This paper presents the first comprehensive study of the EP And system, a contact binary. In this work the solution of the standard V light curve was obtained using the phoebe program (version 0.3c). Absolute parameters of the stellar components were then determined, enabling us to discuss the structure and evolutionary status of the close binary EP And. The times of minima data (‘O–C curve’) were analyzed. It was found that a third body with a period of 41.20 yr and mass 0.15 M⊙ is orbiting around the system. Also a modulating period of an 11.72-yr cycle along with a relative period increase of = 1.79 × 10−7 were obtained, which were attributed to the magnetic activity cycle and mass transfer with rate = 9.98 × 10−8 yr−1 between the components, respectively.

A procedure to estimate the aerosol extinction parameters of Angstrom's formula using data acquired with photometric broadband standard filters, the Johnson–Cousins filters, is presented. The method is based on the transformation of the heterochromatic magnitudes to the equivalent mean wavelength monochromatic magnitudes by an iterative approach, correcting subsequently the effects of water-vapour extinction in the longer-wavelength filters. As an example, the procedure has been used in the determination of the extinction parameters at the location of our observatory using the filters B, V, Rc and Ic on the night of 2008 August 28.

Dependences of electron and proton impact Stark width on the upper level ionization potential within different series of the neutral calcium spectral lines have been evaluated and discussed. The similar dependences previously found for the electron impact contribution were also obtained for the proton impact contribution to the Stark broadening. The emphasis is on the term structure influence on the studied Stark width dependences. The influence of the lower transition level and transition term is higher at low temperatures. After establishing these dependences, predictions were made for Stark widths of neutral calcium spectral lines not measured experimentally or calculated theoretically until now.

Medium-resolution (R ∼ 6500) spectra of 97 giant stars in the globu lar cluster 47 Tucanæ (47 Tuc) have been used to derive the C- and N-abundance sensitive index, δC, and to infer abundances of several key elements (Fe, Na, Si, Ca, Zr and Ba) for a sample of 13 of these stars with similar effective temperature ( Teff) and surface gravity (log g). These stars have stellar properties similar to the well-studied 47 Tuc giant star, Lee 2525, but with a range of CN excess (δC) values which are a measure of the CN abundance. The δC index is shown to be correlated with Na abundance for this sample, confirming previous studies. Fe, Ca, Si and the light and heavy s-process (slow neut ron capture) elements, Zr and Ba, respectively, have a narrow range of abundance values, indicative of a homogeneous abundance within this population of stars. The constancy of many element abundances (Fe, Si, Ca, Zr, Ba) and the δC and Na abundance correlation could imply that there has been a second era of star formation in this cluster that has revealed the products of CNO-cycle burning via hot bottom burning (depletion of C, enhancement of N and the production of Na for high δC population). But there is no overall metallicity change across the range of δC values at a given position in the HR diagram as has been seen in some other globular clusters.

Preliminary specifications for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) call for 25% of the total collecting area of the dish array to be located at distances greater than 180 km from the core, with a maximum baseline of at least 3000 km. The array will provide angular resolution θ ≲ 40–2 mas at 0.5–10 GHz with image sensitivity reaching ≲50 nJy beam−1 in an 8-hour integration with 500-MHz bandwidth. Given these specifications, the high-angular-resolution component of the SKA will be capable of detecting brightness temperatures ≲200K with milliarcsecond-scale angular resolution. The aim of this article is to bring together in one place a discussion of the broad range of new and important high-angular-resolution science that will be enabled by the SKA, and in doing so, address the merits of long baselines as part of the SKA. We highlight the fact that high angular resolution requiring baselines greater than 1000 km provides a rich science case with projects from many areas of astrophysics, including important contributions to key SKA science.

We present BVR observations of DK CVn from 2007 and 2008. We analysed the BVR light curves of the system and obtained the system's parameters. Using the ‘q-search’ method, we measured the mass ratio of the system (q) as 0.55. Taking the temperature of the primary component as 4040 K, the temperature of the secondary was found to be 3123 K. Several flares were detected, and the distributions of flare equivalent duration versus flare total duration were modelled using the One-Phase Exponential Association Function for these flares. The parameters of the model demonstrated that the flares are the same as those detected from UV Ceti stars. We also demonstrate that the variation at out-of-eclipse must be caused by some cool spot(s) on one of the components. The star is found to show two active longitudes in which the spots are mainly formed. Consequently, this study reveals that DK CVn should be a chromospherically active binary star.

In wavelength calibration using arc lines, the normal approach is to use the strongest unsaturated lines, leaving weak lines unused. A new method is proposed in this paper, which not only utilizes the strong spectral lines, but also makes most use of weak spectral lines. In order to validate the effectiveness of the method we propose, experiments are performed on simulated spectra. Firstly, two kinds of spectra are generated: one with a short exposure and another with a long exposure. Secondly, calibration lines are chosen from the short exposure and long exposure spectra separately according to some rules. Thirdly, the initial wavelength calibration is completed by using the selected short-exposure lines. Fourthly, the approximate centroids of the selected long-exposure lines are obtained by utilizing the result of the initial wavelength calibration. These are then adjusted iteratively to obtain the centroids. Finally, the selected lines from the short- and long-exposures are combined to obtain the final wavelength calibration. Compared with traditional calibration methods which only use short exposures and strong lines, the proposed method is shown to be more accurate.

V- and I-band observations were taken over 9 months to study the RR Lyrae population in the metal-poor diffuse globular cluster NGC 6101. We identify one new variable, which is either a potential long-period red giant variable or eclipsing binary, and recover all previously identified RR Lyraes. One previously studied RR Lyrae is reclassified as an RRc type, while two period estimations have been significantly refined. We confirm that NGC6101 is Oosterhoff type II with a high ratio of n(c)/n(ab + c) = 0.833 with a very long mean RRab period of 0.86 d. By using theoretical RRLyrae period-luminosity-metallicity relations, we use our V- and I-band RR Lyrae data to gain an independent estimate of the reddening towards this cluster of E(B − V) = 0.15 ± 0.04 and derive a distance of 12.8 ± 0.8 kpc. The majority of the work in this study was undertaken by upper secondary school students involved in the Space to Grow astronomy education project in Australia.

A novel algorithm is proposed for the sky subtraction of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) based on two-dimensional sky background modeling. Different from the standard fiber spectrum data processing techniques, a two-dimensional sky background model can be obtained with the new algorithm and sky subtraction can now be performed as an earlier step, before the spectrum extraction. In this study, experiments are performed on simulated data based on the LAMOST project to analyze the accuracy and the effectiveness. The results show that the proposed algorithm can give a more effective sky subtraction than the method that is currently used for LAMOST.