Can Small Satellites Be Used to Do Astronomy?
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The X-Ray Universe 2017
The X-ray Universe 2017 6−9 June 2017 Centro Congressi Frentani Rome, Italy A conference organised by the European Space Agency XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre National Institute for Astrophysics, Italian Space Agency University Roma Tre, La Sapienza University ABSTRACT BOOK Oral Communications and Posters Edited by Simone Migliari, Jan-Uwe Ness Organising Committees Scientific Organising Committee M. Arnaud Commissariat ´al’´energie atomique Saclay, Gif sur Yvette, France D. Barret (chair) Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Plan´etologie, France G. Branduardi-Raymont Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Dorking, Surrey, United Kingdom L. Brenneman Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, USA M. Brusa Universit`adi Bologna, Italy M. Cappi Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Bologna, Italy E. Churazov Max-Planck-Institut f¨urAstrophysik, Garching, Germany A. Decourchelle Commissariat ´al’´energie atomique Saclay, Gif sur Yvette, France N. Degenaar University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands A. Fabian University of Cambridge, United Kingdom F. Fiore Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monteporzio Catone, Italy F. Harrison California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA M. Hernanz Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC), Barcelona, Spain A. Hornschemeier Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA V. Karas Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic C. Kouveliotou George Washington University, Washington DC, USA G. Matt Universit`adegli Studi Roma Tre, Roma, Italy Y. Naz´e Universit´ede Li`ege, Belgium T. Ohashi Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan I. Papadakis University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece J. Hjorth University of Copenhagen, Denmark K. Poppenhaeger Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom N. Rea Instituto de Ciencias del Espacio (CSIC-IEEC), Spain T. Reiprich Bonn University, Germany M. Salvato Max-Planck-Institut f¨urextraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany N. -
September 2020 BRAS Newsletter
A Neowise Comet 2020, photo by Ralf Rohner of Skypointer Photography Monthly Meeting September 14th at 7:00 PM, via Jitsi (Monthly meetings are on 2nd Mondays at Highland Road Park Observatory, temporarily during quarantine at meet.jit.si/BRASMeets). GUEST SPEAKER: NASA Michoud Assembly Facility Director, Robert Champion What's In This Issue? President’s Message Secretary's Summary Business Meeting Minutes Outreach Report Asteroid and Comet News Light Pollution Committee Report Globe at Night Member’s Corner –My Quest For A Dark Place, by Chris Carlton Astro-Photos by BRAS Members Messages from the HRPO REMOTE DISCUSSION Solar Viewing Plus Night Mercurian Elongation Spooky Sensation Great Martian Opposition Observing Notes: Aquila – The Eagle Like this newsletter? See PAST ISSUES online back to 2009 Visit us on Facebook – Baton Rouge Astronomical Society Baton Rouge Astronomical Society Newsletter, Night Visions Page 2 of 27 September 2020 President’s Message Welcome to September. You may have noticed that this newsletter is showing up a little bit later than usual, and it’s for good reason: release of the newsletter will now happen after the monthly business meeting so that we can have a chance to keep everybody up to date on the latest information. Sometimes, this will mean the newsletter shows up a couple of days late. But, the upshot is that you’ll now be able to see what we discussed at the recent business meeting and have time to digest it before our general meeting in case you want to give some feedback. Now that we’re on the new format, business meetings (and the oft neglected Light Pollution Committee Meeting), are going to start being open to all members of the club again by simply joining up in the respective chat rooms the Wednesday before the first Monday of the month—which I encourage people to do, especially if you have some ideas you want to see the club put into action. -
Download This Issue (Pdf)
Volume 46 Number 2 JAAVSO 2018 The Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers Unmanned Aerial Systems for Variable Star Astronomical Observations The NASA Altair UAV in flight. Also in this issue... • A Study of Pulsation and Fadings in some R CrB Stars • Photometry and Light Curve Modeling of HO Psc and V535 Peg • Singular Spectrum Analysis: S Per and RZ Cas • New Observations, Period and Classification of V552 Cas • Photometry of Fifteen New Variable Sources Discovered by IMSNG Complete table of contents inside... The American Association of Variable Star Observers 49 Bay State Road, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA The Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers Editor John R. Percy Laszlo L. Kiss Ulisse Munari Dunlap Institute of Astronomy Konkoly Observatory INAF/Astronomical Observatory and Astrophysics Budapest, Hungary of Padua and University of Toronto Asiago, Italy Toronto, Ontario, Canada Katrien Kolenberg Universities of Antwerp Karen Pollard Associate Editor and of Leuven, Belgium Director, Mt. John Observatory Elizabeth O. Waagen and Harvard-Smithsonian Center University of Canterbury for Astrophysics Christchurch, New Zealand Production Editor Cambridge, Massachusetts Michael Saladyga Nikolaus Vogt Kristine Larsen Universidad de Valparaiso Department of Geological Sciences, Valparaiso, Chile Editorial Board Central Connecticut State Geoffrey C. Clayton University, Louisiana State University New Britain, Connecticut Baton Rouge, Louisiana Vanessa McBride Kosmas Gazeas IAU Office of Astronomy for University of Athens Development; South African Athens, Greece Astronomical Observatory; and University of Cape Town, South Africa The Council of the American Association of Variable Star Observers 2017–2018 Director Stella Kafka President Kristine Larsen Past President Jennifer L. -
Making a Sky Atlas
Appendix A Making a Sky Atlas Although a number of very advanced sky atlases are now available in print, none is likely to be ideal for any given task. Published atlases will probably have too few or too many guide stars, too few or too many deep-sky objects plotted in them, wrong- size charts, etc. I found that with MegaStar I could design and make, specifically for my survey, a “just right” personalized atlas. My atlas consists of 108 charts, each about twenty square degrees in size, with guide stars down to magnitude 8.9. I used only the northernmost 78 charts, since I observed the sky only down to –35°. On the charts I plotted only the objects I wanted to observe. In addition I made enlargements of small, overcrowded areas (“quad charts”) as well as separate large-scale charts for the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, the latter with guide stars down to magnitude 11.4. I put the charts in plastic sheet protectors in a three-ring binder, taking them out and plac- ing them on my telescope mount’s clipboard as needed. To find an object I would use the 35 mm finder (except in the Virgo Cluster, where I used the 60 mm as the finder) to point the ensemble of telescopes at the indicated spot among the guide stars. If the object was not seen in the 35 mm, as it usually was not, I would then look in the larger telescopes. If the object was not immediately visible even in the primary telescope – a not uncommon occur- rence due to inexact initial pointing – I would then scan around for it. -
The 22 Month Swift-Bat All-Sky Hard X-Ray Survey
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 186:378–405, 2010 February doi:10.1088/0067-0049/186/2/378 C 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. THE 22 MONTH SWIFT-BAT ALL-SKY HARD X-RAY SURVEY J. Tueller1, W. H. Baumgartner1,2,3, C. B. Markwardt1,3,4,G.K.Skinner1,3,4, R. F. Mushotzky1, M. Ajello5, S. Barthelmy1, A. Beardmore6, W. N. Brandt7, D. Burrows7, G. Chincarini8, S. Campana8, J. Cummings1, G. Cusumano9, P. Evans6, E. Fenimore10, N. Gehrels1, O. Godet6,D.Grupe7, S. Holland1,3,J.Kennea7,H.A.Krimm1,3,M.Koss1,3,4, A. Moretti8, K. Mukai1,2,3, J. P. Osborne6, T. Okajima1,11, C. Pagani7, K. Page6, D. Palmer10, A. Parsons1, D. P. Schneider7, T. Sakamoto1,12, R. Sambruna1, G. Sato13, M. Stamatikos1,12, M. Stroh7, T. Ukwata1,14, and L. Winter15 1 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Astrophysics Science Division, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; [email protected] 2 Joint Center for Astrophysics, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA 3 CRESST/ Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology, 10211 Wincopin Circle, Suite 500, Columbia, MD 21044, USA 4 Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD 20742, USA 5 SLAC National Laboratory and Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA 6 X-ray and Observational Astronomy Group/Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK 7 Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pennsylvania -
Viewing Angles of Each Source
Active Galactic Nuclei: Masses and Dynamics Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Catherine J. Grier Graduate Program in Astronomy The Ohio State University 2013 Dissertation Committee: Professor Bradley M. Peterson, Advisor Professor Richard W. Pogge Professor Paul Martini Copyright by Catherine J. Grier 2013 ABSTRACT In this dissertation, I present the results of work to improve measurements of black hole masses (MBH) and investigate the structure of the broad line region (BLR) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), which are key tracers of galaxy formation and evolution. I address these issues by carrying out high-cadence reverberation mapping experiments on several targets using the telescopes at MDM Observatory on Kitt Peak and by further testing the relationship between MBH and host-galaxy velocity dispersion (σ∗) as a calibrator for the MBH scale. Reverberation mapping can be employed for two specific purposes: 1) Measurement of MBH in AGNs and 2) Determination of BLR dynamics. We obtained improved reverberation measurements of the radius of the BLR and MBH for the object PG 2130+099 and performed a re-analysis of previous data. Reverberation data were also collected at several observatories over a 140-day span in 2010. We obtained high sampling-rate light curves for five objects, from which we have measured the average radius of the Hβ-emitting region and calculated MBH. Our new measurements substantially improve previous measurements for these objects. We also measure the lag in the He ii λ4686 emission line relative to the optical continuum ii in Mrk 335, which is the first robust lag measurement for a high-ionization line in a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy. -
19820014263.Pdf
General Disclaimer One or more of the Following Statements may affect this Document This document has been reproduced from the best copy furnished by the organizational source. It is being released in the interest of making available as much information as possible. This document may contain data, which exceeds the sheet parameters. It was furnished in this condition by the organizational source and is the best copy available. This document may contain tone-on-tone or color graphs, charts and/or pictures, which have been reproduced in black and white. This document is paginated as submitted by the original source. Portions of this document are not fully legible due to the historical nature of some of the material. However, it is the best reproduction available from the original submission. Produced by the NASA Center for Aerospace Information (CASI) ^l a I j dASA Technical Memorandum 83892 Spectral Evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei: A Unified Description of the X-ray and y -ray Backgrounds (NASA-TM- 83892) SPECTRAL EVOLUTION OF N82-22137 ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI: A UNIFIED DESCRIPTION OF THE X-RAY AND GAMMA (NASA) 68 p HC A04/MF A01 CSCL 03B Unclas G3/93 17921 Darryl Leiter and Elihu Boldt at - ^^` App ^g62 ROMEO FEBRUARY 1982 ^r National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Specs Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 t; -s r,'*" 1 SPECTRAL, EVOLUTION OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI; A UNIFIED DESCRIPTION OF THE X-RAY AND Y-RAY BACKGROUNDS Darryl Leiter l and Elihu Boldt Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics RASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 ABSTRACT A model for spectral evolution is presented whereby active galactic nuclei (AGN) of the type observed individually have emerged from an earlier stage at z p 4 in which they are the thermal X-ray sources responsible for most of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB). -
Objekt in Übersichtskarte Anklicken Auswahl
NGC-Objektauswahl Aquila NGC 6709 NGC 6775 NGC 6852 NGC 6941 NGC 6735 NGC 6778 NGC 6858 NGC 6738 NGC 6781 NGC 6865 NGC 6741 NGC 6790 NGC 6900 NGC 6749 NGC 6803 NGC 6901 NGC 6751 NGC 6804 NGC 6906 NGC 6755 NGC 6807 NGC 6915 NGC 6814 NGC 6756 NGC 6922 Sternbild- NGC 6760 NGC 6821 NGC 6926 NGC 6772 NGC 6837 NGC 6929 Übersicht Zur Objektauswahl: Nummer anklicken Zur Übersichtskarte: Objekt in Aufsuchkarte anklicken Zum Detailfoto: Objekt in Übersichtskarte anklicken Sternbildübersicht Auswahl NGC 6709_NGC 6738 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6735_NGC 6741 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6749_NGC 6760_NGC 6790 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6751 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6755_NGC 6756 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6772_6775_6778 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6781 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6803_NGC 6804 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6807 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6814_NGC 6821_6865 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6837 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6852 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6858 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6900_15_22_26_29_41 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6901_NGC 6906 Aufsuchkarte Auswahl NGC 6709 Übersichtskarte Aufsuch- Auswahl karte NGC 6735_6741 Übersichtskarte Aufsuch- Auswahl karte NGC 6738 Übersichtskarte Aufsuch- Auswahl karte NGC 6749 Übersichtskarte Aufsuch- Auswahl karte NGC 6751 Übersichtskarte Aufsuch- Auswahl karte NGC 6755_6756 Übersichtskarte Aufsuch- Auswahl karte NGC 6760 Übersichtskarte Aufsuch- Auswahl karte NGC 6772 Übersichtskarte Aufsuch- Auswahl karte NGC 6775_6778 Übersichtskarte Aufsuch- Auswahl karte NGC 6781 Übersichtskarte Aufsuch- Auswahl karte NGC 6790 Übersichtskarte -
France) Table of Contents
9. Cours avancé de la société Suisse d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique. Saas-Fee, Suisse, 26 au 31 Marsl979. CEA - CONF 4627 PHENOMENOLOGY OF EXTRAGALACTIC HIGH ENERGY SOURCES by Charles E. Ryter Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires Saclay (France) Table of contents INTRODUCTION I Chap. I PRINCIPLES OF RADIATION TRANSFER * 1) Transfer equation * 2) Kirshhoffs law 7 3) Propagation of X-rays 9 Chap.II RADIATION BY HIGH ENERGY PHOTONS 15 1) Synchrotron emission 15 2) Inverse Compton scattering 21 3) Energy losses of electrons 26 &) Energy content of radiosources 29 5) Synchrotron self-absorption 30 6) Connections between synchrotron and inverse-Compton sources 32 Chap. HI HIGH ENERGY FEATURES OF ACTIVE GALAXIES 3* 1) Centaurus A (NGC 5 ! 23) 35 2) Seyfert galaxies '46 3) Emission line galaxies and quasars 56 <f) BL Lacertae-Iike objects 59 Chap. IV SUMMARY AND CLUES 6* 1) Miscellaneous extragaiactic high energy sources 6* 2) Some ciues 3bout the energy source in active galaxies 66 REFERENCES 69 INTRODUCTION The existence of particles with relativistic energies in the universe has been known for some time, due to the observations of cosmic rays in or above the Earth atmosphère, and by the detection of radiosources. The study of the latter has put in evidence the violent phenomena able to take place on the scale of a galaxy. However, a new field has been opened about a decade ago by the availability of space vehicles, making possible the detection of radiations normally screened out by the atmosphere. Among others, they mostly concern photons with energies "> 1 eV. -
The COLOUR of CREATION Observing and Astrophotography Targets “At a Glance” Guide
The COLOUR of CREATION observing and astrophotography targets “at a glance” guide. (Naked eye, binoculars, small and “monster” scopes) Dear fellow amateur astronomer. Please note - this is a work in progress – compiled from several sources - and undoubtedly WILL contain inaccuracies. It would therefor be HIGHLY appreciated if readers would be so kind as to forward ANY corrections and/ or additions (as the document is still obviously incomplete) to: [email protected]. The document will be updated/ revised/ expanded* on a regular basis, replacing the existing document on the ASSA Pretoria website, as well as on the website: coloursofcreation.co.za . This is by no means intended to be a complete nor an exhaustive listing, but rather an “at a glance guide” (2nd column), that will hopefully assist in choosing or eliminating certain objects in a specific constellation for further research, to determine suitability for observation or astrophotography. There is NO copy right - download at will. Warm regards. JohanM. *Edition 1: June 2016 (“Pre-Karoo Star Party version”). “To me, one of the wonders and lures of astronomy is observing a galaxy… realizing you are detecting ancient photons, emitted by billions of stars, reduced to a magnitude below naked eye detection…lying at a distance beyond comprehension...” ASSA 100. (Auke Slotegraaf). Messier objects. Apparent size: degrees, arc minutes, arc seconds. Interesting info. AKA’s. Emphasis, correction. Coordinates, location. Stars, star groups, etc. Variable stars. Double stars. (Only a small number included. “Colourful Ds. descriptions” taken from the book by Sissy Haas). Carbon star. C Asterisma. (Including many “Streicher” objects, taken from Asterism. -
Goddard Space Light Center JANUARY4,1 I
-_990 Goddard Space _light Center JANUARY4,1_I 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 Spacecraft EventTime (hrs) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Intensity Scale (dB) The Unified Plasma and Radio Wave Experiment (UPRWE) on board the Ulysses spacecraft captured the above dynamic spectrum of solar radio bursts, the solar wind, and radiations from Jupiter during Ulysses' multi-year billion mile journey to study the heliospheric plasma near and distant fiom the sun, within and out of the ecliptic plane. U PRWE was developed in a Goddard lead collaboration with the University of Minnesota, the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon and the Centre de Recherches en Physique de I'Environment Terrestre et Planetaire in France. The year 1990 was a banner year for Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC ) space-based astronomy projects (back cover). The front cover (from top to bottom) shows samples of the new science capabilities and findings which came from these projects: The Cy_gnus Loop, a supernova remnant photographed by the GSFC Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) in the light qf C IV (1548A), demonstrates the broad field of view and high spatial resolution which allowed UIT to return a wealth of data on stellar populations in galaxies and on intergalactic flow of matter within clusters of galaxies. UIT was part of the Astro- I payload orbited on the Space Shuttle Columbia in December, 1990. A previously undetected supernova remnant (labeled "new SNR" ) was discovered by the Max Planck Institute' s Position-Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) on the Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT). ROSAT is a German, United Kingdom and United States col- laboration in x-ray astronomy; the U.S. -
Arxiv:1910.00666V1
DRAFT VERSION OCTOBER 3, 2019 Preprint typeset using LATEX style emulateapj v. 12/16/11 A CEPHEID-BASED DISTANCE TO THE SEYFERT GALAXY NGC6814 MISTY C. BENTZ1,LAURA FERRARESE2,3,CHRISTOPHER A. ONKEN4,5 , BRADLEY M. PETERSON6,7,8 , MONICA VALLURI9, (Received; Accepted) Draft version October 3, 2019 ABSTRACT We present a Cepheid-based distance to the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC6814 from Hubble Space Telescope observations. We obtained F555W and F814W imaging over the course of 12 visits with logarithmic time spacing in 2013 August−October. We detected and made photometric measurements for 16,469 unique sources across all images in both filters, from which we identify 90 excellent Cepheid candidates spanning a range of periods of 13−84days. We find evidence for incompleteness in the detection of candidates at periods <21days. Based on the analysis of Cepheid candidates above the incompleteness limit, we determine a distance modulus +0.031 for NGC6814 relative to the LMC of µrelLMC =13.200−0.031 mag. Adopting the recent constraint of the distance − +0.041 modulus to the LMC determined by Pietrzynski´ et al., we find m M = 31.677−0.041 which gives a distance of 21.65 ± 0.41Mpc to NGC6814. Subject headings: galaxies: active — galaxies: nuclei — galaxies: Seyfert 1. INTRODUCTION bulge luminosity (MBH −Lbulge, Kormendy & Richstone 1995; The Leavitt Law, describing the relationship between the Kormendy & Ho 2013). luminosity of Cepheid stars and their periods of variability Reverberation mapping (Blandford& McKee 1982; (Leavitt & Pickering 1912), is one of the most revolutionary Peterson 1993) is one of the few techniques that can be used discoveries in the field of astronomy.