The Large Optical/infrared Telescope (LOT) is a ground-based 12m diameter optical/infrared telescope which is proposed to be built in the western part of China in the next decade. Based on satellite remote sensing data, along with geographical, logistical and political considerations, three candidate sites were chosen for ground-based astronomical performance monitoring. These sites include: Ali in Tibet, Daocheng in Sichuan, and Muztagh Ata in Xinjiang. Up until now, all three sites have continuously collected data for two years. In this paper, we will introduce this site testing campaign, and present its monitoring results obtained during the period between March 2017 and March 2019.
In the past few years, Chinese astronomical community is actively testing astronomical sites for several new optical/infrared ground-based telescopes. These site testing campaigns conducted were mainly focused on fundamental performances of the site, such as cloud coverage, seeing, temperature, etc. With increasing interests in sodium laser guide star adaptive optics for these new telescopes in the Chinese astronomical community, it is interesting to investigate the performance of the laser guide star at these sites, especially considering that the sodium laser guide star's on-sky performance …
We are currently conducting a comprehensive and consistent re-processing of archival HST-NICMOS coronagraphic surveys using advanced PSF subtraction methods, entitled the Archival Legacy Investigations of Circumstellar Environments program (ALICE, HST/AR 12652). This virtual campaign of about 400 targets has already produced numerous new detections of previously unidentified point sources and circumstellar structures. We present five newly spatially resolved debris disks revealed in scattered light by our analysis of the archival data. These images provide new views of material around young so…
A major goal of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is to make accurate images with resolutions of tens of milliarcseconds, which at submillimeter (submm) wavelengths requires baselines up to ~15 km. To develop and test this capability, a Long Baseline Campaign (LBC) was carried out from September to late November 2014, culminating in end-to-end observations, calibrations, and imaging of selected Science Verification (SV) targets. This paper presents an overview of the campaign and its main results, including an investigation of the short-term coherence properties and syste…
National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院国家天文台）；School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学天文与空间科学学院）
This short document is intended as a companion and introduction to the Detailed Science Case (DSC) for the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer. It provides a concise summary of the essential characteristics of MSE from the perspective of the international astronomical community. MSE is a wide field telescope (1.5 square degree field of view) with an aperture of 11.25m. It is dedicated to multi-object spectroscopy at several different spectral resolutions in the range R ~ 2500 - 40000 over a broad wavelength range (0.36 - 1.8μm). MSE will enable transformational science in areas as diverse as exopl…
In this paper we discuss the Planck-LFI in-flight calibration campaign. After a brief overview of the ground test campaigns, we describe in detail the calibration and performance verification (CPV) phase, carried out in space during and just after the cool-down of LFI. We discuss in detail the functionality verification, the tuning of the front-end and warm electronics, the preliminary performance assessment and the thermal susceptibility tests. The logic, sequence, goals and results of the in-flight tests are discussed. All the calibration activities were successfully carried out and the inst…
Antarctic TianMu Staring Observation Project I: Overview and Implementation of the Prototype Telescope
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院上海天文台）；Key Laboratory for Polar Science, MNR, Polar Research Institute of China（自然资源部极地科学重点实验室，中国极地研究中心）
The Low Resolution Spectrometer of the MIRI, which forms part of the imager module, will provide R~100 long-slit and slitless spectroscopy from 5 to 12 micron. The design is optimised for observations of compact sources, such as exoplanet host stars. We provide here an overview of the design of the LRS, and its performance as measured during extensive test campaigns, examining in particular the delivered image quality, dispersion, and resolving power, as well as spectrophotometric performance, flatfield accuracy and the effects of fringing. We describe the operational concept of the slitless m…
Quasi-automatic software support for Gaia ground based optical tracking
Observatoire de Paris (SyRTE)（巴黎天文台（时间力学与天体测量学实验室））；Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg / ARI（海德堡大学天文学中心/天体物理研究所）；Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino / INAF（都灵天文台/国家天体物理研究所）；Observatorio Nacional / MCTI（国家天文台/科学技术创新部）；Observatorio de Valongo / UFRJ（瓦隆戈天文台/里约热内卢联邦大学）；Liverpool John Moores University / ARI（利物浦约翰摩尔斯大学/天体物理研究所）；European Space Astronomy Centre / ESAC（欧洲空间天文中心）
As China's first X-ray astronomical satellite, the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), which was dubbed as Insight-HXMT after the launch on June 15, 2017, is a wide-band (1-250 keV) slat-collimator-based X-ray astronomy satellite with the capability of all-sky monitoring in 0.2-3 MeV. It was designed to perform pointing, scanning and gamma-ray burst (GRB) observations and, based on the Direct Demodulation Method (DDM), the image of the scanned sky region can be reconstructed. Here we give an overview of the mission and its progresses, including payload, core sciences, ground calibration/fa…
The Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) is one of the four focal plane instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope which was launched on Dec. 25, 2021. We present an overview of the as-run NIRSpec commissioning campaign, with particular emphasis on the sequence of activities that led to the verification of all hardware components of NIRSpec. We also discuss the mechanical, thermal, and operational performance of NIRSpec, as well as the readiness of all NIRSpec observing modes for use in the upcoming JWST science program.
LISA Pathfinder is a mission planned by the European Space Agency to test the key technologies that will allow the detection of gravitational waves in space. The instrument on-board, the LISA Technology package, will undergo an exhaustive campaign of calibrations and noise characterisation campaigns in order to fully describe the noise model. Data analysis plays an important role in the mission and for that reason the data analysis team has been developing a toolbox which contains all the functionalities required during operations. In this contribution we give an overview of recent activities,…
We present an overview of the SkyMapper optical follow-up program for gravitational-wave event triggers from the LIGO/Virgo observatories, which aims at identifying early GW170817-like kilonovae out to $\sim 200$ Mpc distance. We describe our robotic facility for rapid transient follow-up, which can target most of the sky at $δ<+10°$ to a depth of $i_\mathrm{AB}\approx 20$ mag. We have implemented a new software pipeline to receive LIGO/Virgo alerts, schedule observations and examine the incoming real-time data stream for transient candidates. We adopt a real-bogus classifier using ensemble-ba…
VAPOLA -- A multi-year, multi-band polarization survey of AGN and Sgr A* at mm wavelengths with ALMA I. Survey Overview and Science-Ready Archival Products
Università degli Studi di Cagliari（卡利亚里大学）；INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari（意大利国家天体物理研究所卡利亚里天文台）；University of Balearic Islands（巴利阿里群岛大学）；Institute of the Balearic Islands (IAIB)（巴利阿里群岛研究所）；Health Research Institute of the Balearic Islands (IdISBa)（巴利阿里群岛健康研究所）；Universidade São Paulo, Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciéencias Atmosféricas（圣保罗大学天文、地球物理与大气科学研究所）；INAF-Istituto di Radioastronomia（意大利国家天体物理研究所射电天文学研究所）；INAF–Italian Centre for Astronomical Archive（意大利天体物理研究所意大利天文档案中心）
