This paper describes the Star Watch Program in Japan to monitor night-sky brightness.

We describe the application of Peltier effect cooling to charge coupled device (CCD) detectors. We are developing this technique to produce a CCD camera which requires low maintenance, yet has sufficiently small dark-current for long exposure imaging. This camera will be used in an automated imaging telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. The design principles used to maximise cooling of the detector, and hence minimise dark-current, are discussed. A small dark-current can be obtained only if great care is taken to reduce or eliminate convective, conductive and radiative heating of the chip. In addition, a path of high thermal conductivity must be provided for the heat removed from the CCD. A recent laboratory test of our cooling system demonstrates that careful design can lead to sufficiently low CCD dark-current for many astronomical applications.

We have built an imaging polarimeter for use at mid-infrared wavelengths (i.e. N band or 8–13 μm). The detecting element is a 128 × 128 element Si:Ga Focal Plane Array, supplied by Amber Engineering, USA. The polarimeter itself provides diffraction limited images on a 4-m class telescope and has a field of view of about 32 arcsec of sky with 0·25 arcsec pixels. We describe the optical design, control electronics, observing modes and detector sensitivities. Also presented are some observational results to demonstrate the power of this new imaging polarimetric system.

We report early results of an observational campaign targeted on a sample of compact steep spectrum sources selected from the FIRST survey which are significantly weaker than those investigated before. The selection criteria and procedure are given in detail. We present here an assortment of MERLIN and VLBI observations and make some general comments based on the morphologies of the sources presented.

Large numbers of the many types of emission-line object that are found in the Magellanic Clouds were first identified through Hα surveys of one kind or another. This paper looks at what has been achieved through such surveys and considers how the planned UKST Hα/TechPan Survey can further this kind of work.

In this contribution Gemini-North NIRI J,K-observations are used to investigate the upper-Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) intermediate-age population in the M81 Group dwarf elliptical (dE) F8D1. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) ‘snapshot’ V,I-observations are also analysed to investigate the upper-AGB populations in two other M81 Group dEs, DDO 71 and kk077. In all three dEs, significant intermediate-age populations are found. Further, there are sizeable dE-to-dE differences in these populations: F8D1 contains relatively more, and relatively more luminous, upper-AGB stars. These results are compared with existing information for Local Group and Sculptor group dwarfs. It is suggested that ‘environmental harrassment’ plays an important role in governing dwarf galaxy evolution.

Here we present the first results of a search for new optical supernova remnant candidates and other filamentary objects on films produced by the Anglo-Australian Observatory/UK Schmidt Telescope Há Survey. Sixty-one fields, or 26% of the Galactic plane survey fields, have been visually examined. This has resulted in the detection of four newlarge diameter filamentary structures, and the discovery of extensive new optical emission in two previously known optical supernova remnant candidates.

Star formation does not occur until the onset of gravitational collapse inside giant molecular clouds. However, the conditions that initiate cloud collapse and regulate the star formation process remain poorly understood. Local processes such as turbulence and magnetic fields can act to promote or prevent collapse. On larger scales, the galactic potential can also influence cloud stability and is traditionally assessed by the tidal and shear effects.

In this paper, we examine the stability of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) against shear and the galactic tide using CO data from the Magellanic Mopra Assessment (MAGMA) and rotation curve data from the literature. We calculate the tidal acceleration experienced by individual GMCs and determine the minimum cloud mass required for tidal stability. We also calculate the shear parameter, which is a measure of a cloud's susceptibility to disruption via shearing forces in the galactic disk. We examine whether there are correlations between the properties and star forming activity of GMCs and their stability against shear and tidal disruption.

We find that the GMCs are in approximate tidal balance in the LMC, and that shear is unlikely to affect their further evolution. GMCs with masses close to the minimal stable mass against tidal disruption are not unusual in terms of their mass, location, or CO brightness, but we note that GMCs with large velocity dispersion tend to be more sensitive to tidal instability. We also note that GMCs with smaller radii, which represent the majority of our sample, tend to more strongly resist tidal and shear disruption. Our results demonstrate that star formation in the LMC is not inhibited by to tidal or shear instability.

The confined nature of the debris from the Sagittarius dwarf to a narrow trail on the sky has recently prompted the suggestion that the dark matter halo of our Galaxy should be nearly spherical (Ibata et al. 2001; Majewski et al. 2003). This would seem to be in strong contrast with predictions from cold dark matter (CDM) simulations, where dark halos are found to have typical density axis ratios of 0.6 to 0.8. Here I present numerical simulations of the evolution of a system like the Sagittarius dSph in a set of Galactic potentials with varying degrees of flattening. These simulations show that the Sagittarius streams discovered so far are too young dynamically to be sensitive to the shape of the dark halo of the Milky Way. The data presently available are entirely consistent with a Galactic dark matter halo that could either be oblate or prolate, with density axis ratios c/a that range from 0.6 to 1.6 within the region of the halo probed by the orbit of the Sagittarius dwarf.

We demonstrate that the Bayesian evidence can be used to find a good approximation of the ground truth likelihood function of a dataset, a goal of the likelihood-free inference (LFI) paradigm. As a concrete example, we use forward modelled sky-averaged 21-cm signal antenna temperature datasets where we artificially inject noise structures of various physically motivated forms. We find that the Gaussian likelihood performs poorly when the noise distribution deviates from the Gaussian case, for example, heteroscedastic radiometric or heavy-tailed noise. For these non-Gaussian noise structures, we show that the generalised normal likelihood is on a similar Bayesian evidence scale with comparable sky-averaged 21-cm signal recovery as the ground truth likelihood function of our injected noise. We therefore propose the generalised normal likelihood function as a good approximation of the true likelihood function if the noise structure is a priori unknown.

Optically, the Zone of Avoidance (ZOA) can only be explored to within a few degrees of the Galactic Equator. This restriction does not apply to radio wavelengths where we are able to detect galaxies at great distances behind the Galactic Plane. Using the Parkes 21 cm multibeam instrument we have detected neutral hydrogen (HI) in 42 galaxies in the region of the Great Attractor. We have been able to identify nine galaxies and make positional associations with a further six from existing optical catalogues, which makes at least 60% of these galaxies new discoveries.

Correlations are identified between the strength of the λ10830 He I triplet line and the following tracers of stellar activity amongst FGK dwarfs with colours of (B − V) > 0.47: coronal soft X-ray emission, emission in the λ1549 C IV and λ1335 C II lines originating from the transition region, and Ca II H and K emission from the chromosphere. No such correlations are present amongst dwarfs with spectral type earlier than F6. In addition, G and K dwarfs with strong triplet lines show evidence of excess flux in the GALEX FUV band compared to weak-triplet-line dwarfs. The X-ray spectra of late-F, G, and K dwarfs with He I triplets stronger than 160 mÅ have greater values of the ROSAT hardness ratio HR1 than are typical of weak-triplet dwarfs in the same range of spectral type. In other words, dwarfs later than F7V with strong He I triplet lines tend towards harder 0.1–2.0 keV X-ray spectra than weak-triplet dwarfs, although values of HR1 ~ −0.2 to +0.1 can still be encountered amongst a minority of weak-He-triplet stars. As regards, FGK main sequence stars the observational data on the λ10830 triplet line remains sparse. Progress could be made through spectroscopy of high resolution for samples of hundreds of stars, selected on the basis of having other measures of chromospheric and coronal activity available.

Measurements of the optical turbulence profile above Siding Spring Observatory were conducted during 2005 and 2006. This effort was largely motivated by the need to predict the statistical performance of adaptive optics at Siding Spring. The data were collected using a purpose-built instrument based on the slope detection and ranging (SLODAR) method where observations of a bright double star are imaged by Shack–Hartmann taken with the Australian National University 24-inch and 40-inch telescopes. The analysis of the data yielded a model consisting of a handful of statistically prominent thin layers that are statistically separated into the ground layer (37.5, 250 m) and the free atmosphere (1, 3, 6, 9, 13.5 km) for good (25%), typical (50%), and bad (25%) observing conditions. We found that ground-layer turbulence dominates the turbulence profile with up to 80% of the integrated turbulence below 500 m. The turbulence tends to be non-Kolmogorov, especially for the ground layer with a power-law index of β ~ 10/3. The mirror/dome seeing can be a significant fraction of the ground-layer turbulence. The median atmospheric seeing is around 1.2 arcsec, in agreement with observational reports.

Binary systems, in particular eclipsing binaries, are essential sources of knowledge of the fundamental properties of stars. The ages of binaries, members of open clusters, are constrained by their own fundamental properties and by those of the hosting cluster. The ages of eleven open clusters are here found by constructing models for the components of twelve eclipsing binaries. The difference between the ages we find and the ages of the clusters derived from isochrone fitting is up to 40%. For the binary system V497 Cep in NGC 7160, the difference is about 100%. Binary systems whose primary component is about to complete its main-sequence lifetime, such as V453 Cyg and V906 Sco, are the most suitable systems for age determination. Using model results for these stars, we derive an expression for sensitive and uncomplicated relative age determination of binary systems (age divided by the main-sequence lifetime of the primary star). The expression is given as a logarithm of radii ratio divided by a logarithm of mass ratio. Two advantages of this expression are that: (i) it is nearly independent of the assumed chemical composition of the models because of the appearance of the ratio of radii; and (ii) the ratios of radii and masses are observationally much more precise than their absolute values. We also derive another expression using luminosities rather than radii and compare results.

Closure phase is the phase of a closed-loop product of spatial coherences formed by a ${\ge}3$ -element interferometer array. Its invariance to phase corruption attributable to individual array elements acquired during the propagation and the measurement processes, subsequent calibration, and errors therein, makes it a valuable tool in interferometry applications that otherwise require high-accuracy phase calibration. However, its understanding has remained mainly mathematical and limited to the aperture plane (Fourier dual of the image plane). Here, we present a geometrical, image domain view of closure phase, which until now has been lacking. Using the principal triangle in a 3-element interference image formed by a triad of interferometer elements, we show that the properties of closure phase, particularly its invariance to multiplicative element-based corruption factors (even of a large magnitude) and to translation, are intricately related to the conserved properties of the triangle, namely, its shape, orientation, and size, which is referred herein as the ‘shape-orientation-size (SOS) conservation principle’. In the absence of a need for element-based amplitude calibration of the interferometer array (as is typical in optical interferometry), the principal triangle in any 3-element interference image formed from phase-uncalibrated spatial coherences is still a true and uncorrupted representation of the source object’s morphology, except for a possible shift. Based on this knowledge of the triangle SOS conservation principle, we present two geometric methods to measure the closure phase directly from a simple 3-element interference image (without requiring an aperture-plane view): (i) the closure phase is directly measurable from any one of the triangle’s heights, and (ii) the squared closure phase is proportional to the product of the areas enclosed by the triad of array elements and the principal triangle in the aperture and image planes, respectively. We validate the geometric understanding of closure phase in the image plane using observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, and the Event Horizon Telescope. These results verify the SOS conservation principle across a wide range of radio interferometric conditions. This geometric insight can be potentially valuable to other interferometric applications, such as optical interferometry. We also generalise these geometric relationships to an N-element interferometer.

I discuss especially my summer with Willy Fowler at Kellogg Radiation Laboratory in 1951, where I did my ‘triple alpha’ work. I also go back even earlier to Arthur Eddington and Hans Bethe. The 1953 summer school in Ann Arbor only gets a mention.

An objective classification of 147 globular clusters (GCs) in the inner region of the giant elliptical galaxy M87 is carried out with the help of two methods of multivariate analysis. First, independent component analysis (ICA) is used to determine a set of independent variables that are linear combinations of various observed parameters (mostly Lick indices) of the GCs. Next, K-means cluster analysis (CA) is applied on the independent components (ICs), to find the optimum number of homogeneous groups having an underlying structure. The properties of the four groups of GCs thus uncovered are used to explain the formation mechanism of the host galaxy. It is suggested that M87 formed in two successive phases. First a monolithic collapse, which gave rise to an inner group of metal-rich clusters with little systematic rotation and an outer group of metal-poor clusters in eccentric orbits. In a second phase, the galaxy accreted low-mass satellites in a dissipationless fashion, from the gas of which the two other groups of GCs formed. Evidence is given for a blue stellar population in the more metal rich clusters, which we interpret by Helium enrichment. Finally, it is found that the clusters of M87 differ in some of their chemical properties (NaD, TiO1, light-element abundances) from GCs in our Galaxy and M31.

The Square Kilometre Array and its pathfinders ASKAP and MeerKAT will produce prodigious amounts of data that necessitate automated source finding. The performance of automated source finders can be improved by pre-processing a dataset. In preparation for the WALLABY and DINGO surveys, we have used a test Hi datacube constructed from actual Westerbork Telescope noise and WHISP Hi galaxies to test the real world improvement of linear smoothing, the Duchamp source finder's wavelet denoising, iterative median smoothing and mathematical morphology subtraction, on intensity threshold source finding of spectral line datasets. To compare these pre-processing methods we have generated completeness-reliability performance curves for each method and a range of input parameters. We find that iterative median smoothing produces the best source finding results for ASKAP Hi spectral line observations, but wavelet denoising is a safer pre-processing technique. In this paper we also present our implementations of iterative median smoothing and mathematical morphology subtraction.

In the black hole (BH)–galaxy co-evolution framework, most of the star formation (SF) and the BH accretion are expected to take place in highly obscured conditions. The large amount of gas and dust absorbs most of the UV-to-soft-X radiation and re-emits it at longer wavelengths, mostly in the IR. Thus, obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) are very difficult to identify in optical or X-ray bands but shine bright in the IR. Moreover, X-ray background (XRB) synthesis models predict that a large fraction of the yet-unresolved XRB is due to the most obscured (Compton thick, CT: N $_{\text{H}}\ge 10^{24} \,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$ ) of these AGN. In this work, we investigate the synergies between putative IR missions [using SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA), proposed for European Space Agency (ESA)/M5 but withdrawn in 2020 October, and Origins Space Telescope, OST, as ‘templates’] and the X-ray mission Athena (Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics), which should fly in early 2030s, in detecting and characterising AGN, with a particular focus on the most obscured ones. Using an XRB synthesis model, we estimated the number of AGN and the number of those which will be detected in the X-rays by Athena. For each AGN, we associated an optical-to-Far InfraRed (FIR) spectral energy distribution (SED) from observed AGN with both X-ray data and SED decomposition and used these SEDs to check if the AGN will be detected by SPICA-like or OST at IR wavelengths. We expect that, with the deepest Athena and SPICA-like (or OST) surveys, we will be able to photometrically detect in the IR more than 90% of all the AGN (down to $L_{2-10\text{keV}} \sim 10^{42}\,\mathrm{erg\ s}^{-1}$ and up to $z \sim 10$ ) predicted by XRB synthesis modeling, and we will detect at least half of them in the X-rays. The spectroscopic capabilities of the OST can provide ${\approx}51\,000$ and ${\approx}3\,400$ AGN spectra with $R= 300$ at 25–588 $\unicode[Times]{x03BC}$ m in the wide and deep surveys, respectively, the last one up to $z\approx 4$ . Athena will be extremely powerful in detecting and discerning moderate- and high-luminosity AGN, allowing us to properly select AGN even when the mid-IR torus emission is ‘hidden’ by the host galaxy contribution. We will constrain the intrinsic luminosity and the amount of obscuration for $\sim\!20\%$ of all the AGN (and $\sim\!50\%$ of those with $L_{2-10\text{keV}} > 3.2 \times 10^{43}\,\mathrm{erg\ s}^{-1}$ ) using the X-ray spectra provided by Athena WFI. We find that the most obscured and elusive CT-AGN will be exquisitely sampled by SPICA-like mission or OST and that Athena will allow a fine characterisation of the most luminous ones. This will provide a significant step forward in the process of placing stronger constraints on the yet-unresolved XRB and investigating the BH accretion rate evolution up to very high redshift ( $z \ge 4$ ).

The RGU-photographic investigation of an intermediate latitude field in the direction to the Galactic centre is presented. 164 extra-galactic objects, identified by comparison of Minnesota and Basel charts, are excluded from the program. Also, a region with size 0.104 square-degrees, contaminated by cluster (M5) stars and affected by background light of the bright star HD 136202 is omitted. Contrary to previous investigations, a reddening of E(B – V) = 0.046, corresponding to E(G – R) = 0.07 mag is adopted. The separation of dwarfs and evolved stars is carried out by an empirical method, already applied in some of our works. A new calibration for the metallicity determination is used for dwarfs, while the absolute magnitude determination for stars of all categories is performed using the procedures given in the literature. There is good agreement between the observed logarithmic space density histograms and the galactic model gradients. Also, the local luminosity function agrees with Gliese's (1969) and Hipparcos (Jahreiss & Wielen 1997) luminosity functions, for stars with 2 < M(G) ≤ 8 mag. For giants, we obtained two different local space densities from comparison with two Galactic models, i.e. D*(0) = 6.63, close to that of Gliese (1969), and D*(0) = 6.79. A metallicity gradient, d[Fe/H]/dz = –0.20 dex kpc–1, is detected for dwarfs (only) with absolute magnitudes 4 < M(G) ≤ 6, corresponding to a spectral type interval F5–K0.