scholarly journals Report on the Herstmonceux I.N.T. Parallax Programme

1974 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 167-167
Author(s):  
B. F. Jones

In 1971 a pilot parallax programme was initiated on the 98-in. Isaac Newton Telescope at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Nineteen stars between visual magnitude 15 and 19 and of high proper motion were put on the programme. The plates were taken at prime focus through the Wynne corrector. Observations are now complete for two of these stars. Because of time allocations and the desire to observe at maximum parallax factor, observations are made at large hour angles. All stars in each field are being measured on the GALAXY measuring engine and parallaxes and proper motions will be computed for all stars. The fields are being reduced using an overlap reduction technique.

1995 ◽  
Vol 164 ◽  
pp. 405-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.-D. Scholz ◽  
S. Hirte ◽  
M.J. Irwin ◽  
M. Odenkirchen

From measurements of Tautenburg Schmidt plates with the APM facility in Cambridge we obtained absolute proper motions of the Galactic globular clusters M 3 and M 92 directly with respect to large numbers of background galaxies (Scholz et al. 1993, 1994). We have extended our work to the dSphs in Draco and Ursa Minor (Scholz & Irwin 1994) and to other Galactic globular clusters using Tautenburg, Palomar and UK Schmidt plates. Combining our absolute proper motion of a cluster with its known radial velocity and distance (using common parameters of the solar motion) we derive the cluster orbit in the Galaxy (cf. Odenkirchen & Brosche 1992).


1990 ◽  
Vol 141 ◽  
pp. 427-429
Author(s):  
Kavan U. Ratnatunga

The IAS-Galaxy model (Ratnatunga, Bahcall and Casertano 1989) is a software interface between theoretical models of the Galaxy and observed kinematic distributions. It has been developed for analysis of many kinematic catalogs to study global galactic structure. In addition, the IASG model can be used to estimate corrections needed to derive absolute parallax and absolute proper motion by evaluating, on a star-by-star basis, the expected mean motion of the reference stars.A theoretical Galaxy model is defined on an inertial coordinate frame. Proper motions are measured in a reference frame defined by a fundamental catalog. The observed distribution of proper motions in star catalogs can be directly compared with the expected distributions evaluated using IASG to check the accuracy of the adopted reference frame in realizing the inertial coordinate frame in the sky.


1995 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
pp. 234-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Andrew Murray

AbstractThe use of proper motions and parallaxes for large numbers of stars, obtainable from a combination of Schmidt telescopes and automatic plate scanners, is discussed. The importance of deriving the zero points of both absolute proper motion, and of parallactic motion, is emphasised. Calibrations of proper motion and of parallaxes should be based on dispersions of proper motion. These methods are illustrated by results from a study in the South Galactic Cap.


2021 ◽  
Vol 163 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Dana I. Casetti-Dinescu ◽  
Caitlin K. Hansen ◽  
Terrence M. Girard ◽  
Vera Kozhurina-Platais ◽  
Imants Platais ◽  
...  

Abstract We measure the absolute proper motion of Leo I using a WFPC2/HST data set that spans up to 10 yr to date the longest time baseline utilized for this satellite. The measurement relies on ∼2300 Leo I stars located near the center of light of the galaxy; the correction to absolute proper motion is based on 174 Gaia EDR3 stars and 10 galaxies. Having generated highly precise, relative proper motions for all Gaia EDR3 stars in our WFPC2 field of study, our correction to the absolute EDR3 system does not rely on these Gaia stars being Leo I members. This new determination also benefits from a recently improved astrometric calibration of WFPC2. The resulting proper-motion value, (μ α , μ δ ) = (−0.007 ± 0.035, − 0.119 ± 0.026) mas yr−1 is in agreement with recent, large-area, Gaia EDR3-based determinations. We discuss all the recent measurements of Leo I’s proper motion and adopt a combined, multistudy average of ( μ α 3 meas , μ δ 3 meas ) = ( − 0.036 ± 0.016 , − 0.130 ± 0.010 ) mas yr−1. This value of absolute proper motion for Leo I indicates its orbital pole is well aligned with that of the vast polar structure, defined by the majority of the brightest dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way.


1987 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 554-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Reid ◽  
M. H. Schneps ◽  
J. M. Moran ◽  
C. R. Gwinn ◽  
R. Genzel ◽  
...  

The distance to a star forming region can be determined by measuring the proper motions within H2O maser clusters. If the motions of the maser spots are random, the distance can be determined by applying the technique known as statistical parallax. Alternatively, if organized motions are evident in the proper motions, one can model the source to estimate its the distance. Both methods rely on a comparison of the radial component of the motion (in km/s) and the proper motion on the plane of the sky (in milli-arcseconds/year).


1988 ◽  
Vol 133 ◽  
pp. 451-454
Author(s):  
E. Schilbach

The programme for the determination of proper motions with reference to galaxies for 6000 stars on 17 fields near the main meridional section of the Galaxy is presented. For each field there are 2 or 3 first-epoch plates taken with the Tautenburg Schmidt-telescope before 1970. In preliminary investigations the mean error of an individual proper motion was found to be per century both for bright (8m–12m) and for faint (16m–18m) stars.


2002 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 119-121
Author(s):  
L. Chen ◽  
J.J. Wang ◽  
J.L. Zhao

Positions and absolute proper motions of 264 stars in the field of about 70′ × 70′ around the globular cluster M13 were determined. In the astrometric reduction, three early and three late epoch plates taken with the 40cm refractor at Shensan, Shanghai, China, were used, with the time baseline of 73 years. The reduction was done using the central overlapping algorithm, with 5 Hipparcos stars and 38 Tycho-2 stars used as reference stars. Based on the reduced proper motion data, the membership probabilities of the sample stars were determined. An absolute proper motion of the cluster of 1.49 ± 0.36 mas yr−1 in right ascension and 3.06±0.35 mas yr−1 in declination was obtained. From this proper motion, together with distance and radial velocity data, we derived the space motion of M13 and via numerical integration also the orbit of the cluster in the Galaxy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 923 (2) ◽  
pp. 228
Author(s):  
Sergio A. Dzib ◽  
Luis F. Rodríguez

Abstract PSR J1813–1749 has peculiarities that make it a very interesting object of study. It is one of the most energetic and the most scattered pulsars known. It is associated with HESS J1813–178, one of the brightest and most compact TeV sources in the sky. Recently, Ho et al. used archival X-ray Chandra observations separated by more than 10 yr and determined that the total proper motion of PSR J1813–1749 is ∼66 mas yr−1, corresponding to a velocity of ∼1900 km s−1 for a distance of 6.2 kpc. These results would imply that this pulsar is the fastest neutron star known in the Galaxy and, by estimating the angular separation with respect to the center of the associated supernova remnant, has an age of only ∼300 yr, making it one of the youngest pulsars known. Using archival high angular resolution VLA observations taken over 12 yr we have estimated the radio proper motions of PSR J1813–1748 to be much smaller: ( μ α · cos ( δ ) , μ δ ) = (−5.0 ± 3.7, −13.2 ± 6.7) mas yr−1, or a total proper motion of 14.8 ± 5.9 mas yr−1. The positions referenced against quasars make our results reliable. We conclude that PSR J1813–1749 is not a very fast moving source. Its kinematic age using the new total proper motion is ∼1350 yr. This age is consistent within a factor of a few with the characteristic age of the pulsar and with the age estimated from the broadband spectral energy distribution of HESS J1813–178, as well as the age of the associated supernova remnant.


2018 ◽  
Vol 612 ◽  
pp. A115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Niederhofer ◽  
Maria-Rosa L. Cioni ◽  
Stefano Rubele ◽  
Thomas Schmidt ◽  
Kenji Bekki ◽  
...  

We use deep multi-epoch point-spread function (PSF) photometry taken with the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) to measure and analyze the proper motions of stars within the Galactic globular cluster 47 Tucanae (47 Tuc, NGC 104). The observations are part of the ongoing near-infrared VISTA survey of the Magellanic Cloud system (VMC). The data analyzed in this study correspond to one VMC tile, which covers a total sky area of 1.77 deg2. Absolute proper motions with respect to ~9070 background galaxies are calculated from a linear regression model applied to the positions of stars in 11 epochs in the Ks filter. The data extend over a total time baseline of about 17 months. We found an overall median proper motion of the stars within 47 Tuc of (μαcos(δ),  μδ) = (+5.89 ± 0.02 (statistical) ± 0.13 (systematic), −2.14 ± 0.02 (statistical) ± 0.08 (systematic)) mas yr−1, based on the measurements of ~35 000 individual sources between 5′ and 42′ from the cluster center. We compared our result to the proper motions from the newest US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC5), which includes data from the Gaia data release 1. Selecting cluster members ( ~2700 stars), we found a median proper motion of (μαcos(δ),  μδ) = (+5.30  ± 0.03 (statistical) ± 0.70 (systematic), −2.70 ± 0.03 (statistical) ± 0.70 (systematic)) mas yr−1. Comparing the results with measurements in the literature, we found that the values derived from the VMC data are consistent with the UCAC5 result, and are close to measurements obtained using the Hubble Space Telescope. We combined our proper motion results with radial velocity measurements from the literature and reconstructed the orbit of 47 Tuc, finding that the cluster is on an orbit with a low ellipticity and is confined within the inner ~7.5 kpc of the Galaxy. We show that the use of an increased time baseline in combination with PSF-determined stellar centroids in crowded regions significantly improves the accuracy of the method. In future works, we will apply the methods described here to more VMC tiles to study in detail the kinematics of the Magellanic Clouds.


1994 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 645-648
Author(s):  
N. Metcalfe ◽  
T. Shanks ◽  
N. Roche ◽  
R. Fong

Counting the number of galaxies as a function of their apparent brightness is one of the fundamental cosmological tests, providing an important probe of both the geometry and evolutionary history of the Universe. CCD detectors have in recent years enabled astronomers to explore magnitude limits undreamed of a decade or so ago, and where important constraints can be placed on the allowable combinations of q 0 and evolution. Recent work has shown that the B-band counts keep rising with a power-law distribution, with a fivefold excess in the number of galaxies at B = 26.5 over that expected from simple non-evolving models. Indeed, it has been suggested that the total numbers of galaxies already seen may be too high for a q 0 = 0.5 universe, assuming there is a redshift cut-off in the galaxy distribution caused either by galaxies having strong Lyman limit systems or a low redshift of formation. As q 0 = 0.5 is favoured by theoretical arguments, it is important to see if the behaviour of the counts at even fainter magnitudes can be reconciled with a high density universe. Most published counts are unreliable faintward of B ≈ 26, as the incompleteness corrections required become comparable in size to the data. We have now extended the counts to B ∼ 28, using a ∼ 24 hour CCD exposure taken on the 2.5 m Isaac Newton telescope (INT) on La Palma, together with a ∼ 10 hour exposure on a small part of this field taken using the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope (WHT).


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