VIBI Observations of Two Quasars at 1.3cm

The quasars, 0748+126 and 2251+158 (3C 454 3),have been observed at 1 3cm by using a global VLBI network. We have obtained the images of the quasars with a resolution higher than 0″ 001. The brightness distribution is revealed in the nuclear region of the quasars. The radio emission FWHM from 0748+126 is 0 61×0 27 mas. 2251+158 shows a nucleus-jet structure, and the nuclear region is elongated in the direction PA=-130°, The quasar can be fitted with 4 Gaussian components. The most west and east components are separated by 0 8mas (3pc). The integrated flux density in the nuclear region is 6 138Jy. The most east component shows the highest brightness, and its flux is ～4 11Jy (in 67% of the total detected flux), concentrated in the area of 0 16×0 01 mas. This causes the brightness temperature up to 2 6×10 12 K.

Eight new quasars discovered by the Guoshoujing Telescope (LAMOST) in one extragalactic field

We report the discovery of eight new quasars in one extragalactic field （a five-degree field centered at RA=08^h58^m08.2^s, Dec=01°32′29.7″） with the Guoshoujing Telescope （LAMOST） commissioning observations made on 2009 December 18. These quasars, with i magnitudes from 16.44 to 19.34 and redshifts from 0.898 to 2.773, were not identified in the SDSS spectroscopic survey, though six of them with redshifts less than 2.5 were selected as quasar targets in SDSS. Except for one source without near-IR Y-band data, seven of these eight new quasars satisfy a newly proposed quasar selection criterion involving both near-IR and optical colors. Two of them were found in the ＇redshift desert＇ for quasars （z from 2.2 to 3）, indicating that the new criterion is efficient for uncovering missing quasars with similar optical colors to stars. Although LAMOST encountered some problems during the commissioning observations, we were still able to identify 38 other known SDSS quasars in this field, with i magnitudes from 16.24 to 19.10 and redshifts from 0.297 to 4.512. Our identifications imply that a substantial fraction of quasars may be miss- ing in previous quasar surveys. The implication of our results to the future LAMOST quasar survey is discussed.

New background quasars in the vicinity of the Andromeda Galaxy discovered with the Guoshoujing Telescope (LAMOST)

We present preliminary analyses of spectra of quasar candidates in two Guoshoujing Telescope （GSJT, formerly named the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope - LAMOST） test fields near M 31 where one is close to the optical center of the disk and the other is towards the northeastern outskirts of the halo, obtained during the early stage of the GSJT commissioning in the last season of 2009. Both fields contain background low-redshift quasar candidates selected from the SDSS photometry. In total, 14 new quasars with redshifts up to 2 and i magnitudes between 16.7 and 19.2, are discovered, including 7 within the 2.5° central region of M 31. We briefly discuss the potential applications of these newly discovered bright quasars.

Photometric redshift estimation for quasars by integration of KNN and SVM

The massive photometric data collected from multiple large-scale sky surveys offer significant opportunities for measuring distances of celestial objects by photometric redshifts. However, catastrophic failure is an unsolved problem with a long history and it still exists in the current photometric redshift estimation approaches （such as the k-nearest neighbor （KNN） algorithm）. In this paper, we propose a novel two-stage approach by integration of KNN and support vector machine （SVM） methods together. In the first stage, we apply the KNN algorithm to photometric data and estimate their corresponding Zphot. Our analysis has found two dense regions with catastrophic failure, one in the range of Zphot E [0.3, 1.2] and the other in the range of Zphot E [1.2, 2.1]. In the second stage, we map the photometric input pattern of points falling into the two ranges from their original attribute space into a high dimensional feature space by using a Gaussian kernel function from an SVM. In the high dimensional feature space, many outliers resulting from catastrophic failure by simple Euclidean distance computation in KNN can be identified by a classification hyperplane of SVM and can be further corrected. Experimental results based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey （SDSS） quasar data show that the two-stage fusion approach can significantly mitigate catastrophic failure and improve the estimation accuracy of photometric redshifts of quasars. The percents in different /△z/ ranges and root mean square （rms） error by the integrated method are 83.47%, 89.83%, 90.90% and 0.192, respectively, compared to the results by KNN （71.96%, 83.78%, 89.73% and 0.204）.

Gnomon shadow lengths recorded in the Zhoubi Suanjing:the earliest meridian observations in China?

The Zhoubi Suanjing, one of the most important ancient Chinese books on mathematical astronomy, was compiled about 100 BC in the Western Han dynasty （BC 206 - AD 23）. We study the gnomon shadow lengths for the 24 solar terms as recorded in the book. Special attention is paid to the so-called law of ‘cun qian li’, which says the shadow length of a gnomon of 8 chi （about 1.96 m） high will increase （or decrease） 1 cun （1/10chi） for every 10001i （roughly 400kin） the gnomon moves northward （or south- ward）. From these data, one can derive the time and location of the observations. The resuits, however, do not fit historical facts. We suggest that compilers of the Zhoubi Suanjing must have modified the original data according to the law of ‘cun qian li’. Through reversing the situation, we recovered the original data, our analysis of which reveals the best possible observation time as 564 BC and the location of observation as 35.78° N latitude. We conclude that this must be the earliest records of solar meridian observations in China. In the meantime, we give the errors of solar altitudes for the 24 solar terms. The average deviation is 5.22°, and the mean absolute deviation is 5.52°, signifying the accuracy of astronomical calculations from that time.

Ionization state of cosmic hydrogen by early stars and quasars

Cosmic hydrogen is reionized and maintained in its highly ionized state by the ultraviolet emission attributed to an early generation of stars and quasars. The Lyα opacity observed in absorption spectra of high-redshift quasars permits more stringent constraints on the ionization state of cosmic hydrogen. Based on density perturbation and structure formation theory, we develop an analytic model to trace the evolution of the ionization state in the post-overlap epoch of reionization, in which the bias factor is taken into account. For quasars, we represent an improved luminosity function by utilizing a hybrid approach for the halo formation rate that is in reasonable agreement with the published measurements at 2 ≤ z ≤ 6. Comparison with the classic Press-Schechter mass function of dark matter halos, we demonstrate that the biased mass distribution indeed enhances star formation efficiency in the overdense environment by more than 25 per cent following the overlap of ionized bubbles. In addition, an alternative way is introduced to derive robust estimates of the mean free path for ionizing photons. In our model, star-forming galaxies are likely to dominate the ionizing background radiation beyond z = 3, and quasars contribute equally above a redshift of z ～ 2.5. From 5 ≤ z ≤ 6, the lack of evolution in photoionization rate can thus be explained by the relatively flat evolution in star formation efficiency, although the mean free path of ionizing photons increases rapidly. Moreover, in the redshift interval z ～ 2 - 6, the expected mean free path and Gunn-Peterson optical depth obviously evolve by a factor of ～ 500 and ～50 respectively. We find that the relative values of critical overdensities for hydrogen ionization and collapse could be 430% at z ≈2 and 2% at z ≈6, suggesting a rapid overlap process in the overdense regions around instant quasars following reionization. We further illustrate that the absolute estimates of the fraction of neutral hydrogen computed from theoretical models may not be important because of comparable uncertainties in the computation.

Galaxy formation in the reionization epoch as hinted by WideField Camera 3 observations of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

We present a large sample of candidate galaxies at z ≈ 7 - 10, selected in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field using the new observations of the Wide Field Camera 3 that was recently installed on the Hubble Space Telescope. Our sample is composed of 20 z850-dropouts （four new discoveries）, 15 Y105-dropouts （nine new discoveries） and 20 J125-dropouts （all new discoveries）. The surface densities of the Z850-dropouts are close to what was predicted by earlier studies, however, those of the Y105- and J125-dropouts are quite unexpected. While no Y105- or J125-dropouts have been found at AB ≤ 28.0 mag, their surface densities seem to increase sharply at fainter levels. While some of these candidates seem to be close to foreground galaxies and thus could possibly be gravitationally lensed, the overall surface densities after excluding such cases are still much higher than what would be expected if the luminosity function does not evolve from z ～ 7 to 10. Motivated by such steep increases, we tentatively propose a set of Schechter function parameters to describe the luminosity functions at z ≈8 and 10. As compared to their counterpart at z ≈ 7, here L^＊ decreases by a factor of ～ 6.5 and Ф^＊ increases by a factor of 17-90. Although such parameters are not yet demanded by the existing observations, they are allowed and seem to agree with the data better than other alternatives. If these luminosity functions are still valid beyond our current detection limit, this would imply a sudden emergence of a large number of low-luminosity galaxies when looking back in time to z ≈ 10, which, while seemingly exotic, would naturally fit in the picture of the cosmic hydrogen reionization. These early galaxies could easily account for the ionizing photon budget required by the reionization, and they would imply that the global star formation rate density might start from a very high value at z ≈ 10, rapidly reach the minimum at z≈ 7, and start to rise again towards z ≈ 6. In this scenario, the majority of the stellar mass that the universe assembled through the reionization epoch seems still undetected by current observations at z ≈ 6.

Full-disk synoptic observations of the chromosphere using Hα telescope at the Kodaikanal Observatory

This paper reports on the installation and observations of a new solar telescope installed on 2014 October 7 at the Kodaikanal Observatory. The telescope is a refractive type equipped with a tunable Lyot Hα filter. A CCD camera with size 2k ×2k acquires images of the Sun and has a pixel size of 1.21″ pixel^-1 and a full field-of-view of 41＇. The telescope is equipped with a guiding system which keeps the image of the Sun within a few pixels throughout the observations. The FWHM of the Lyot filter is 0.4A and the filter is motorized, capable of scanning the Hα line profile at a smaller step size of 0.01 A. Partial-disk imaging covering about 10＇ is also possible with the help of a relay lens kept in front of the CCD camera. In this paper, we report the detailed specifications of the telescope, filter unit, the installation, observations and the procedures we have followed to calibrate and align the data. We also present preliminary results with this new full-disk telescope.

Extending the Eigenvector 1 space to the optical variability of quasars

We introduce a new physical parameter, the optical variability amplitude, to the well-established Eigenvector 1 space of quasars and test a sample of long-term B- band light curves of 42 Palomar-Green quasars monitored by Giveon et al. We find that the optical variability amplitude strongly correlates with the intensity ratio of FeⅡ to Hβ, Hβ width and peak luminosity at 5007A. We briefly discuss the physical meaning of our findings and suggest that the Eddington ratio may be a key factor in determining a quasar＇s variability.

Radio observations of the first three-months of Fermi AGN at 4.8 GHz

Using the Urumqi 25 m radio telescope, sources from the first three months of the Fermi-large area telescope detected active galactic nuclei （AGN） catalog with a declination of 〉 0° were observed in 2009 at 4.8 GHz. The radio flux density ap- peared to correlate with the γ-ray intensity. Intra-day variability （IDV） observations were performed in March, April and May 2009 for 42 selected γ-ray bright blazars, and ~60% of them showed evidence of flux variability at 4.8 GHz during the IDV observations. The IDV detection rate was higher than that in previous flat-spectrum AGN samples. IDV appeared more often in the very long baseline interferometry-core dominant blazars, and the non-IDV blazars showed relatively ＂steeper＂ spectral in- dices than the IDV blazars. Pronounced inter-month variability was also found in two BL Lac objects： J0112＋2244 and J0238＋1636.

Long-term optical flux and colour variability in quasars

We have used optical V and R band observations from the Massive Compact Halo Object （MACHO） project on a sample of 59 quasars behind the Magellanic clouds to study their long term optical flux and colour variations. These quasars, lying in the redshift range of 0.2 〈 z 〈 2.8 and having apparent V band magnitudes between 16.6 and 20.1 mag, have observations ranging from 49 to 1353 epochs span- ning over 7.5 yr with frequency of sampling between 2 to 10 days. All the quasars show variability during the observing period. The normalised excess variance （Fvar） in V and R bands are in the range 0.2% 〈 F^r 〈 1.6% and 0.1% 〈 Fnr 〈 1.5% respectively. In a large fraction of the sources, Fvar is larger in the V band compared to the R band. From the z-transformed discrete cross-correlation function analysis, we find that there is no lag between the V and R band variations. Adopting the Markov Chain Monte Carlo （MCMC） approach, and properly taking into account the correlation between the errors in colours and mag- nitudes, it is found that the majority of sources show a bluer when brighter trend, while a minor fraction of quasars show the opposite behaviour. This is similar to the results obtained from another two independent algorithms, namely the weighted linear least squares fit （FITEXY） and the bivariate correlated errors and intrinsic scatter regression （BCES）. However, the ordinary least squares （OLS） fit, normally used in the colour variability studies of quasars, indicates that all the quasars studied here show a bluer when brighter trend. It is therefore very clear that the OLS algorithm cannot be used for the study of colour variability in quasars.

Redshift drift reconstruction for some cosmological models from observations

Redshift drift is a tool to directly probe the expansion history of the uni- verse. Based on the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker framework, we reconstruct the ve- locity drift and deceleration factor for several cosmological models using observa- tional H（z） data from the differential ages of galaxies and baryon acoustic oscillation peaks, luminosity distance of Type Ia supernovae, cosmic microwave background shift parameter, and baryon acoustic oscillation distance parameter. They can, for the first time, provide an objective and quantifiable measure of the redshift drift. We find that reconstructed velocity drift with different peak values and corresponding redshifts can potentially provide a method to distinguish the quality of competing dark energy mod- els at low redshifts. Better fitting between models and observational data indicate that current data are insufficient to distinguish the quality of these models. However, by comparing with the simulated velocity drift from Liske et al, we find that the Dvali- Gabadadze-Porrati model is inconsistent with the data at high redshift, which origi- nally piqued the interest of researchers in the topic of redshift drift. Considering the deceleration factor, we are able to give a stable instantaneous estimation of a transition redshift of zt ~ 0.7 from joint constraints, which incorporates a more complete set of values than the previous study that used a single data set.

Quasars in the Galactic Anti-Center Area from LAMOST DR3

Abstract We present a sample of quasars discovered in an area near the Galactic Anti-Center covering 150°≤l≤ 210° and ｜b｜ ≤ 30°, based on LAMOST Data Release 3 （DR3）. This sample contains 151 spectroscopically confirmed quasars. Among them 80 are newly discovered with LAMOST. All these quasars are very bright, with i magnitudes peaking around 17.5 mag. All the new quasars were discovered serendipitously from objects that were originally targeted with LAMOST as stars having bluer colors, except for a few candidates targeted as variable, young stellar objects. This bright quasar sample at low Galactic latitudes will help fill the gap in the spatial distribution of known quasars near the Galactic disk that are used to construct an astrometric reference frame for the purpose of accurate proper motion measurements that can be applied to, for example, Gala. They are also excellent tracers to probe the kinematics and chemistry of the interstellar medium in the Milky Way disk and halo via absorption line spectroscopy.

How to co-add images? I. A new iterative method for image reconstruction of dithered observations

By employing the previous Voronoi approach and replacing its nearest neighbor approx- imation with Drizzle in iterative signal extraction, we develop a fast iterative Drizzle algorithm, namedfiDrizzle, to reconstruct the underlying band-limited image from undersampled dithered frames. Compared with the existing iDrizzle, the new algorithm improves rate of convergence and accelerates the computational speed. Moreover, under the same conditions （e.g. the same number of dithers and iterations）, fiDrizzle can make a better quality reconstruction than iDrizzle, due to the newly discov- ered High Sampling caused Decelerating Convergence （HSDC） effect in the iterative signal extraction process.fiDrizzle demonstrates its powerful ability to perform image deconvolution from undersampled dithers.

Observations of the first light and the epoch of reionization

Studying the first generation of stars, galaxies and supermassive black holes as well as the epoch of reionization is one of the fundamental questions of modern as- trophysics. The last few years have witnessed the first confirmation of the discoveries of galaxies, quasars and Gamma-Ray Bursts at z 〉 7, with possible detections at z - 10. There is also mounting evidence that cosmic reionization is a prolonged pro- cess that peaks around z - 10 and ends at z- 6 - 7. Observations of the highest redshift intergalactic medium and the most metal-poor stars in the Galaxy begin to constrain the earliest chemical enrichment processes in the Universe. These observa- tions provide a glimpse of cosmic history over the first billion years after the Big Bang. In this review, we will present recent results on the observations of the high-redshift Universe over the past decade, highlight key challenges and uncertainties in these observations, and preview what is possible with the next generation facilities in studying the first light and mapping the history of reionization.

Preliminary results of CCD observations targeting Himalia acquired at Yunnan Observatories in 2015

In order to study the potential associated with high precision CCD astrometry of irregular satel- lites, we have acquired experimental observations of Himalia, the sixth and irregular satellite of Jupiter. A total of 185 CCD observations were obtained by using the 2.4m and 1 m telescopes administered by Yunnan Observatories over ten nights. Preliminary analysis of the observations were made, including geo- metric distortion, atmospheric refraction, and also the phase effect. All positions of Himalia are measured relative to the reference stars from the catalog UCAC4 in each CCD field of view. The theoretical positions of Himalia were retrieved from the Institute de M6chanique C61este et de Calcul des t^ph6m6rides, while the positions of Jupiter were obtained based on the planetary ephemeris INPOP13c. The results show that the means of observed minus computed （O - C） residuals are -0.004＂ and -0.002＂ in right ascension and declination, respectively. The standard deviations of （O - C） residuals are estimated to be about 0.04＂ in each direction.

Four new observational H(z) data from luminous red galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release seven

By adopting the differential age method, we select 17 832 luminous red galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Seven covering redshift 0 〈 z 〈 0.4 to measure the Hubble parameter. Using the full spectrum fitting package UZySS, these spectra are reduced with single stellar population models and optimal age information from our selected sample is derived. With the decreasing age-redshift relation, four new observational H（z） data （OHD） points are obtained, which are H（z） = 69.0 ± 19.6 km s^-1 Mpc^-1 at z = 0.07, H（z） = 68.6± 26.2 km s^-1 Mpc^-1 at z = 0.12, H（z）=72.9 ± 29.6 km s^-1 Mpc^-1 at z = 0.2 and H（z）=88.8 ± 36.6 km s^-1 Mpc^-1 at z = 0.28, respectively. Combined with 21 other available OHD data points, the performance of the constraint on both flat and non-flat ACDM models is presented.

A very bright (i=16.44) quasar in the ‘redshift desert’ discovered by the Guoshoujing Telescope (LAMOST)

The redshift range from 2.2 to 3 is known as the ＇redshift desert＇ of quasars because quasars with redshifts in this range have similar optical colors as normal stars and are thus difficult to find in optical sky surveys. A quasar candidate, SDSS J085543.40-001517.7, which was selected by a recently proposed criterion involving near-IR Y - K and optical g - z colors, was identified spectroscopically as a new quasar with a redshift of 2.427 by the Guoshoujing Telescope （LAMOST） commissioning observation in 2009 December and confirmed by the observation made with the NAOC/Xinglong 2.16 m telescope in 2010 March. This quasar was not identified in the SDSS spectroscopic survey. Comparing with other SDSS quasars, we found that this new quasar, with an i magnitude of 16.44, is apparently the brightest one in the redshift range from 2.3 to 2.7. From its spectral properties, we derived its central black hole mass to be （1.4 - 3.9） × 10^110 M⊙ and its bolometric luminosity to be 3.7 × 10^48 erg s^-1, which indicates that this new quasar is intrinsically very bright and belongs to the class of the most luminous quasars in the universe. Our identification supports the notion that quasars in the redshift desert can be found by the quasar selection criterion involving the near-IR colors. More missing quasars are expected to be uncovered by future LAMOST spectroscopic surveys, which is important to the study of the cosmological evolution of quasars at redshifts higher than 2.2.

Russian VLBI network "Quasar":Current status and outlook

This paper presents the past,present and future status of the Russian VLBI network "Quasar".This network has been developed for at least 20 years by the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences(IAA RAS). The equipment installed currently at each "Quasar" station and the facilities for processing observational data are described briefly. The latest results are presented, including the Earth orientation parameters(EOP) determined from the "Quasar" VLBI data and comparison with those from other processing centers. Our future plans to extend the "Quasar" VLB I network to the east and to the west will be carried out by establishing the Ussurijsk station in the Far East and the RussianCuban station in the west. They are considered in the context of the Russian section activity in the GGOS project. The expected improvement of the EOP determination accuracy can be obtained within the future configuration of the "Quasar" network,which is proved by simulation.

Discovery of Balmer broad absorption lines in the quasar LBQS 1206+1052

We report the discovery of Balmer broad absorption lines （BALs） in the quasar LBQS 1206＋1052 and present a detailed analysis of the peculiar absorption line spectrum. Besides the Mg II λλ2796, 2803 doublet, BALs are also detected in the He I＊ multiplet at λλ2946, 3189, 3889 A arising from the metastable helium 2 3 S level, and in Hα and Hβ from the excited hydrogen H I＊ n = 2 level, which are rarely seen in quasar spectra. We identify two components in the BAL troughs of v ～ 2000 km s 1 width： One component shows an identical profile in H I＊, He I＊ and Mg II with its centroid blueshifted by v c ≈ 726 km s-1 . The other component is detected in He I＊ and Mg II with v c ≈ 1412 km s-1 . We estimate the column densities of H I＊, He I＊, and Mg II, and compare them with possible level population mechanisms. Our results favor the scenario that the Balmer BALs originate in a partially ionized region with a column density of N H ～ 10 21 10 22 cm-2 for an electron density of n e ～ 10 6 10 8 cm-3 via Lyα resonant scattering pumping. The harsh conditions needed may help to explain the rarity of Balmer absorption line systems in quasar spectra. With an i-band PSF magnitude of 16.50, LBQS 1206＋1052 is the brightest Balmer-BAL quasar ever reported. Its high brightness and unique spectral properties make LBQS 1206＋1052 a promising candidate for followup high-resolution spectroscopy, multi-band observations, and long-term monitoring.