Photometric solution and period analysis of the contact binary system AH Cnc

Photometric observations of AH Cnc, a W UMa-type system in the open cluster M67, were car- fled out by using the 50BIN telescope. About 100h of time-series/3- and V-band data were taken, based on which eight new times of light minima were determined. By applying the Wilson-Devinney method, the light curves were modeled and a revised photometric solution of the binary system was derived. We con- firmed that AH Cnc is a deep contact （f = 51%）, low mass-ratio （q - 0.156） system. Adopting the distance modulus derived from study of the host cluster, we have re-calculated the physical parameters of the binary system, namely the masses and radii. The masses and radii of the two components were estimated to be respectively 1.188（4-0.061） Me, 1.332（4-0.063） RQ for the primary component and 0.185（4-0.032） Me, 0.592（4-0.051） Re for the secondary. By adding the newly derived minimum timings to all the available data, the period variations of AH Cnc were studied. This shows that the orbital period of the binary is con- tinuously increasing at a rate of dp/dt = 4.29 x 10-10 d yr-1. In addition to the long-term period increase, a cyclic variation with a period of 35.26 yr was determined, which could be attributed to an unresolved tertiary component of the system.

Study of the continuum removal method for the Moon Mineralogy Mapper(M^3) and its application to Mare Humorum and Mare Nubium

The absorption band center of visible and near infrared reflectance spectra is a key spectral parameter for lunar mineralogical studies, especially for the mafic minerals（olivine and pyroxene） of mare basalts, which have two obvious absorption bands at 1000 nm（Band I） and 2000 nm（Band II）. Removal of the continuum from spectra, which was developed by Clark and Roush and used to isolate the particular absorption feature, is necessary to estimate this parameter. The Moon Mineralogy Mapper（M3） data are widely used for lunar mineral identification. However, M3 data show a residual thermal effect, which interferes with the continuum removal, and systematic differences exist among optical data taken during different optical periods. This study investigated a suitable continuum removal method and compared the difference between two sets of M3 data taken during different optical periods, Optical Period 1B（OP1B）and Optical Period 2A（OP2A）. Two programs for continuum removal are reported in this paper. Generally,a program respectively constructs two straight lines across Band I and Band II to remove the continuum,which is recommended for locating band centers, because it can find the same Band I center with different right endpoints. The optimal right endpoint for continuum removal is mainly dominated by two optical period data at approximately 2480 and 2560 nm for OP1 B and OP2 A data, respectively. The band center values derived from OP1 B data are smaller than those derived from OP2 A data in Band I but larger in Band II, especially for the spectra using longer right endpoints（〉2600 nm）. This may be due to the spectral slopes of OP1 B data being steeper than those of OP2 A data in Band I but gentler in Band II. These results were applied to Mare Humorum and Mare Nubium, and the measurements were found to mainly vary from intermediate- to high-Ca pyroxene.

Sky subtraction for LAMOST

Sky subtraction is a key technique in data reduction of multi-fiber spectra. Knowledge of characteristics related to the instrument is necessary to determine the method adopted in sky subtraction. In this study, we describe the sky subtraction method designed for the Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope （LAMOST） survey. The method has been integrated into the LAMOST 2D Pipeline v2.6 and applied to data from LAMOST DR3 and later. For LAMOST, calibration using sky emission lines is used to alleviate the position-dependent （and thus time-dependent） ,-~ 4% fiber throughput uncertainty and small wavelength instability （0.1/~） during observation. Sky subtraction using principal component analysis （PCA） further reduces 25% of the sky line residual from OH fines in the red part of LAMOST spectra after the master sky spectrum, which is derived from a B-spline fit of 20 sky fibers in each spectrograph. Using this approach, values are adjusted by a sky emission line and subtracted from each fiber. Further analysis shows that our wavelength calibration accuracy is about 4.5 km s-1, and the averages of residuals after sky subtraction are about 3% for sky emission lines and 3% for the continuum region. The relative sky subtraction residuals vary with moonlight background brightness, and can reach as low as 1.5% for regions that have sky emission lines during a dark night. Tests on F stars with both similar sky emission line strength and similar object continuum intensity show that the sky emission line residual of LAMOST is smaller than that of the SDSS survey.

A solar radio dynamic spectrograph with flexible temporal-spectral resolution

Observation and research on solar radio emission have unique scientific values in solar and space physics and related space weather forecasting applications, since the observed spectral structures may carry important information about energetic electrons and underlying physical mechanisms. In this study, we present the design of a novel dynamic spectrograph that has been installed at the Chashan Solar Radio Observatory operated by the Laboratory for Radio Technologies, Institute of Space Sciences at Shandong University. The spectrograph is characterized by real-time storage of digitized radio intensity data in the time domain and its capability to perform off-line spectral analysis of the radio spectra. The analog signals received via antennas and amplified with a low-noise amplifier are converted into digital data at a speed reaching up to 32 k data points per millisecond. The digital data are then saved into a high- speed electronic disk for further off-line spectral analysis. Using different word lengths （1-32k） and time cadences （5 ms-10 s） for off-line fast Fourier transform analysis, we can obtain the dynamic spectrum of a radio burst with different （user-defined） temporal （5 ms-10 s） and spectral （3 kHz-320kHz） resolutions. This enables great flexibility and convenience in data analysis of solar radio bursts, especially when some specific fine spectral structures are under study.

The Astrometric Performance Test of 80 cm Telescope at Yaoan Station and Precise CCD Positions of Apophis

The 80 cm azimuthal telescope has newly been mounted at Yaoan Station,Purple Mountain Observatory since2018.The astrometric performance of the telescope is tested in the following three aspects.(a)The geometric distortion of its CCD attached.It is stable in both a single epoch and multi epochs.Eight distortion solutions are derived over about one year.The maximum values range from 0.75 to 0.79 pixel and the median values range from 0.14 to 0.16 pixel.(b)The limit magnitude of stars.About 20.5 mag(Gaia-G)stars can be detected with Johnson-V filter exposured in 300 s.The astrometric error of about 20.5 mag stars is estimated at O".14 using the fitted sigmoidal function.(c)The astrometric accuracy and the precision of stacked fast-moving faint object.24 stacked frames of the potentially hazardous asteroid(99942)Apophis were derived on 2021 April 14 and 15(fainter than18 mag)based on the ephemeris shifts.During data reduction,the newest Gaia EDR3 Catalog and Jet Propulsion Laboratory Horizons ephemeris are referenced as theoretical positions of stars and Apophis,respectively.Our results show that the mean(O-C)s(observed minus computed)of Apophis are-O".018 and O".020 in R.A.and decl.,and the dispersions are estimated at O".094 and O".085,respectively,which show the consistency of the stacked results by Astrometrica.

An investigation of collisions between fiber positioning units in LAMOST

The arrangement of fiber positioning units in the LAMOST focal plane may lead to collisions during the fiber allocation process, To avoid these collisions, a software-based protection system has to abandon some targets located in the overlapping field of adjacent fiber units. In this paper, we first analyze the probability of collisions between fibers and infer their possible reasons. It is useful to solve the problem of collisions among fiber positioning units so as to improve the efficiency of LAMOST. Based on this, a collision handling system is designed by using a master-slave control structure between the micro control unit and microcomputer. Simulated experiments validate that the system can provide real-time inspection and swap information between the fiber unit controllers and the main controller.