We examine the historical development of astrophysical science in Antarctica from the early 20th century until today. We find three temporally overlapping eras, each having a rather distinct beginning. These are the astrogeological era of meteorite discovery, the high energy era of particle detectors, and the photon astronomy era of microwave, submillimetre, and infrared telescopes, sidelined by a few niche experiments at optical wavelengths. The favourable atmospheric and geophysical conditions are briefly examined, followed by an account of the major experiments and a summary of their results.

The Antarctic Plateau holds great promise for optical astronomy. One relatively unstudied feature of the polar night sky for optical astronomical observing is the potential contamination of observations by aurorae. In this study we analyse auroral measurements at South Pole Station and show that during an average winter season, the auroral contribution to the B band sky brightness is below 21.9 B mag arcsec−2 for 50% of the observing time. In V band, the median sky brightness contribution is 20.8 mag arcsec−2 during an average winter. South Pole Station is situated within the auroral zone and experiences strong and frequent auroral activity. The Antarctic locations of Dome C and Dome A are closer to the geomagnetic pole where auroral activity is greatly reduced compared with that of South Pole Station. Calculations based on satellite measurements of electron flux above the Antarctic Plateau are used to show that at Dome C, the contribution to sky background in the B and V bands is up to 3.1 mag less than that at the South Pole. The use of notch filters to reduce the contribution from the strongest auroral emission lines and bands is also discussed. The scientific potential of an extremely large telescope located at Dome C is discussed, with reference to the effect that auroral emissions would have on particular astronomical observations.

We present the results obtained from unfiltered photometric CCD observations of the newly discovered cataclysmic variable SDSS J040714.78–064425.1 made during seven nights in 2003 November. We establish the dwarf nova nature of the object as it was in outburst during our observations. We also confirm the presence of deep eclipses with a period of 0.17017 ± 0.00003 d in the optical light curve of the star. In addition, we found periods of 0.166 ± 0.001 d and possibly also 5.3 ± 0.7 d in the data. The 0.17017 d periodicity is consistent within the errors with the proposed orbital period of 0.165 and 0.1700 d. Using the known relation between the orbital and superhump periods, we interpret the 0.166 and 5.3 d periods as the negative superhump and the nodal precession period respectively. SDSS J040714.78–064425.1 is then classified as a negative superhump system with one of the largest orbital periods.

Accurate automatic identification of astronomical objects in an imperfect world of non-linear wide-angle optics, imperfect optics, inaccurately pointed telescopes, and defect-ridden cameras is not always a trivial first step. In the past few years, this problem has been exacerbated by the rise of digital imaging, providing vast digital streams of astronomical images and data. In the modern age of increasing bandwidth, human identifications are many times impracticably slow. In order to perform an automatic computer-based analysis of astronomical frames, a quick and accurate identification of astronomical objects is required. Such identification must follow a rigorous transformation from topocentric celestial coordinates into image coordinates on a CCD frame. This paper presents a fuzzy logic based algorithm that estimates needed coordinate transformations in a practical setting. Using a training set of reference stars, the algorithm statically builds a fuzzy logic model. At runtime, the algorithm uses this model to associate stellar objects visible in the frames to known cataloged objects, and generates files that contain photometry information of objects visible in the frame. Use of this algorithm facilitates real-time monitoring of stars and bright transients, allowing identifications and alerts to be issued more reliably. The algorithm is being implemented by the Night Sky Live all-sky monitoring global network and has shown itself significantly more reliable than the previously used non-fuzzy logic algorithm.

Given the growing use of Sérsic's (1963, 1968) R1/n model for describing the stellar distributions in galaxies, and the lack of any single reference that provides the various associated mathematical expressions, we have endeavoured to compile such a resource here. We present the standard intensity profile, and its various guises such as the luminosity, surface-brightness, and aperture–magnitude profile. Expressions to transform the effective surface brightness into the mean effective and central surface brightness are also given, as is the expression to transform between effective radii and exponential scale-lengths. We additionally provide expressions for deriving the ‘concentration’ of an R1/n profile, and two useful equations for the logarithmic slope of the light-profile are given. Petrosian radii and fluxes are also derived for a range of Sérsic profiles and compared with the effective radii and total flux. Similarly, expressions to obtain Kron radii and fluxes are presented as a function of the Sérsic index n and the number of effective radii sampled. Illustrative figures are provided throughout. Finally, the core–Sérsic model, consisting of an inner power-law and an outer Sérsic function, is presented.

Gravitational lensing can magnify a distant source, revealing structural detail which is normally unresolvable. Recovering this detail through an inversion of the influence of gravitational lensing, however, requires optimisation of not only lens parameters, but also of the surface brightness distribution of the source. This paper outlines a new approach to this inversion, utilising genetic algorithms to reconstruct the source profile. In this initial study, the effects of image degradation due to instrumental and atmospheric effects are neglected and it is assumed that the lens model is accurately known, but the genetic algorithm approach can be incorporated into more general optimisation techniques, allowing the optimisation of both the parameters for a lensing model and the surface brightness of the source.

Filaments of galaxies are the dominant feature of modern large-scale redshift surveys. They can account for up to perhaps half of the baryonic mass budget of the Universe and their distribution and abundance can help constrain cosmological models. However, there remains no single, definitive way in which to detect, describe, and define what filaments are and their extent. This work examines a number of physically motivated, as well as statistical, methods that can be used to define filaments and examines their relative merits.

There are three distinct types of ‘coherent emission’ in astrophysical plasmas: plasma emission (e.g. in solar radio bursts), electron cyclotron maser emission (e.g. in Jupiter's radio bursts), and pulsar radio emission. The development and current status of our understanding of coherent emission is reviewed, concentrating on plasma emission and electron cyclotron maser emission for which there is direct information on the distributions of electrons that produce the radiation. A generic model for a coherent emission process involves a maser generating radiation in a natural mode of the ambient plasma, and operating near marginal stability. A specific coherent emission mechanism involves the form of free energy to drive the maser, a pump that provides the free energy, and the plasma instability that leads to wave growth. The nature of coherence and its measurement through higher order intensity correlations are discussed.

A test of a new Bayesian approach to solar flare prediction is presented. The approach uses the past history of flaring together with phenomenological rules of flare statistics to make a prediction for the probability of occurrence of a large flare within an interval of time, or to refine an initial prediction (which may incorporate other information). The test of the method is based on data from the Geostationary Observational Environmental Satellites, and involves whole-Sun prediction of soft X-ray flares for 1976–2003. The results show that the method somewhat over-predicts the probability of all events above a moderate size, but performs well in predicting large events.

Pulsars may be born with a short rotation period of milliseconds with the magnetic field amplified through dynamo processes up to ∼1015–1016 G. Such millisecond magnetars spin down rapidly, emitting bursts of high-energy neutrinos and gamma rays. Specifically, acceleration of ions in both the polar gap (as in a normal pulsar) and the relativistic magnetar wind is considered. In both cases ions can be accelerated to ultra-high energies and these energetic ions can lead to production of high-energy neutrinos and gamma rays through interaction with thermal radiation from the hot neutron star or the heated inner boundary region of the stellar envelope as the result of the deposition of energy by the magnetar wind. The detectability of the neutrino flux by a kilometre-scale neutrino detector such as the planned IceCube neutrino observatory is discussed.

In the search for tidal structure in Galactic satellite systems, we have conducted a photometric survey over a 10 deg2 area centred on the Fornax dSph galaxy. The survey was made in two colours, and the resulting colour–magnitude data were used as a mask to select candidate Fornax RGB stars, thereby increasing the contrast of Fornax stars to background sources in the outer regions. Previously, we reported the presence of a shell (age 2 Gyr) located towards the centre of Fornax. In this contribution we reveal a second shell, significantly larger than the first, located 1.3° north-west from the centre of Fornax, outside the nominal tidal radius. Moreover, the distribution of Fornax RGB stars reveals two lobes extending to the spatial limit of our survey, and aligned with the minor axis and with the two shells. These results support the hypothesis of a merger between Fornax and a gas-rich companion approximately 2 Gyr ago.

If the voids that we see today in the distribution of galaxies existed at recombination, they will leave an imprint on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). On the other hand, if these voids formed much later, their effect on the CMB will be negligible and will not be observed with the current generation of experiments. In this paper, presented at the 2004 Annual Scientific Meeting of the Astronomical Society of Australia, we discuss our ongoing investigations into voids of primordial origin. We show that if voids in the cold dark matter distribution existed at the epoch of decoupling, they could contribute significantly to the apparent rise in CMB power on small scales detected by the Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) Deep Field. Here we present our improved method for predicting the effects of primordial voids on the CMB in which we treat a void as an external source in the cold dark matter (CDM) distribution employing a Boltzmann solver. Our improved predictions include the effects of a cosmological constant (Λ) and acoustic oscillations generated by voids at early times. We find that models with relatively large voids on the last scattering surface predict too much CMB power in an Einstein–de Sitter background cosmology but could be consistent with the current CMB observations in a ΛCDM universe.