Analysis of optical axis deviation caused by structural stiffness in equatorial telescopes

The impact of structural stiffness on optical axis deviation poses a significant challenge in the design of equatorial telescope structures.A comprehensive analysis during the design process can reduce the reliance of a telescope on advanced control technologies,thereby improving its economic feasibility.Although full-system finite element analyses are reliable,they are encumbered by significant time requirements and limitations in covering all possible telescope orientations.Therefore,we propose an efficient and comprehensive analytical method to evaluate the optical axis deviation of equatorial telescopes across a full range of angles.To address the challenge of ensuring that the analysis covers all possible positions of an equatorial telescope,based on a model from SiTian project,we analyze the optical axis deviations caused by the fork arm at 25 different angles and then use fitting methods to obtain results for all angles.Based on the analysis results of the optical axis deviation caused by the stiffness of the optical tube in the horizontal position,we derive the results for the tube at any position using geometric relationships.Finally,we calculate the coupling factors and combine these impacts.Furthermore,we identify six discrete feature points to reflect possible telescope orientations and conduct comprehensive finite element analyses.The results are in alignment with those acquired through a comprehensive computational approach.

A New Method for Monitoring Scattered Stray Light of an Inner-occulted Coronagraph

The scattered stray light of a coronagraph is a type of stray light that is generated by the objective lens as its surface defects are irradiated by sunlight.The defects mainly include dust and blemishes on the lens surface,microroughness of the lens surface,and impurity and inhomogeneity of the glass.Unlike the other types of relatively stable defects introduced when the objective lens is being manufactured,the scattered stray light caused by dusts on the lens surface is difficult to quantify accurately due to the disorder and randomness of the dust accumulation.The contribution of this type of stray light to the overall stray light level is difficult to determine through simulations and experiments.This can result in continuous deterioration of the stray light level of a coronagraph and thus affect the observation capabilities of the instrument.To solve this issue,through analyzing the forming mechanism of scattered stray light and ghost image generated by the inner-occulted coronagraph,we propose a novel method to monitor the scattered stray light from dusts by utilizing different stray light correlation coefficients.In this method,we first simulate and measure the level of stray light from the ghost image of the objective lens,and then determine the flux ratio of scattered light and ghost image on the conjugate plane.Although the flux ratio varies with the accumulation of dusts on the lens surface,it remains constant on the image plane.Therefore,the level of dust scattering light on the image plane can be obtained by using this ratio together with the level of ghost image stray light.The accuracy of this method has been validated in a laboratory by applying the objective lens with numerous surface cleanliness levels.

Morphological Classification of Infrared Galaxies Based on WISE

This study introduces a novel convolutional neural network,the WISE Galaxy Classification Network(WGC),for classifying spiral and elliptical galaxies using Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE)images.WGC attains an accuracy of 89.03%,surpassing the combined use of K-means or SVM with the Color-Color method in more accurately identifying galaxy morphologies.The enhanced variant,WGC_mag,integrates magnitude parameters with image features,further boosting the accuracy to 89.89%.The research also delves into the criteria for galaxy classification,discovering that WGC primarily categorizes dust-rich images as elliptical galaxies,corresponding to their lower star formation rates,and classifies less dusty images as spiral galaxies.The paper explores the consistency and complementarity of WISE infrared images with SDSS optical images in galaxy morphology classification.The SDSS Galaxy Classification Network(SGC),trained on SDSS images,achieved an accuracy of 94.64%.The accuracy reached 99.30% when predictions from SGC and WGC were consistent.Leveraging the complementarity of features in WISE and SDSS images,a novel variant of a classifier,namely the Multi-band Galaxy Morphology Integrated Classifier,has been developed.This classifier elevates the overall prediction accuracy to 95.39%.Lastly,the versatility of WGC was validated in other data sets.On the HyperLEDA data set,the distinction between elliptical galaxies and Sc,Scd and Sd spiral galaxies was most pronounced,achieving an accuracy of 90%,surpassing the classification results of the Galaxy Zoo 2 labeled WISE data set.This research not only demonstrates the effectiveness of WISE images in galaxy morphology classification but also represents an attempt to integrate multi-band astronomical data to enhance understanding of galaxy structures and evolution.

Mid-infrared Period-Luminosity Relations of Gaia DR3 Long Period Variables

Long period variable(LPV)stars are very promising distance indicators in the infrared bands.We selected asymptotic giant branch(AGB)stars in the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud(LMC and SMC)from the Gaia Data Release 3 LPV catalog,and classified them into oxygen-rich(O-rich)and carbon-rich(C-rich)AGB stars.Using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer database,we determined the W1-and W2-band period-luminosity relations(PLRs)for each pulsation-mode sequence of AGB stars.The dispersion of the PLRs of O-rich AGB stars in sequences C'and C is relatively small,around 0.14 mag.The PLRs of LMC and SMC are consistent in each sequence.In the W2 band,the PLR of large-amplitude C-rich AGB stars is steeper than that of small-amplitude C-rich AGB stars,due to their more circumstellar dust.By two methods,we find that some PLR sequences of O-rich AGB stars in the LMC are dependent on metallicity.The coefficients of the metallicity effect areβ=-0.533±0.213 mag dex~1andβ=-0.767±0.158 mag dex~1for sequence C in W1 and W2 bands,respectively.The significance of the metallicity effect in W1 band for the four sequences is 2.2-3.5σ.Both of these imply that distance measurements using O-rich Mira may need to take the metallicity effect into account.

Probing the Galactic Halo with RR Lyrae Stars.VI.The Radial Velocity Curve Templates of RRc Stars

We present radial velocity(RV)curve templates of RR Lyrae first-overtone(RRc)stars constructed with the Mg I b triplet and Hαlines using time-domain Medium-Resolution Survey spectra of seven RRc stars from Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST)Data Release 9.Additionally,we derive the relation between the stellar RV curve amplitudes and g-band light curve amplitudes from Zwicky Transient Facility(ZTF)public survey.For those RRc stars without ZTF g-band light curves,we provide the conversions from the light curve amplitudes in ZTF r-and i-bands,Gaia G-band,and V-band from the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae to those in ZTF g-band.We validate our RV curve templates using the RRc star SV Scl and find the uncertainties of systemic RV are less than 2.11 km s~(-1)and 6.08 km s~(-1)based on the Mg I b triplet and Hαlines,respectively.We calculate the systemic RVs of 30 RRc stars using the RV curve templates constructed with the Mg I b triplet and Hαlines and find the systemic RVs are comparable with each other.This RV curve template will be particularly useful for obtaining the systemic RV of RRc using the LAMOST spectroscopy.

Recent advances in the magnetic reconnection,dipolarization,and auroral processes at giant planets from the perspective of comparative planetology

Magnetic reconnection and dipolarization are crucial processes driving magnetospheric dynamics,including particle energization,mass circulation,and auroral processes,among others.Recent studies have revealed that these processes at Saturn and Jupiter are fundamentally different from the ones at Earth.The reconnection and dipolarization processes are far more important than previously expected in the dayside magnetodisc of Saturn and potentially Jupiter.Dayside magnetodisc reconnection was directly identified by using Cassini measurements(Guo RL et al.,2018b)and was found to be drizzle-like and rotating in the magnetosphere of Saturn(Delamere et al.,2015b;Yao ZH et al.,2017a;Guo RL et al.,2019).Moreover,magnetic dipolarization could also exist at Saturn’s dayside(Yao ZH et al.,2018),which is fundamentally different from the terrestrial situation.These new results significantly improve our understanding of giant planetary magnetospheric dynamics and provide key insights revealing the physics of planetary aurorae.Here,we briefly review these recent advances and their potential implications for future investigations.

Confirmation of a Sub-Saturn-size Transiting Exoplanet Orbiting a G Dwarf:TOI-1194 b and a Very Low Mass Companion Star: TOI-1251 B from TESS

We report the confirmation of a sub-Saturn-size exoplanet,TOI-1194 b,with a mass of about 0.456+0.055-0.051M_(J),and a very low mass companion star with a mass of about 96.5±1.5 MJ,TOI-1251 B.Exoplanet candidates provided by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite(TESS)are suitable for further follow-up observations by ground-based telescopes with small and medium apertures.The analysis is performed based on data from several telescopes worldwide,including telescopes in the Sino-German multiband photometric campaign,which aimed at confirming TESS Objects of Interest(TOIs)using ground-based small-aperture and medium-aperture telescopes,especially for long-period targets.TOI-1194 b is confirmed based on the consistent periodic transit depths from the multiband photometric data.We measure an orbital period of 2.310644±0.000001 days,the radius is 0.767+0.045-0.041RJ and the amplitude of the RV curve is 69.4_(-7.3)^(+7.9)m s^(-1).TOI-1251 B is confirmed based on the multiband photometric and high-resolution spectroscopic data,whose orbital period is 5.963054+0.000002-0.000001days,radius is 0.947+0.035-0.033 R_(J) and amplitude of the RV curve is 9849_(-40)^(+42)ms^(-1).

FAST Observations of Four Comets to Search for the Molecular Line Emissions between 1.0 and 1.5 GHz Frequencies

We used the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)to search for the molecular emissions in the L-band between 1.0 and 1.5 GHz toward four comets,C/2020 F3(NEOWISE),C/2020 R4(ATLAS),C/2021 A1(Leonard),and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during or after their perihelion passages.Thousands of molecular transition lines fall in this low-frequency range,many attributed to complex organic or prebiotic molecules.We conducted a blind search for the possible molecular lines in this frequency range in those comets and could not identify clear signals of molecular emissions in the data.Although several molecules have been detected at high frequencies of greater than100 GHz in comets,our results confirm that it is challenging to detect molecular transitions in the L-band frequency ranges.The non-detection of L-band molecular lines in the cometary environment could rule out the possibility of unusually strong lines,which could be caused by the masers or non-LTE effects.Although the line strengths are predicted to be weak,for FAST,using the ultra-wide bandwidth receiver and improving the radio frequency interference environments would enhance the detectability of those molecular transitions at low frequencies in the future.

Wind Environment Analysis of Ground-based Optical Observatory

The telescopes and the infrastructures may alter the local wind environment around the observatory and further affect the observing environment.After the completion of site testing,it is necessary to analyze the wind environment of the entire site and plan the telescope layout to make use of the excellent conditions scientifically and rationally.Taking a typical observatory as an example,the effect of topographical features on the wind environment and the mutual interference between telescope enclosures are analyzed by using the Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD)method.The CFD simulations are compared with the seeing data from the Differential Image Motion Monitor,and the results are in good agreement,which verifies the effectiveness of the CFD method.The results of wind environment analysis can provide reasonable suggestions for site layout and construction,reducing the interference effects and improving the observing environment.

A simulation package—SASAL for X-ray and EUV spectroscopy of astrophysical and laboratory plasmas

For the laboratory astrophysics community, those spectroscopic modeling codes extensively used in astronomy, e.g. Chianti, AtomDB, Cloudy and Xstar, cannot be directly applied to analyzing laboratory measurements due to their discrepancies from astrophysical cases. For example, plasma from an electron beam ion trap has an electron energy distribution that follows a Gaussian profile, instead of a Maxwellian one. The laboratory miniature for a compact object produced by a laser-driven implo- sion shows a departure from equilibrium, that often occurs in celestial objects, so we setup a spectral analysis system for astrophysical and laboratory （SASAL） plasmas to act as a bridge between them, which benefits the laboratory astrophysical community.

Optical monitoring and intra-day variabilities of BL Lac Objects OJ 287

Using the 1.26 m National Astronomical Observatory-Guangzhou University Infrared/Optical Telescope(NGT),we monitor one BL Lac object,OJ 287.For this source,we obtain 15094 gri observations(4900 at g band,5184 at r band and 5010 at i band)in 155 nights from 2014 December 13 to 2019 March15.Based on the upper observations,we obtain the following results.(1)The total variation amplitude is~2.3 mag.(2)There are intra-day variabilities(IDVs).The IDV timescales(△T)are in the range from 7.69 min(Δm=0.06±0.02 mag)to 371.09 min(Δm=0.26±0.04 mag).(3)There are strong correlations betweenΔT andΔm,△m=(2.91±0.66)×10^(-4)ΔT+(0.08±0.009),with r=0.52,p=5.33×10^(-5).(4)There are intra-day periods in this source,with the period P≈94 min on 2017 December 10.When we supplement the observations from the literature,we can obtain that the long-term period is about 12.02±0.41 yr.(5)The spectral properties of OJ 287 show the bluer-when-brighter behavior,whatever state the source is at.

Deep Learning Applications Based on WISE Infrared Data:Classification of Stars,Galaxies and Quasars

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE)has detected hundreds of millions of sources over the entire sky.However,classifying them reliably is a great challenge due to degeneracies in WISE multicolor space and low detection levels in its two longest-wavelength bandpasses.In this paper,the deep learning classification network,IICnet(Infrared Image Classification network),is designed to classify sources from WISE images to achieve a more accurate classification goal.IICnet shows good ability on the feature extraction of the WISE sources.Experiments demonstrate that the classification results of IICnet are superior to some other methods;it has obtained 96.2%accuracy for galaxies,97.9%accuracy for quasars,and 96.4%accuracy for stars,and the Area Under Curve of the IICnet classifier can reach more than 99%.In addition,the superiority of IICnet in processing infrared images has been demonstrated in the comparisons with VGG16,GoogleNet,ResNet34,Mobile Net,EfficientNetV2,and RepVGG-fewer parameters and faster inference.The above proves that IICnet is an effective method to classify infrared sources.

Optical monitoring of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 and possible periodicities in its historical light curve

We report B, V and R band CCD photometry of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 obtained with the 1.0m telescope at Weihai Observatory of Shandong University and the 1.56 m telescope at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory from 2005 December to 2013 February. Combining all available data from literature, we have constructed a historical light curve from 1910 to 2013 to study the periodicity of the source using three different methods （the Jurkevich method, the Lomb-Scargle periodogram method and the Discrete Correlation Function method）. We find possible periods of P1 = 4 ± 0.1,/92 = 7.5 ±0.3 and P3 = 15.9± 0.3 yr.

Optical observations of the broad-lined type Ic supernova SN 2012ap

Abstract The optical observations of the type Ic supernova （SN lc） SN 2012ap in NGC 1729 are presented. A comparison with other SNe Ic indicates that SN 2012ap is highly reddened （with E（B - V）host-0.8 mag） and may represent one of the most luminous SNe Ic ever observed, with an absolute V-band peak magnitude of - 19.3±0.5 mag after extinction correction. The near-maximum-light spectrum shows wide spectral features that are typical of broad-lined SNe Ic. One interesting feature in the spectrum is the appearance of some narrow absorption features that can be at- tributed to the diffuse interstellar bands, consistent with the large reddening inferred from the photometric method. Based on the light curves and the spectral data, we esti- mate that SN 2012ap produced a 56Ni mass of - 0.3 -b 0.1M in the explosion, with an ejecta mass of 2.4^＋0.7 -0.7M and a kinetic energy of EK=1.1^＋0.4 -0.4×10^52 erg. The properties of its progenitor are also briefly discussed.

A key factor to the spin parameter of uniformly rotating compact stars: crust structure

We study the dimensionless spin parameter j ≡ cJ/（GM2） of different kinds of uniformly rotating compact stars, including traditional neutron stars, hyperonic neutron stars and hybrid stars, based on relativistic mean field theory and the MIT bag model. It is found that j ~ 0.7, which had been suggested in traditional neutron stars, is sustained for hyperonic neutron stars and hybrid stars with M 〉 0.5 MG. Not the interior but rather the crust structure of the stars is a key factor to determine jmax for three kinds of selected compact stars. Furthermore, a universal formula j = 0.63（f/fK） -- 0.42（f/fK）2 ＋ 0.48（f/fK）z is suggested to determine the spin parameter at any rotational frequency f smaller than the Keplerian frequency fK.

Application of multi-pulse optical imaging to measure evolution of laser-produced counter-streaming flows

A counter-streaming flow system is a test-bed to investigate the astrophysical collisionless shock（CS） formation in the laboratory. Electrostatic/electromagnetic instabilities, competitively growing in the system and exciting the CS formation, are sensitive to the flows parameters. One of the most important parameters is the velocity, determining what kind of instability contributes to the shock formation. Here we successfully measure the evolution of the counter-streaming flows within one shot using a multi-pulses imaging diagnostic technique. With the technique, the average velocity of the high-density-part（ne ≥ 8–9 × 10^19cm^-3） of the flow is directly measured to be of ～ 10^6cm/s between 7 ns and 17 ns.Meanwhile, the average velocity of the low-density-part（ne ≤ 2 × 10^19cm^-3） can be estimated as ～ 10^7cm/s. The experimental results show that a collisionless shock is formed during the low-density-part of the flow interacting with each other.

Determination of Distance,Extinction,Mass,and Age for Stars in LAMOST DR7

Large scale spectroscopic surveys such as that using Large-sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST) have collected spectra of millions stars in the Milky Way.Utilizing this huge sample of stars to study the assembling history and structure of our Galaxy requires accurate estimates of distance,extinction,age,and mass for individual stars.Combining the parallax constraint from Gaia EDR3 with Bayesian inference,we have estimated the distance and extinction for stars observed in LAMOST DR7,as well as the stellar mass and age for evolved stars in this data release.We validated the accuracies of the stellar parameters by comparing our results against various measurements,including the star-pair technique,asteroseismology,globular clusters,and isochrone fits to main sequence stars and subgiants.This is a valuable catalog of stellar parameters under a Bayesian framework estimated using the data from Gaia EDR3 and LAMOST spectroscopic data.With this data set we explored the stellar population of the Galactic massive substructure Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus(GSE).The kinematically selected members of GSE have a median metallicity of [Fe/H] =-1.29 and a median age of 11.6 Gyr.

The Significance of Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars in Post-starburst Galaxies

We measure the significance of thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch(TP-AGB)stars via the spectral energy distributions(SEDs)of a sample of post-starburst(PSB)galaxies at z=0.2-0.7.Using ground-and space-based photometry from the 3D-HST catalog,as well as associated near-infrared(NIR)Hubble Space Telescope(HST)slitless grism spectroscopy,we evaluate the importance of TP-AGB stars in the SEDs of 177 PSB galaxies by fitting simple stellar populations with different levels of TP-AGB contributions.The grism spectra,despite their low resolution of R~100,enable the detection of molecular features specific to TP-AGB stars and thus improve constraints on their contribution.A majority(~70%)of galaxies in the PSB sample show features indicative of TPAGB stars,while the remainder does not and they are well fit by Bruzual&Charlot TP-AGB light models.Stacked spectra of sources classified to be the best fit by TP-AGB heavy/mild models reveal strong detections of NIR molecular features associated with TP-AGB stars.Additionally,we observe a tentative trend with redshift where more TP-AGB heavy galaxies are observed in the higher redshift PSB galaxy population.Finally,neglecting the contribution of TP-AGB stars can yield an over-prediction of stellar masses measured in the K-band ranging from 0.13-0.23 dex.

Mass Distribution of Black Holes with Effects of Convective Carbon Shell Burning on Pair-instability Pulsation and Fe Core Collapse

Motivated by the determination of black hole masses with gravitational-wave observations,we calculate the evolution of massive stars through presupernova stages and obtain the mass distribution of black holes.In the first part,we calculate the evolution of He stars with masses of 30-120 M_(⊙).We study in detail how convective carbon shell burning controls pair-instability pulsations before and during oxygen burning and determine their final fates.In the second part,we calculate the evolution of H-rich stars with initial masses of 13-80 M_(⊙) until Fe core collapse and obtain the possible black hole mass range by applying the criterion of the compactness parameters.From these models,we predict the mass distribution of black holes for stars that undergo Fe core collapse and pair-instability pulsation.The predicted masses for black holes range from 4.2 to 46 M_(⊙),which are consistent with the gravitational-wave observations.

Preliminary Exploration of Areal Density of Angular Momentum for Spiral Galaxies

The specific angular momenta(j_(t))of stars,baryons as a whole and dark matter halos contain clues of vital importance about how galaxies form and evolve.Using a sample of 70 spiral galaxies,we perform a preliminary analysis of j_t,and introduce a new quantity,e.g.,areal density of angular momentum(ADAM)(j_(t)M_(*)/(2R_(d))^(2))as an indication for the existence of jet(s)in spiral galaxies.The percentage of spiral galaxies having jet(s)shows a strong correlation with ADAM,although the present sample is incomplete.