-- forwarded message --
Newsgroups: sci.astro.research
Path: mat.uni.torun.pl!news.man.torun.pl!news.man.poznan.pl!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-lei1.dfn.de!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!newspeer1-gui.server.ntli.net!ntli.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!server3.netnews.ja.net!bath.ac.uk!unknown
From: eric(a)flesch.org (Eric Flesch )
Subject: Master Optical/Radio/Xray Catalogue (final version) now available on
Approved: sci.astro.research-request(a)slimy.greenend.org.uk (mjh)
Sender: unknown(a)scorpius.star.bris.ac.uk (Address not verified)
Organization: Orcon Internet
Message-ID: <mt2.0-4318-1023269017(a)star.bris.ac.uk>
X-Posting-Tool: modtool v2.0
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 09:23:20 GMT
Lines: 55
Xref: mat.uni.torun.pl sci.astro.research:1433
Announcing the final version of the Master Catalogue of Radio/Xray
Detections overlaid onto the Optical Background. This version is
earmarked for the refereed process. Changes are as follows:
Optical background: The APM catalogue has recently been completed to
include the southern galactic cap, and these data have been added to
the optical background of the Master catalogue (which merges APM &
USNO). Thanks to Mike Irwin for the final push to complete the
southern fields, and to Ray Stathakis for publishing that data on the
AAO website.
Radio detections: The FIRST and NVSS catalogues are found to have
astrometry at least as good as the APM, so field shifts for these are
restricted to corrections of the APM astrometry. Thanks to Rick White
in clarifying issues involved in this. Detection of double radio
lobes has been much improved in this version, and over 10,000 of these
are displayed. These detections are reliable in this version,
compared with an admittedly cursory effort last time.
Xray detections: It is necessary to shift the ROSAT HRI, RASS, PSPC
and WGA fields over the optical background to find the correct
astrometry. The method has been improved now to clean up recalcitrant
fields. Whilst never perfect, the bulk of xray fields have been
aligned with good confidence.
QSOs and AGN with optical APM/USNO signatures are included even if
they do not have radio/xray associations. These include the SDSS
early data release and there are about 30,000 in total. QSOs from old
papers from the 70's and 80's are now correctly identified using
improved likelihood algorithms. There are about 200 such objects,
previously identified incorrectly, which are now assigned to the
correct optical object.
The Master Catalogue assigns probabilities to radio/xray objects that
they are QSOs, galaxies, stars, or erroneous associations. This has
been refined via a decision tree algorithm, as well as the complete
APM data allowing better compensation against local sky densities.
The probabilities are calculated against a 670,000,000 object
whole-sky background database.
Get the Master Catalogue at ftp://quasars.org/quasars . There is a
ReadMe there and smaller subset catalogs. There will be some site
cleanup as this catalog goes to publication, so get the subset
catalogs now if you want them. This version of the Master Catalogue
improves selection of about 15% of the objects compared with the
previous version, but the highest-probability QSO candidates are
mostly unchanged.
The SUMSS southern sky radio catalog is due for release any day now,
and I will update the Master Catalogue with that data when it is
available.
Eric Flesch
Wellington, New Zealand
5 June 2002
-- end of forwarded message --
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrzej Marecki |
Torun Centre for Astronomy | e-mail: amr(a)astro.uni.torun.pl
N. Copernicus University | WWW: http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl
ul. Gagarina 11 | tel: +48 56 6113032
PL-87-100 Torun, POLAND | fax: +48 56 6113009
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The team of Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) released images with a
resolution as good as 6 minutes of arc which allows to resolve blobs of
matter with masses of about 5-80 x 10^14 solar masses i.e. corresponding
to the mass of galaxy clusters.
See: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~tjp/CBI/
--
Andrzej
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Proposition for Supervising Masters (Magister) projects at TCfA for
Oct 2002 - Sep 2003
Supervisor: B. Roukema
Number of students: up to 3-4 students is possible
Title: Observational Constraints on Cosmological Parameters
Description:
There are many possible projects which could be done as a master's
thesis project, in using publicly available archival data from
observational surveys to constrain one or more of the local or
global cosmological parameters, either those related to shape
(curvature, topology) or maybe also those unrelated to shape
("dark energy"). The precise projects would be chosen in discussion
with the masters students during Oct-Nov 2002. Some examples would include
further development and application of the "Dark Energy" software
package which has been worked on during the "Shape of the Universe"
monograph course:
http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/shape-univ/
Requirements:
- basic knowledge in astronomy, physics, mathematics, computing skills
- desire to measure something about the shape of the Universe
- willingness both to learn from and to teach others interested in
observational cosmology at TCfA
- willingness to learn the following practical skills: touch-typing,
emacs, \LaTeX, usage of the sympa mailing lists
- willingness to participate in the "Shape of the Universe" monograph
course and/or Bronek Rudak's semester 9 "Kosmologia" course:
http://www.ncac.torun.pl/~bronek/KOS.html
- nie ma problemu je�li student magisterowy nie (jeszcze) dobrze m�wi� po
angielsku
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi everyone,
I'm not that eager to go to an "expensive hotel chain" meeting,
but if I miss the northern summer cosmo meetings then at least I
could go to one big cosmo meeting this calendar year...
Cze��
Boud
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 17:44:37 +0200 (CEST)
> From: XXI Texas Symposium <texaflor(a)arcetri.astro.it>
> Subject: XXI Texas Symposium - REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!
>
Texas in Tuscany
XXI Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics
Florence, Italy, December 9-13, 2002
FIRST CIRCULAR (May 2002)
Introduction
The XXI Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics will be organized in
Florence, 9-13 December 2002, by the National Institute of Astrophysics -
Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, in collaboration with the National Institute
of Nuclear Physics and other scientific Institutions (the complete list will
appear in a subsequent announcement). The meeting will be held in the Palazzo
dei Congressi, in the historic center of the city, and will consist of Invited
Review Talks (IT) in the morning (each lasting about 40 minutes) and Joint
Discussions (JD) during the afternoon. Invited Talks will review recent
developments in various fields in Astrophysics, Cosmology and related issues of
Physics of Gravitation and Elementary Particles. Joint Discussions will cover
specific areas with a number of shorter invited talks (about 20 minutes each).
In addition, participants will be able to propose poster papers covering their
recent research. The goal of the meeting is to provide a general review of the
status and the prospects of research for a diversified audience of
astrophysicists and physicists.
How to reach Florence
Florence can be reached directly by airplane from several major European
cities. Alternative airports with international connections are Bologna or Pisa
(both about 1 hour train ride from Florence). Another alternative is Rome (the
train ride from the Rome Central Station Termini to Florence can be as short
as 95 minutes) or Milan (the train ride from the Milan Central Station to
Florence takes almost 3 hours). Please note, however, that both in Milan and in
Rome the trip from the Airport to the Central Station will take about one
additional hour.
Accommodation
The Organizers have selected a travel agency in Florence to handle all the
problems connected with accommodation. The Organizers will not be able to help
in any other way with this matter. Block reservations in various hotels are
being made, which will be assigned on a first-come-first-served basis until
November 15, 2002. Participants who want to arrange directly their own
accommodation, or to contact a different travel agency are of course free to do
so; they are however advised to book their accommodation as soon as possible,
given the strong touristic pressure on Florence. Booking will be firm after a
deposit equal to the cost of the first night in the chosen hotel. The quoted
costs include breakfast, and all applicable taxes. The deposit will be
acknowledged in the final bill, to be paid by the participant directly at the
hotel upon leaving. Participants who want to leave earlier than initially
arranged must notify the hotel at least 24 hours in advance. Cancellations
will be possible only until November 15, 2002; in these cases the deposit will
be returned less a 30% handling fee. The accommodation form is now available
at http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~texaflor/accommodation_first.html
Registration
The registration fee for the Symposium will be 300 Euros if paid by November 1
and 400 Euros thereafter. This will cover participation, coffee breaks and a
personal copy of the Proceedings. The registration form is now available at
http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~texaflor/registration_first.html
Program
The following topics will be covered by Invited Talks and (in some cases)
additional Joint Discussions:
- PHYSICS AROUND THE BIG BANG
- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARLY UNIVERSE
- COSMOLOGICAL PARAMETERS
- THE DAWN OF LIGHT IN THE UNIVERSE
- COSMOLOGICAL BACKGROUND
- DARK MATTER AND GRAVITATIONAL LENSES
- LARGE SCALE STRUCTURES AND CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES
- GAMMA RAY BURSTS
- ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI
- SUPERNOVAE, REMNANTS AND COLLAPSED STARS
- BLACK HOLES
- GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
- COSMIC-RAY AND GAMMA-RAY ASTRONOMY
- NEUTRINO PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
Invited speakers
A partial list of invited speakers includes: R. Blandford, C. Cesarsky,
A. Fabian, F. Halzen, A. Lasenby, B. Leibundgut, P. Madau, I. Novikov,
B. Schutz, P. Steinhardt, V. Trimble, G. Veneziano, M. Vietri, S. White. The
program with the complete list of speakers and convenors of the Joint
Discussions will appear on the web at
http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~texaflor/program.html.
The Proceedings of the Symposium will include the invited reviews and the
presentations at the joint discussions (no posters).
Scientific Organizing Committee
F. Pacini (Chair, Italy), M. Baldo Ceolin (Italy), M. Rees (UK), R. Barbieri
(Italy), V. Rubin (USA), C. Cesarsky (ESO), G. Setti (Italy), A. Gimenez (ESA),
J. Silk (UK), G. Hasinger (Germany), M. Tavani (Italy), R. Kolb (USA),
Y. Totsuka (Japan), R. Manchester (Australia), V. Trimble (USA),
I. Novikov (Denmark), G. Veneziano (CERN), A. Olinto (USA), L. Woltjer (France)
Local Organizing Committee
M. Salvati (Chair), R. Bandiera, L. Falai, R. Maiolino, F. Mannucci,
A. Marconi, E. Masini, N. Nagar.
Further information:
http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~texaflor/
e-mail: texas_florence(a)arcetri.astro.it
fax ++ 39 055 220039
Cze�� wszystkim,
An interesting paper by Rocha et al., a European collaboration
(including Krzyszek G�rski) on COBE analysis of equal-side-length
torus models of the Universe:
http://de.arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0205155
They use the word "asymmetric" to talk about the possibility that the
side lengths might be unequal. Given the absence of any serious
physical theory for the global shape of the Universe, it seems best,
IMHO, to keep all options open...
Pozd,
Boud
Paddy and his PhD student Tirth have come up with an idea
for how dark matter and dark energy could just be two
components of the same thing:
http://de.arXiv.org/abs/hep-th/0205055
Cool! :)
Yet another "non-orthodox" view on SN dimming
attributed to the expansion of the Universe:
http://t8web.lanl.gov/people/terning/axion.html
(This is based on a paper accepted by
Physical Review Letters 88 (2002), 161302.)
--
Andrzej
I don't think we're ready for this yet, but feel free to
think about this. If anyone can think of a project, go
ahead and write your thoughts to the list - be creative!
And don't worry about your ideas being crazy. Starting
off from a crazy idea and playing with it can often yield
a good idea... Which is better than no ideas at all...
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 12:26:20 +0200 (MET DST)
> From: AstroVirtel User <astrov at eso.org>
> To: boud.roukema@...
> X-SBFolder: Default
> X-SBClass: OK
> Subject: ASTROVIRTEL: Third Call for Proposals
>
>
> Dear Colleague,
>
> The ASTROVIRTEL Project, supported by the European Commission
> and managed by the ST-ECF on behalf of ESA and ESO, is aimed
> at enhancing the scientific return of the ST-ECF/ESO Archive.
> It offers the possibility to European Users to exploit it as
> a virtual telescope, retrieving and analysing large quantities
> of data with the assistance of archive operators and scientific
> personnel. The first two cycles of operation of the ASTROVIRTEL
> project are almost completed and some interesting results
> have already been achieved and published
> [see http://www.stecf.org/astrovirtel/publications.html]
>
> We are now announcing the Third Call for ASTROVIRTEL Proposals.
> Detailed instructions for the submission of proposals can be found
> at http://www.stecf.org/astrovirtel/.
>
> The deadline for submission is June 17th, 2002.
>
> ASTROVIRTEL is an initiative financed by the European Commission under
> the scheme "Enhanced Access to Large Infrastructures" and therefore is
> open to European scientists from EC Member and Associated States
> [for a list of these states, see
> http://www.stecf.org/astrovirtel/ECStates.html].
>
> Do not hesitate to contact us if you need further information. The
> ASTROVIRTEL email address is astrovirtel(a)eso.org .
>
> Best regards,
>
> Piero Benvenuti, Head / ST-ECF
> Peter Quinn, Head / DMD
>
> PS: Since we merged different mailing lists, it might happen that
> you receive this email twice. Our apologies.
>
> --
> ASTROVIRTEL
>
> Accessing Astronomical Archives as Virtual Telescopes
> A Project supported by the European Commission
> Access to Research Infrastructures
> Action of the Improving Human Potential Programme
>
> Tel: +49 89 32006291 Fax: +49 89 32006480
> mailto:astrovirtel@eso.org URL: http://www.stecf.org/astrovirtel/
----- Forwarded message from NewsAlert -----
NEWSALERT: Friday, March 22, 2002 @ 1504 GMT
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now
[...]
NEW EVIDENCE: EXPANSION OF UNIVERSE IS ACCELERATING
---------------------------------------------------
A team of UK and Australian astronomers has discovered new, independent
evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Their findings
have just appeared in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
A team of 27 astronomers led by Professor George Efstathiou of
the University of Cambridge has published strong evidence for the
existence of dark energy using an entirely different technique.
Their results show that the universe is full of dark energy, completely
consistent with the earlier supernovae results. "Dark energy appears to
exist and to dominate over more conventional types of matter" says
Professor Efstathiou. "An explanation of the dark energy may involve
String Theory, extra dimensions or even what happened before the Big Bang.
At present nobody knows. The ball is now firmly in the theorists court."
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0203/22expansion/
[...]
----- End of forwarded message from NewsAlert -----
--
Andrzej Marecki
Hi. I'm just sending this message to have it conveniently on the
archive with an obvious "Subject:" header. I think I've already
mentioned these two projects (or themes) which are linked to local
observational facilities:
(1) polarisation of radio-galaxies
Ryszard Wielebi�ski of Bonn suggested that a good way
to use the radio telescope here would be to observe galaxies at
different frequencies, so with different amounts of Faraday
rotation of polarised light, so that the polarisation could be
inferred.
(2) galaxy formation modelling in preparation for future infrared
satellite data
Ryszard Szczerba said something about NCAC being involved in
an infrared satellite project (I think I got the name wrong -
Ryszard, do you have a link to the web site of the project?),
so if someone does some galaxy formation work in preparation for
this, there would be a good chance of getting good observational
constraints, and maybe even falsifying some models, and having
to generate new ones, which is the exciting part of science :).
Cze��
Boud
Ryszard: this email will be archived on
http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/cosmo-torun/
Please reply directly to the list (unless you have something secret to
say).