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Scientific achievements, Hardware and methodical developments

 2021: 


Achieving Record Resolution in Optical Astronomy by Observing Occultations of Stars by Asteroids
Observations of the occultation of the binary TYC 1947-290-1 by the asteroid (87) Sylvia at the 6-m BTA SAO RAS telescope made it possible to determine the diameter of the main component and set the upper limit for of the secondary. The measured angular values of the diameters of the TYC 1947-290-1 pair were 52 microseconds of arc for the bright (Vmag = 11.4) component and 31 microseconds as the upper resolution limit for the weak (Vmag = 12.1). Successful observations of the occultation by an asteroid in order to determine the angular diameter of the star were performed for the second time (the first by Benbow et al., 2019), with an optical telescope -for the first time. The obtained angular resolution is a record in the optical range and is comparable to the capabilities of modern radio interferometric complexes.
Our work has shown that observations of stellar occultations by asteroids can be used to measure angular sizes at a level of up to ≈30 microseconds of arc using single telescopes. This is tens of times better than the resolution of modern long-base interferometers in the visible and IR ranges and by three orders better than the diffraction limit of the largest optical telescopes.
Within the framework of the RFBR grant No. 20-32-70120 "Measurement of fundamental parameters of stars by high angular resolution methods."
Authors: Dyachenko V.V., Balega Yu.Yu., Beskakotov A.S., Maksimov A.F., Mitrofanova A.A. (SAO RAS) in cooperation with Richichi A. (INAF), Obolentseva M. (SPBU)
Published:
1. Dyachenko V., Richichi A., Obolentseva M., Beskakotov A., Maksimov A., Mitrofanova A., Balega Y., A joint occultation and speckle investigation of the binary star TYC 1947-290-1 and of the asteroid (87) Sylvia, 2021, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 508(2), 2730-2735


High Temporal Resolution Multimode Panoramic Photospectropolarimeter (MPPP)
The modernization of the instruments and software complex of the MANIA experiment for searching for and studying the variability of astrophysical objects with a temporal resolution of 10-6 s has been completed, the main component of which is the MPPP panoramic photopolarimeter which has no analogues in the world. As radiation receivers, two position sensitive detectors (PSDs) are used with the maximum sensitivity in the short-wave and long-wave regions of the spectrum (Debur et al., 2003; Plokhotnichenko et al., 2020) with the determination of the moments of detection of quanta by chronometric devices "Quantochron 4-48" (Plohotnichenko et al., 2009), as well as the EMCCD camera. The complex provides observations in the following 5 modes (with synchronous measurement of 3 Stokes parameters, if necessary): the broadband photometry with PSD and/or the EMCCD camera, synchronous UBVR photometry, spectroscopy with the Abbe prism (5 resolution elements), spectroscopy with the diffraction grating (50 resolution elements). They are changed remotely in 1-5 minutes, and the detection, storage, and reduction of data is provided by an information cluster consisting of 7 computers, which allows continuous recording photon fluxes throughout the night with an accuracy of 0.1 ?s to UT. The results obtained during observations of X-ray sources, flaring stars, and optical pulsars demonstrate the efficiency of using the created complex in the high temporal resolution astronomy and relativistic astrophysics.
Authors: Plokhotnichenko V.L., Moiseev S.V., Shergin V.S., Gorodovoy E.P., Gutaev A.G. (SAO RAS) in cooperation with Beskin G.M. (SAO RAS, KFU), Karpov S.V. (SAO RAS, Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences), V.G. de Bur (A.F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences) , Solin A.V., Solin A.A. (BSU Institute for Nuclear Problems, Belorus), Lyubetskaya Z.V., Lyubetskiy A.P. (LLC "Engineering Bureau TSEVLAP", Pavlova V.V. ( Rostov-on-Don), Moiseev S.S. (IE Moiseev), Badin D.A. (SAI MSU, Dukhov Automatics Research Institute (VNIIA) , Plokhotnichenko P.V. (Service center Rus Lcd)
Published:
1. Plokhotnichenko V.L., Beskin G.M., V.G. de Bur, Karpov S.V., Moiseev S.V., Shergin V.S., Gorodovoy E.P., Gutaev A.G., Solin A.V., Solin A.A., Lyubetskaya Z.V., Lyubetskiy A.P., Pavlova V.V., Moiseev S.S., Badin D.A., Plokhotnichenko P.V., High Temporal Resolution Multimode Panoramic Photospectropolarimeter, Astrophysical Bulletin, 2021, Volume 76, No. 4, p. 558-576.


Interactive catalog of blazar measurements at RATAN-600
In 2021, an interactive catalog of multifrequency (1.1-22.3 GHz) measurements of blazars at the RATAN-600 was developed: "RATAN-600 multi-frequency catalog of blazars". The catalog is hosted in www.sao.ru/blcat and is a modernized version of the electronic catalog of BL Lacertae objects (Mingaliev et al., 2014). The new catalog contains all types of blazars (blazars, flat-spectrum quasars, and blazars of an undetermined type) from the BZCAT blazar catalog (Massaro et al., 2009) and includes measurements of more than 1600 objects. The catalog contains the radio spectra and light curves of blazars obtained with the RATAN-600 SAO RAS in 2004-2021; measurements in the radio continuum from external sources connected from the CATS and NED databases are available for export. Basic information about objects (the coordinates, redshifts, blazar type, magnitude, and radio luminosity) is presented in the main table. Radio luminosities, spectral and variability indices, statistics on the main parameters of the sample are interactively calculated and available for export; objects with a radio emission variability of 200% at a frequency of 11 GHz on a scale of two years are indicated. The catalog is systematically updated with new measurements and is an effective tool for studying the statistical properties of large samples of blazars and for studying individual objects using long-term light curves.
Authors: Sotnikova Yu.V., Mufakharov T.V., Mingaliev M.G., Udovitskiy R.Yu., Semenova T.A., Erkenov A.K., Bursov N.N., Mikhailov A.G. (SAO RAS)
Published:
1. Mufakharov T., Sotnikova Y., et al., The RATAN-600 multi-frequency catalogue of blazars, 2021, MNRAS, submitted
2. Sotnikova Yu., Udovitsky R., Mufakharov T., state registration of the database "RATAN-600 multi-frequency data for blazars, edition 1.3", Certificate No. 2021621910 dated 09.09.2021.
3. Sotnikova Yu., Mufakharov T., Udovitsky R. et al., Filing of an international application for the invention "Method of compiling a catalog of measurements of radio emission parameters of blazars", Application No. PCT/RU2021/000473 dated 29.10.2021.
4. Mingaliev M., Sotnikova Yu., Udovitskiy R., et al., RATAN-600 multi-frequency data for the BL Lacertae objects, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 572, id.A59, 4 pp., 2014.


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Last update: 21/12/2021