Genrong Liu

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST)

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST, also called the Guo Shou Jing Telescope) is a special reflecting Schmidt telescope. LAMOST’s special design allows both a large aperture (effective aperture of 3.6 m–4.9 m) and a wide field of view (FOV) (5 ° ). It has an innovative active reflecting Schmidt configuration which continuously changes the mirror’s surface that adjusts during the observation process and combines thin deformable mirror active optics with segmented active optics. Its primary mirror (6.67 m×6.05 m) and active Schmidt mirror (5.74 m×4.40 m) are both segmented, and composed of 37 and 24 hexagonal sub-mirrors respectively. By using a parallel controllable fiber positioning technique, the focal surface of 1.75 m in diameter can accommodate 4000 optical fibers. Also, LAMOST has 16 spectrographs with 32 CCD cameras. LAMOST will be the telescope with the highest rate of spectral acquisition. As a national large scientific project, the LAMOST project was formally proposed in 1996, and approved by the Chinese government in 1997. The construction started in 2001, was completed in 2008 and passed the official acceptance in June 2009. The LAMOST pilot survey was started in October 2011 and the spectroscopic survey will launch in September 2012. Up to now, LAMOST has released more than 480 000 spectra of objects. LAMOST will make an important contribution to the study of the large-scale structure of the Universe, structure and evolution of the Galaxy, and cross-identification of multiwaveband properties in celestial objects.

Chinese Small Telescope ARray (CSTAR) for Antarctic Dome A

Chinese first arrived in Antarctic Dome A in Jan. 2005 where is widely predicted to be a better astronomical site than Dome C where have a median seeing of 0.27arcsec above 30m from the ground. This paper introduces the first Chinese Antarctic telescope for Dome A (CSTAR) which is composed of four identical telescopes, with entrance pupil 145 mm, 20 square degree FOV and four different filters g, r, i and open band. CSTAR is mainly used for variable stars detection, measurement of atmosphere extinction, sky background and cloud coverage. Now CSTAR has been successfully deployed on Antarctic Dome A by the 24th Chinese expedition team in Jan. 2008. It has started automatic observation since March 20, 2008 and will continuously observe the south area for the whole winter time. The limited magnitude observed is about 16.5m with 20 seconds exposure time. CSTARSs success is a treasurable experience and we can benefit a lot for our big telescope plans, including our three ongoing 500mm Antarctic Schmidt telescopes (AST3).

The First Release of the CSTAR Point Source Catalog from Dome A, Antarctica

In 2008 January the twenty-fourth Chinese expedition team successfully deployed the Chinese Small Telescope ARray (CSTAR) to Dome A, the highest point on the Antarctic plateau. CSTAR consists of four 14.5 cm optical telescopes, each with a different filter (g, r, i, and open) and has a 4.5° × 4.5° field of view (FOV). It operates robotically as part of the Plateau Observatory, PLATO, with each telescope taking an image every ~30 s throughout the year whenever it is dark. During 2008, CSTAR 1 performed almost flawlessly, acquiring more than 0.3 million i-band images for a total integration time of 1728 hr during 158 days of observations. For each image taken under good sky conditions, more than 10,000 sources down to ~16th magnitude could be detected. We performed aperture photometry on all the sources in the field to create the catalog described herein. Since CSTAR has a fixed pointing centered on the south celestial pole (decl. = -90°), all the sources within the FOV of CSTAR were monitored continuously for several months. The photometric catalog can be used for studying any variability in these sources, and for the discovery of transient sources such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and minor planets.

Sky Brightness and Transparency in the i-band at Dome A, Antarctica

The i-band observing conditions at Dome A on the Antarctic plateau have been investigated using data acquired during 2008 with the Chinese Small Telescope Array. The sky brightness, variations in atmospheric transparency, cloud cover, and the presence of aurorae are obtained from these images. The median sky brightness of moonless clear nights is 20.5 mag arcsec(-2) in the SDSS i band at the south celestial pole (which includes a contribution of about 0.06 mag from diffuse Galactic light). The median over all Moon phases in the Antarctic winter is about 19.8 mag arcsec(-2). There were no thick clouds in 2008. We model contributions of the Sun and the Moon to the sky background to obtain the relationship between the sky brightness and transparency. Aurorae are identified by comparing the observed sky brightness to the sky brightness expected from this model. About 2% of the images are affected by relatively strong aurorae.

Testing and Data Reduction of the Chinese Small Telescope Array (CSTAR ) for Dome A, Antarctica

The Chinese Small Telescope Array (CSTAR) is the first Chinese astronomical instrument on the Antarctic ice cap. The low temperature and low pressure testing of the data acquisition system was carried out in a laboratory refrigerator and on the 4500 m Pamirs high plateau, respectively. The results from the final four nights of test observations demonstrated that CSTAR was ready for operation at Dome A, Antarctica. In this paper, we present a description of CSTAR and the performance derived from the test observations.

The optical performance of LAMOST telescope

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) project has completed its engineering work, and is going to finish commissioning around the end of 2010. The LAMOST telescope is with both large aperture and wide field of view to achieve the large scale spectroscopic survey observation. It is an innovative large aperture meridian active reflecting Schmidt configuration achieved by an active deformable Schmidt mirror, which could not be realized by the traditional optical system. Its primary mirror and active Schmidt mirror are both segmented, and composed of 37 and 24 hexagonal sub-mirrors respectively. A new active optics method succesfully developed in the active deformable Schmidt mirror of LAMOST. It is a conbination of the thin deformable mirror active optics and segmented active optics. This paper presents the optical performance of the telescope of LAMOST during optical test. It is shown that LAMOST project successfully resolving the big technical challenges, and making the progress in active optics and telescope technology.

THE LAMOST SURVEY OF BACKGROUND QUASARS IN THE VICINITY OF THE ANDROMEDA AND TRIANGULUM GALAXIES. II. RESULTS FROM THE COMMISSIONING OBSERVATIONS AND THE PILOT SURVEYS

We present new quasars discovered in the vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies with the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope, also named the Guoshoujing Telescope, during the 2010 and 2011 observational seasons. Quasar candidates are selected based on the available Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Kitt Peak National Observatory 4 m telescope, Xuyi Schmidt Telescope Photometric Survey optical, and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer near-infrared photometric data. We present 509 new quasars discovered in a stripe of ~135 deg^2 from M31 to M33 along the Giant Stellar Stream in the 2011 pilot survey data sets, and also 17 new quasars discovered in an area of ~100 deg^2 that covers the central region and the southeastern halo of M31 in the 2010 commissioning data sets. These 526 new quasars have i magnitudes ranging from 15.5 to 20.0, redshifts from 0.1 to 3.2. They represent a significant increase of the number of identified quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33. There are now 26, 62, and 139 known quasars in this region of the sky with i magnitudes brighter than 17.0, 17.5, and 18.0, respectively, of which 5, 20, and 75 are newly discovered. These bright quasars provide an invaluable collection with which to probe the kinematics and chemistry of the interstellar/intergalactic medium in the Local Group of galaxies. A total of 93 quasars are now known with locations within 2fdg5 of M31, of which 73 are newly discovered. Tens of quasars are now known to be located behind the Giant Stellar Stream, and hundreds are behind the extended halo and its associated substructures of M31. The much enlarged sample of known quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33 can potentially be utilized to construct a perfect astrometric reference frame to measure the minute proper motions (PMs) of M31 and M33, along with the PMs of substructures associated with the Local Group of galaxies. Those PMs are some of the most fundamental properties of the Local Group.

An experimental indoor phasing system based on active optics using dispersed Hartmann sensing technology in the visible waveband

A telescope with a larger primary mirror can collect much more light andxa0resolve objects much better than one with a smaller mirror, and so the larger versionxa0is always pursued by astronomers and astronomical technicians. Instead of usingxa0a monolithic primary mirror, more and more large telescopes, which are currentlyxa0being planned or in construction, have adopted a segmented primary mirror design.xa0Therefore, how to sense and phase such a primary mirror is a key issue for the futurexa0of extremely large optical/infrared telescopes. The Dispersed Fringe Sensor (DFS), orxa0Dispersed Hartmann Sensor (DHS), is a non-contact method using broadband pointxa0light sources and it can estimate the piston by the two-directional spectrum formedxa0by the transmissive grating’s dispersion and lenslet array. Thus it can implement thexa0combination of co-focusing by Shack-Hartmann technology and phasing by dispersedxa0fringe sensing technologies such as the template-mapping method and the Hartmannxa0method. We introduce the successful design, construction and alignment of our dispersedxa0Hartmann sensor together with its design principles and simulations. We alsoxa0conduct many successful real phasing tests and phasing corrections in the visiblexa0waveband using our existing indoor segmented mirror optics platform. Finally, somexa0conclusions are reached based on the test and correction of experimental results.

Preliminary study of a dispersed fringe type sensing system

Telescopes with large aspherical primary mirrors collect more light and are therefore sought after by astronomers. Instead of using a single large one-piece mirror, smaller segments can be assembled into a useable telescopic primary. Because the segments must fi t together to create the effect of a single mirror, segmented optics present unique challenges to the fabrication and testing that are absent in monolithic optics. A dispersed fringe sensor (DFS) using a broadband point source is an ef fi cient method for cophasing and is also highly automated and robust. Unlike the widely adopted Shack-Hartmann Wavefront sensor and curvature wavefront sensor with edge sensors for calibration of relative pistons, DFS can estimate the piston between segments by only using the spectrum formed by the transmissive grating’s dispersion, and therefore can replace the edge sensors, which are dif fi cult to calibrate. We introduce the theory of the DFS and Dispersed Hartmann Sensor (DHS) for further utilization of the coarse phasing method of DFS. According to the theory, we bring out the preliminary system design of the cophasing experimental system based on DFS and DHS which is now established in our institute. Finally, a summary is reached.

Low-order AO system in LAMOST

The large sky area multi-object fiber spectroscopic telescope (LAMOST) is a special reflecting Schmidt telescope with its main optical axis on the meridian plane tilted by an angle of 25° to the horizontal. The clear aperture is 4m, working in optical band. The light path is 60m long when working in observing mode and it will be doubled if work in auto-collimation mode. So the image quality is affected clearly by the ground seeing and the dome seeing. In order to improve the seeing condition of the long light path, we enclosed the spherical primary and the focus unit in a tunnel enclosure and cooled the tunnel. This is an effective but passive method. Corresponding experiments and simulations show the main part of the aberrations caused by the ground seeing and dome seeing is slowly changed low order items such as tip-tilt, defocus, astigmatism, coma and spherical aberration. Thus we plan to develop the low-order AO system based on the low-cost 37-channel OKO deformable mirror for the telescope to better the ground seeing and the dome seeing, not aimed to reach diffraction limited image. This work is being carried on now.