Speckle interferometry is a common method used to obtain astronomical images using ground-based telescopes to image through a turbulent atmosphere-telescope system. However, when imaging more complicated astronomical objects such as satellites, speckle interferometry methods necessitate the separate recovery of the object’s Fourier phase to obtain more detailed images. Bispectral methods are on...

We present a new, fully generative model for constructing astronomical catalogs from optical telescope image sets. Each pixel intensity is treated as a Poisson random variable with a rate parameter that depends on the latent properties of stars and galaxies. These latent properties are themselves random, with scientific prior distributions constructed from large ancillary datasets. We compare t...

Large astronomical databases obtained from sky surveys such as the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys (SSS) invariably suffer from spurious records coming from artefactual effects of the telescope, satellites and junk objects in orbit around earth and physical defects on the photographic plate or CCD. Though relatively small in number these spurious records present a significant problem in many situations...

I discuss the modalities of zenith observing with LMTs, their limitations and advantages. The main limitation comes from the relatively small regions of the sky that LMTs can access. The main advantage comes from low cost, for inexpensive large LMTs can be dedicated to very specialized goals. Large surveys, cosmological studies, variability studies are prime examples of astronomical research wh...

Radio-astronomical observations are increasingly corrupted by radio frequency interference, and on-line detection and Ðltering algorithms are becoming essential. To facilitate the introduction of such techniques into radio astronomy, we formulate the astronomical problem in an array signal processing language and give an introduction to some elementary algorithms from that Ðeld. We consider two...

Large astronomical databases obtained from sky surveys such as the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey (SSS) invariably suffer from spurious records coming from artefactual effects of the telescope, satellites and junk objects in orbit around earth and physical defects on the photographic plate or CCD. Though relatively small in number these spurious records present a significant problem in many situations ...

We describe phase-retrieval holography measurements of the 100-m diameter Green Bank Telescope using astronomical sources and an astronomical receiver operating at a wavelength of 7 mm. We use the technique with parameterization of the aperture in terms of Zernike polynomials and employing a large defocus, as described by Nikolic et al. (2006). Individual measurements take around 25 minutes and...

A method for detection of thermal infrared radiation from astronomical sources is discussed from an instrumentation point of view. This method utilizes heterodyne detection, whereby light collected by a telescope is spatially mixed with single-mode radiation from an infrared laser local oscillator onto a HgCdTe photodiode. The operating wavelength range of the receiver is adjustable from approx...

We present commissioning data for the POLISH instrument obtained on the Hale 5-m telescope. The goal of this high precision polarimeter is to constrain orbital inclination of high mass X-ray binaries and to therefore obtain independent mass estimates for their black hole companions. We have obtained photon shot noise limited precision on standard stars, and we have measured the polarization of ...

Adaptive optics (AO) is now a productive, routine science capability on the nation’s largest apertures, producing over 100 refereed science publications per year. While the greatest resolution and sensitivity gains have been realized with these AO systems, many science programs such as large astronomical surveys, synoptic monitoring, rapid transient characterization, and programs requiring high...