stage mechanism by which the bifurcation forms. In general, the inclusion of drag has a variety of both positive and negative effects on the global properties of the MS and LA, including their on-sky positions, kinematics, radial distances, and column densities. We also provide an argument which suggests that ram-pressure stripping and tidal stripping are mutually exclusive candidates for the formation of the MS and LA.

I present a critical review of techniques for estimating confidence intervals on binomial population proportions inferred from success counts in small to intermediate samples. Population proportions arise frequently as quantities of interest in astronomical research; for instance, in studies aiming to constrain the bar fraction, active galactic nucleus fraction, supermassive black hole fraction, merger fraction, or red sequence fraction from counts of galaxies exhibiting distinct morphological features or stellar populations. However, two of the most widely-used techniques for estimating binomial confidence intervals — the ‘normal approximation’ and the Clopper & Pearson approach — are liable to misrepresent the degree of statistical uncertainty present under sampling conditions routinely encountered in astronomical surveys, leading to an ineffective use of the experimental data (and, worse, an inefficient use of the resources expended in obtaining that data). Hence, I provide here an overview of the fundamentals of binomial statistics with two principal aims: (I) to reveal the ease with which (Bayesian) binomial confidence intervals with more satisfactory behaviour may be estimated from the quantiles of the beta distribution using modern mathematical software packages (e.g. r, matlab, mathematica, idl, python); and (ii) to demonstrate convincingly the major flaws of both the ‘normal approximation’ and the Clopper & Pearson approach for error estimation.

Pimbblet (2011) published an evaluation of the Hirsch h-index in the context of the Australian astronomical community. This addenda adds treatment of changes of surname to the computation of the h-index and presents derivative data on the m-index.

The Hirsch h-index is now widely used as a metric to compare individual researchers. To evaluate it in the context of Australian astronomy, the h-index for every member of the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) is found using NASA's Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services. Percentiles of the h-index distribution are detailed for a variety of categories of ASA members, including students. This enables a list of the top ten Australian researchers by h-index to be produced. These top researchers have h-index values in the range 53<h<77, which is less than that recently reported for the American Astronomical Society membership. We suggest that membership of extremely large consortia such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey may partially explain the difference. We further suggest that many student ASA members with large h-index values have probably already received their Ph.D. and need to upgrade their ASA membership status. To attempt to specify the h-index distribution relative to opportunity, we also detail the percentiles of its distribution by years since Ph.D. award date. This shows a steady increase in h-index with seniority, as can be expected.

Anovel profile detection method is proposed for astronomical fiber spectrum data with low signalto-noise ratio. This approach can be applied to the pretreatment for 2-D astronomical spectrum data before the extraction of spectra. The Wigner bispectrum, a classical higher-order spectrum analysis method, is introduced and applied to deal with the spectrumsignal in this article.After analyzing the Wigner higher-order spectra distribution of the target profile signal, the combination of the Wigner bispectrum algorithm and the fast Fourier transform algorithm is used to weaken the effect of the noise to obtain more accurate information. Both the reconstruction method of the Wigner bispectrum and inverse fast Fourier transform are used to acquire the detection signal. At the end of this paper, experiments with both simulated and observed data based on the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopy Telescope project are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Astronomy is entering a new era of discovery, coincident with the establishment of new facilities for observation and simulation that will routinely generate petabytes of data. While an increasing reliance on automated data analysis is anticipated, a critical role will remain for visualization-based knowledge discovery. We have investigated scientific visualization applications in astronomy through an examination of the literature published during the last two decades. We identify the two most active fields for progress — visualization of large-N particle data and spectral data cubes—discuss open areas of research, and introduce a mapping between astronomical sources of data and data representations used in general-purpose visualization tools. We discuss contributions using high-performance computing architectures (e.g. distributed processing and GPUs), collaborative astronomy visualization, the use of workflow systems to store metadata about visualization parameters, and the use of advanced interaction devices. We examine a number of issues that may be limiting the spread of scientific visualization research in astronomy and identify six grand challenges for scientific visualization research in the Petascale Astronomy Era.

We apply a new, expanded compilation of extragalactic source Faraday rotation measures (RM) to investigate the broad underlying magnetic structure of the Galactic disk at latitudes ∣b∣ ≲15° over all longitudes l, where our total number of RMs is comparable to those in the combined Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS) at ∣b∣ < 4° and the Southern Galactic Plane (SGPS) ∣b∣<1.5°. We report newly revealed, remarkably coherent patterns of RM at ∣b∣≲15° from l∼270° to ∼90° and RM(l) features of unprecedented clarity that replicate in l with opposite sign on opposite sides of the Galactic center. They confirm a highly patterned bisymmetric field structure toward the inner disc, an axisymmetic pattern toward the outer disc, and a very close coupling between the CGPS/SGPS RMs at ∣b∣≲3° (‘mid-plane’) and our new RMs up to ∣b∣∼15° (‘near-plane’). Our analysis also shows the vertical height of the coherent component of the disc field above the Galactic disc's mid-plane—to be ∼1.5 kpc out to ∼6 kpc from the Sun. This identifies the approximate height of a transition layer to the halo field structure. We find no RM sign change across the plane within ∣b∣∼15° in any longitude range. The prevailing disc field pattern and its striking degree of large-scale ordering confirm that our side of the Milky Way has a very organized underlying magnetic structure, for which the inward spiral pitch angle is 5.5°±1° at all ∣b∣ up to ∼12° in the inner semicircle of Galactic longitudes. It decreases to ∼0° toward the anticentre.