Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Trimble, Virginia; Aschwanden, Markus

doi: 10.1086/429117pmid: N/A

In this 14th edition of ApXX,1we bring you the Sun (§ 2) and Stars (§ 4), the Moon and Planets (§ 3), a truly binary pulsar (§ 5), a kinematic apology (§ 6), the whole universe (§§ 7 and 8), reconsideration of old settled (§ 9) and unsettled (§ 10) issues, and some things that happen only on Earth, some indeed only in these reviews (§§ 10 and 11).

Tokovinin, A.; Vernin, J.; Ziad, A.; Chun, M.

doi: 10.1086/428930pmid: N/A

The vertical distribution of turbulence over Mauna Kea has been measured on four nights in 2002 October, simultaneously using two different instruments based on stellar scintillation—the generalized SCIDAR (scintillation detection and ranging) and MASS (multiaperture scintillation sensor). The turbulence integrals match within 20%, and the low‐resolution profiles delivered by MASS correctly reveal the localization of the strongest high‐altitude turbulent layers. As deduced from DIMM (differential image motion monitor), MASS, and SCIDAR measurements, optical turbulence in the first 0.7 km above the summit contributed typically half of the total integral, the latter corresponding to a seeing of 0.″5. The ground layer and free atmosphere are not correlated.

Racine, René

doi: 10.1086/429307pmid: N/A

Seeing data from 41 campaigns at 23 sites ranging in altitude from 1130 to 5150 m and elevations between 1 and 30 m above grade are used to calibrate and test a simple seeing model that only involves altitude and elevation. The model is consistent with in situ studies of optical turbulence, reproducing measured median seeing values with a dispersion of 0.″096, while at multiple‐campaign sites the actual data show a dispersion of 0.″092. Surface‐layer turbulence is the characteristic that varies the most between campaigns and sites and is generally the dominant contribution to seeing at low elevations, the resulting image blur decreasing with a scale height of 3.5 m. The seeing distributions are lognormal at all sites, with quartile‐to‐median ratios of 4/5 and 5/4.

Galicher, Raphael; Guyon, Olivier; Otsubo, Masashi; Suto, Hiroshi; Ridgway, Stephen

doi: 10.1086/429305pmid: N/A

Phase‐induced amplitude apodization (PIAA) uses two aspheric optics to produce an achromatic apodization of an incoming beam by changing the geometrical distribution of the light in the pupil plane. Since this apodization is lossless, the sensitivity and angular resolution of the telescope are preserved, theoretically allowing efficient detection of Earth‐size planets from space with a 2 m diameter optical telescope. In this paper, we report the first laboratory demonstration of imaging with a PIAA system. First, we show that the optics shapes computed by our algorithm produce an apodized collimated beam only by changing the geometrical distribution of the light and without losing light. We then present images of on‐ and off‐axis point‐spread functions and compare them with our numerical simulations.

Tokunaga, A. T.; Vacca, W. D.

doi: 10.1086/429382pmid: N/A

The isophotal wavelengths, flux densities, and AB magnitudes for Vega (α Lyr) are presented for the Mauna Kea Observatories near‐infrared filter set. We show that the near‐infrared absolute calibrations for Vega as determined by Cohen et al. and Mégessier are consistent within the uncertainties, so that either absolute calibration can be used.