The design of China Reconfigurable ANalog-digital backEnd for FAST

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)was launched on 2016 September 25.From early 2017,we began to use the FAST wideband receiver,which was designed,constructed and installed on the FAST in Guizhou,China.The front end of the receiver is composed an uncooled Quad Ridge Flared Horn feed(QRFH)with the frequency range of 270 to 1620 MHz,and a cryostat operating at 10 K.We have cooperated with the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to develop the China Reconfigurable ANalog-digital backEnd(CRANE).The system covers the 3 GHz operating band of FAST.The hardware part of the backend includes an Analog Front-end Board,a wideband high precision Analog Digital Converter,and a FAST Digital Back-end.Analog circuit boards,field programmable gate arrays,and control computers form a set of hardware,software,and firmware platforms to achieve flexible bandwidth requirements through parameter changes.It is also suitable for the versatility of different astronomical observations,and can meet specific requirements.This paper briefly introduces the hardware and software of CRANE,as well as some observations of the system.

Data processing and initial results of Chang'e-3 lunar penetrating radar

To improve our understanding of the formation and evolution of the Moon, one of the payloads onboard the Chang＇e-3 （CE-3） rover is Lunar Penetrating Radar （LPR）. This investigation is the first attempt to explore the lunar subsurface structure by using ground penetrating radar with high resolution. We have probed the subsur- face to a depth of several hundred meters using LPR. In-orbit testing, data processing and the preliminary results are presented. These observations have revealed the con- figuration of regolith where the thickness of regolith varies from about 4 m to 6 m. In addition, one layer of lunar rock, which is about 330 m deep and might have been accumulated during the depositional hiatus of mare basalts, was detected.

Long Time Series Observations from Antarctica with the International Concordia Explorer Telescope （ICE-T）

The Intemational Concordia explorer telescope （ICE-T） is a f/1.1 Schmidt telescope, 61 cm aperture, with two optical tubes equipped with identical charged coupled devices 10.3× 10.3 k, 9μ pixel size, ultra-wide-fieldwith a total FOV of 65 square degrees. Its aim is to operate at Dome C, the French-Italian Antarctic Station, taking advantage of the long winter night for continuous observations. It is optimized for high precision photometry in two separate filters Sloan g and Sloan i ranging from 100 mmag to 10 mmag （from 9 to16 mag）. Among the scientific tasks there are the detection of hot Jupiters and Super Earths with the transit method, and related magnetic activity of the hosting stars. The 4m Radom dome for ICE-T together with 3 foundation pillars and the cables bundle have been already successfully installed in January 2009.

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.