Search

Globular clusters (GCs) are proxies of the formation assemblies of their host galaxies. However, few studies exist targeting GC systems of spiral galaxies up to several effective radii. Through 12-band Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) imaging, we study the point sources around the M81/M82/NGC3077 triplet in search of new GC candidates. We develop a tailored classification scheme to search for GC candidates based on their similarity to known GCs via a principal components analysis (PCA) projection. Our method accounts for missing data and photometric errors. We report 642 new GC candidates in a region of 3.5 deg$^2$ around the triplet, ranked according to their Gaia astrometric proper motions when available. We find tantalising evidence for an overdensity of GC candidate sources forming a bridge connecting M81 and M82. Finally, the spatial distribution of the GC candidates $(g-i)$ colours is consistent with halo/intra-cluster GCs, i.e. it gets bluer as they get further from the closest galaxy in the field. We further employ a regression-tree based model to estimate the metallicity distribution of the GC candidates based on their J-PLUS bands. The metallicity distribution of the sample candidates is broad and displays a bump towards the metal-rich end. Our list increases the population of GC candidates around the triplet by 3-fold, stresses the usefulness of multi-band surveys in finding these objects, and provides a testbed for further studies analysing their spatial distribution around nearby (spirals) galaxies., 20 pages, 18 figures, MNRAS accepted

With a unique set of 54 overlapping narrow-band and two broader filters covering the entire optical range, the incoming Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) will provide a great opportunity for stellar physics and near-field cosmology. In this work, we use the miniJPAS data in 56 J-PAS filters and 4 complementary SDSS-like filters to explore and prove the potential of the J-PAS filter system in characterizing stars and deriving their atmospheric parameters. We obtain estimates for the effective temperature with a good precision (, This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China through the projects NSFC 12222301, 12173007, 11603002, National Key Basic R & D Program of China via 2019YFA0405500, and Beijing Normal University grant no. 310232102. We acknowledge the science research grants from the China Manned Space Project with NO. CMS-CSST-2021-A08 and CMS-CSST-2021-A09. This research has made use of the Spanish Virtual Observatory (https://svo.cab.inta-csic.es) project funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ through grant PID2020-112949GB-I00. PC acknowledges financial support from the Government of Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), via postdoctoral grant ‘Atracción de Talento Investigador’2019-T2/TIC-14760. The work of VMP is supported by NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. FJE acknowledges financial support by the Spanish grant MDM-2017-0737 at Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu. CAG acknowledges financial support from the CAPES through scholarship for developing his PhD project and any related research. Part of this work was supported by institutional research funding IUT40-2, JPUT907, and PRG1006 of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. We acknowledge the support by the Centre of Excellence ‘Dark side of the Universe’ (TK133) financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund., With funding from the Spanish government through the "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence" accreditation (CEX2021-001131-S).

Astrophysical surveys rely heavily on the classification of sources as stars, galaxies or quasars from multi-band photometry. Surveys in narrow-band filters allow for greater discriminatory power, but the variety of different types and redshifts of the objects present a challenge to standard template-based methods. In this work, which is part of larger effort that aims at building a catalogue of quasars from the miniJPAS survey, we present a Machine Learning-based method that employs Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to classify point-like sources including the information in the measurement errors. We validate our methods using data from the miniJPAS survey, a proof-of-concept project of the J-PAS collaboration covering $\sim$ 1 deg$^2$ of the northern sky using the 56 narrow-band filters of the J-PAS survey. Due to the scarcity of real data, we trained our algorithms using mocks that were purpose-built to reproduce the distributions of different types of objects that we expect to find in the miniJPAS survey, as well as the properties of the real observations in terms of signal and noise. We compare the performance of the CNNs with other well-established Machine Learning classification methods based on decision trees, finding that the CNNs improve the classification when the measurement errors are provided as inputs. The predicted distribution of objects in miniJPAS is consistent with the putative luminosity functions of stars, quasars and unresolved galaxies. Our results are a proof-of-concept for the idea that the J-PAS survey will be able to detect unprecedented numbers of quasars with high confidence., 16 pages, 15 figures, published by MNRAS

Ground-based and airborne instrumentation for astronomy IX (2022), Montreal, JUL 17-22, 2022.--Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering vol. 12184 Article number 121840M.-- Complete list of authors: Marin-Franch, A.; Rueda-Teruel, S.; Lopez Alegre, G.; Iniguez, C.; Vazquez Ramio, H.; Ederoclite, A.; Bello, R.; Royo-Navarro, M.; Casino-Martin, J. M.; Lozano-Perez, D.; Molina-Ibanez, E. L.; Rueda-Teruel, F.; Yanes-Diaz, A.; del Pino, A.; Lopez-Sanjuan, C.; Cenarro, A. J.; Cristobal-Hornillos, D.; Hernan-Caballero, A.; Moles, M.; Varela, J.; Bielsa de Toledo, S.; Chueca, S.; Domingez-Martinez, M.; Garces-Cubel, D.; Martinez-Olivar, N.; Munoz-Maudos, J.; Rueda-Asensio, H.; Soriano-Laguia, I.; Castillo, J.; Civera, T.; Hernandez-Fuertes, J.; Lopez-Sainz, A.; Moreno-Signes, A.; Muniesa-Gallardo, D.; Taylor, K.; Santoro, F.; Cepa, J.; Fermino, C.; Bastable, M.; Haddow, G.; Palmer, I.; Simpson, C.; Spatola, A.; Sweeney, H.; Tatard, C.; Watkins, M.; Brauneck, U.; Casalta, J. M.; Abramo, R.; Alcaniz, J.; Benitez, N.; Bonoli, S.; Carneiro, S.; Dupke, R.; Mendes de Oliveira, C.; Sodre, L., Jr.; Vilchez, J., Commissioning results, on-sky performance and first operations of the Javalambre Panoramic Camera (JPCam) are presented in this paper. JPCam is a 1.2 Gpixel camera deployed on the 2.6m, large field-of-vie Javalambre Survey Telescope (JST250) at the Observatorio Astrofisico de Javalambre. JPCam has been conceived to perform J-PAS, a photometric survey of several thousand square degrees of the northern sky in 56 optical bands, 54 of them narrow-band filters (145 angstrom FWHM), contiguous and equi-spaced between 370 and 920nm, producing a low resolution photo-spectrum of every pixel of the observed sky, hence promising crucial breakthroughs in Cosmology and galaxy formation and evolution. JPCam has been designed to maximize field-of-view and wavelength coverage while guaranteeing a high image quality over the entire focal plane. To this aim, JPCam is equipped with a mosaic of 14 9.2k x 9.2k, 10 mu m pixel, low noise detectors from Teledyne-E2V, providing a FoV of 4.1 square degrees with a plate scale of 0.2267''/pix. In full frame mode, camera electronics allows read times of 10.9s at 633kHz read frequency (16.4s at 400kHz) with a readout noise of 5.5e(-) (4.3e(-)). Its filter unit admits 5 filter trays, each mounting 14 filters corresponding to the 14 CCDs of the mosaic and allowing all the J-PAS filters to be permanently installed. To fully optimize image quality, position of JST250 secondary mirror and JPCam focal plane are maintained optically aligned by means of two hexapod systems. To perform this task, JPCam includes 12 auxiliary detectors, 4 for autoguiding and 8 for image quality control through wavefront sensing., Based on observations made with the JST250 telescope and JPCam at the Observatorio Astrofisico de Javalambre (OAJ), in Teruel, owned, managed, and operated by the Centro de Estudios de Fisica del Cosmos de Aragon (CEFCA). We acknowledge the OAJ Data Processing and Archiving Unit (UPAD) for reducing and calibrating the OAJ data used in this work. Funding for the J-PAS Project has been provided by the Governments of Spain and Aragon through the Fondo de Inversion de Teruel, European FEDER funding and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and by the Brazilian agencies FINEP, FAPESP, FAPERJ and by the National Observatory of Brazil. Additional funding was also provided by the Tartu Observatory and by the J-PAS Chinese Astronomical Consortium., With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709

The Observatorio Astrof\'isico de Javalambre (OAJ{\dag}1) in Spain is a young astronomical facility, conceived and developed from the beginning as a fully automated observatory with the main goal of optimizing the processes in the scientific and general operation of the Observatory. The OAJ has been particularly conceived for carrying out large sky surveys with two unprecedented telescopes of unusually large fields of view (FoV): the JST/T250, a 2.55m telescope of 3deg field of view, and the JAST/T80, an 83cm telescope of 2deg field of view. The most immediate objective of the two telescopes for the next years is carrying out two unique photometric surveys of several thousands square degrees, J-PAS{\dag}2 and J-PLUS{\dag}3, each of them with a wide range of scientific applications, like e.g. large structure cosmology and Dark Energy, galaxy evolution, supernovae, Milky Way structure, exoplanets, among many others. To do that, JST and JAST are equipped with panoramic cameras under development within the J-PAS collaboration, JPCam and T80Cam respectively, which make use of large format (~ 10k x 10k) CCDs covering the entire focal plane. This paper describes in detail, from operations point of view, a comparison between the detailed cost of the global automation of the Observatory and the standard automation cost for astronomical facilities, in reference to the total investment and highlighting all benefits obtained from this approach and difficulties encountered. The paper also describes the engineering development of the overall facilities and infrastructures for the fully automated observatory and a global overview of current status, pinpointing lessons learned in order to boost observatory operations performance, achieving scientific targets, maintaining quality requirements, but also minimizing operation cost and human resources., Comment: Global Observatory Control System GOCS

Context. We explore the stellar content of the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) Data Release 2 and show its potential for identifying low-metallicity stars using the Stellar Parameters Estimation based on Ensemble Methods (SPEEM) pipeline. Aims. SPEEM is a tool used to provide determinations of atmospheric parameters for stars and separate stellar sources from quasars based on the unique J-PLUS photometric system. The adoption of adequate selection criteria allows for the identification of metal-poor star candidates that are suitable for spectroscopic follow-up investigations. Methods. SPEEM consists of a series of machine-learning models that use a training sample observed by both J-PLUS and the SEGUE spectroscopic survey. The training sample has temperatures, Teff, between 4800 K and 9000 K, values of log g between 1.0 and 4.5, as well as -3.1 < [Fe/H] < +0.5. The performance of the pipeline was tested with a sample of stars observed by the LAMOST survey within the same parameter range. Results. The average differences between the parameters of a sample of stars observed with SEGUE and J-PLUS, obtained with the SEGUE Stellar Parameter Pipeline and SPEEM, respectively, are ΔTeff ∼ 41 K, Δlog g ∼ 0.11 dex, and Δ[Fe/H] ∼ 0.09 dex. We define a sample of 177 stars that have been identified as new candidates with [Fe/H] < -2.5, with 11 of them having been observed with the ISIS spectrograph at the William Herschel Telescope. The spectroscopic analysis confirms that 64% of stars have [Fe/H] < -2.5, including one new star with [Fe/H] < -3.0. Conclusions. Using SPEEM in combination with the J-PLUS filter system has demonstrated their potential in estimating the stellar atmospheric parameters (Teff, log g, and [Fe/H]). The spectroscopic validation of the candidates shows that SPEEM yields a success rate of 64% on the identification of very metal-poor star candidates with [Fe/H] < -2.5. © 2021 ESO., Based on observations made with the JAST80 telescope at the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ), in Teruel, owned, managed, and operated by the Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón. We acknowledge the OAJ Data Processing and Archiving Unit (UPAD) for reducing the OAJ data used in this work. Funding for the J-PLUS Project has been provided by the Governments of Spain and Aragón through the Fondo de Inversiones de Teruel; the Aragón Government through the Reseach Groups E96, E103, and E16_17R; the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE) with grants PGC2018-097585-B-C21 and PGC2018-097585-B-C22; the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under AYA2015-66211-C2-1-P, AYA2015-66211-C2-2, AYA2012-30789, and ICTS-2009-14; and European FEDER funding (FCDD10-4E-867, FCDD13-4E-2685). The Brazilian agencies FINEP, FAPESP, and the National Observatory of Brazil have also contributed to this project. C.A.G. acknowledges financial support from the CAPES through scholarship for developing his PhD project, and extend and special mention to Nathaniel Tucker for introducing him to the amazing world of machine learning. The work of V.M.P. is supported by NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. Guoshoujing Telescope (the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope LAMOST) is a National Major Scientific Project built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Funding for the project has been provided by the National Development and Reform Commission. LAMOST is operated and managed by the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Y.S.L. acknowl edges support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea grant funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (NRF-2021R1A2C1008679). F.J.E. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish MINECO/FEDER through the grant AYA2017-84089 and MDM-2017-0737 at Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu, and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement no. 824064 through the ESCAPE – The European Science Cluster of Astronomy & Particle Physics ESFRI Research Infrastructures project. R.A.D. acknowledges support from the CNPq through BP grant 308105/2018-4. This research has made use of the Spanish Virtual Observatory (http://svo.cab.inta-csic.es) supported from the Spanish MICINN/FEDER through grant AyA2017-84089. This research made use of Matplotlib, a 2D graphics package used for Python for publication-quality image generation across user interfaces and operating systems (Hunter 2007).

In this series of papers, we employ several machine learning (ML) methods to classify the point-like sources from the miniJPAS catalogue, and identify quasar candidates. Since no representative sample of spectroscopically confirmed sources exists at present to train these ML algorithms, we rely on mock catalogues. In this first paper we develop a pipeline to compute synthetic photometry of quasars, galaxies and stars using spectra of objects targeted as quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. To match the same depths and signal-to-noise ratio distributions in all bands expected for miniJPAS point sources in the range $17.5\leq r, 20 pages, 18 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., Context. Extragalactic globular clusters (GCs) are key objects in studies of galactic histories. The advent of wide-field surveys, such as the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS), offers new possibilities for the study of these systems. Aims. We performed the first study of GCs in J-PLUS to recover information on the history of NGC 1023, taking advantage of wide-field images and 12 filters. Methods. We developed the semiautomatic pipeline GCFinder for detecting GC candidates in J-PLUS images, which can also be adapted to similar surveys. We studied the stellar population properties of a sub-sample of GC candidates using spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. Results. We found 523 GC candidates in NGC 1023, about 300 of which are new. We identified subpopulations of GC candidates, where age and metallicity distributions have multiple peaks. By comparing our results with the simulations, we report a possible broad age-metallicity relation, supporting the notion that NGC 1023 has experienced accretion events in the past. With a dominating age peak at 1010 yr, we report a correlation between masses and ages that suggests that massive GC candidates are more likely to survive the turbulent history of the host galaxy. Modeling the light of NGC 1023, we find two spiral-like arms and detect a displacement of the galaxy’s photometric center with respect to the outer isophotes and center of GC distribution (~700pc and ~1600pc, respectively), which could be the result of ongoing interactions between NGC 1023 and NGC 1023A. Conclusions. By studying the GC system of NGC 1023 with J-PLUS, we showcase the power of multi-band surveys for these kinds of studies and we find evidence to support the complex accretion history of the host galaxy. © D. de Brito Silva et al. 2022., D.B.S. also acknowledges Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) process number 2017J00204-6 for the financial support provided for the development of this project. P.C. acknowledges support from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) under grant 310041/2018-0 and from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) process number 2018J05392-8. A.C.S. acknowledges funding from CNPq and the Rio Grande do Sul Research Foundation (FAPERGS) through grants CNPq-403580/2016-1, CNPq-11153/2018-6, PqG/FAPERGS-17/2551-0001, FAPERGS/CAPES 19/2551-0000696-9 and L’Oréal UNESCO ABC Para Mulheres na Ciência and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) through grant E085201009. G.B. acknowledges financial support from the National Autonomous University of México (UNAM) through grant DGAPA/PAPIIT IG100319 and from CONACyT through grant CB2015-252364. J.V. acknowledges the technical members of the UPAD for their invaluable work: Juan Castillo, Tamara Civera, Javier Hernández, Ángel López, Alberto Moreno, and David Muniesa. J.A.H.J. acknowledges Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), process number 2021J08920-8. A.E. acknowledges the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Union – NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Facility project ICTS-MRR-2021-03-CEFCA and from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) under grant 313285/2020-9 D.A.F. thanks the ARC for financial assistance via DP170102344. Y.J.-T has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 898633. Y.J-T. also acknowledges financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). Based on observations made with the JAST80 telescope telescope/s at the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre, in Teruel, owned, managed, and operated by the Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón. We thank the Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón for the allocation of the Director’s Discretionary Time to this program. We thank the OAJ Data Processing and Archiving Unit (UPAD) for reducing and calibrating the OAJ data used in this work. Funding for the J-PLUS Project has been provided by the Governments of Spain and Aragón through the Fondo de Inversiones de Teruel; the Aragón Government through the Research Groups E96, E103, and E16_17R; the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE) with grants PGC2018-097585-B-C21 and PGC2018-097585-B-C22; the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under AYA2015-66211-C2-1-P, AYA2015-66211-C2-2, AYA2012-30789, and ICTS-2009-14; and European FEDER funding (FCDD10-4E-867, FCDD13-4E-2685). The Brazilian agencies FINEP, FAPESP, and the National Observatory of Brazil have also contributed to this project. This work has made use of the computing facilities of the Laboratory of Astroinformatics (IAG/USP, NAT/Unicsul), whose purchase was made possible by the Brazilian agency FAPESP (grant 2009/54006-4) and the INCT-A.

The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) provides wide field-of-view images in 12 narrow, intermediate and broad-band filters optimized for stellar photometry. Here we have applied J-PLUS data for the first time for the study of Galactic GCs using science verification data obtained for the very metal-poor GC M\,15. Our J-PLUS data provide low-resolution spectral energy distributions covering the near-UV to the near-IR, allowing us to search for MPs based on pseudo-spectral fitting diagnostics. J-PLUS CMDs are found to be particularly useful to search for splits in the sequences formed by the upper red giant branch (RGB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. We interpret these split sequences as evidence for the presence of MPs. This demonstrates that the J-PLUS survey will have sufficient spatial coverage and spectral resolution to perform a large statistical study of GCs through multi-band photometry in the coming years., Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication @ A&A

We consider a cosmological model where dark matter and dark energy feature a coupling that only affects their momentum transfer in the corresponding Euler equations. We perform a fit to cosmological observables and confirm previous findings within these scenarios that favour the presence of a coupling at more than 3σ. This improvement is mainly driven by cluster counts from Planck Sunyaev-Zeldovich data that we include as a certain prior. We subsequently perform a forecast for future J-PAS data and find that clustering measurements will permit to clearly discern the presence of an interaction within a few percent level with the uncoupled case at more than 10σ when the complete survey, covering 8500 sq. deg., is considered. We found that the inclusion of weak lensing measurements will not help to further constrain the coupling parameter. For completeness, we compare to forecasts for DESI and Euclid, which provide similar discriminating power. © 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab., JBJ, DB, DF and FATP acknowledge support from the Atraccion del Talento Cientifico en Salamanca programme, from project PGC2018-096038-B-I00 by Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades and Ayudas del Programa XIII by USAL. DF acknowledges support from the programme Ayudas para Financiar la Contratacion Predoctoral de Personal Investigador (ORDEN EDU/601/2020) funded by Junta de Castilla y Leon and European Social Fund. This work has been supported by the MINECO (Spain) projects FIS201678859-P and PID2019-107394GB-I00 (AEI/FEDER, UE). LRA acknowledges financial support from CNPq (306696/2018-5) and FAPESP (2015/17199-0). JA is supported by CNPq (Grants No. 310790/2014-0 and 400471/2014-0) and FAPERJ (Grant No. 233906). SB acknowledges PGC2018-097585-B-C22, MINECO/FEDER, UE of the Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industriay Competitividad. CEFCA researchers acknowledge support from the project PGC2018-097585-B-C21. SC is supported by CNPq (Grants No. 307467/2017-1 and420641/2018-1). R.A.D. acknowledges support from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico -CNPq through BPgrant 308105/2018-4, and the Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos -FINEP grants REF. 1217/13 -01.13.0279.00 and REF 0859/10-01.10.0663.00 and also FAPERJ PRONEX grant E-26/110.566/2010 for hardware funding support for the J-PAS project through the National Observatory of Braziland Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas. VM thanks CNPq (Brazil) and FAPES (Brazil) for partial financial support. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 888258. CMdO acknowledges support from Brazilian agencies CNPq (grant 312333/2014-5) and FAPESP (grant 2009/54202-8. IAA researchers acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709). LSJ acknowledges support from Brazilian agencies CNPq (grant 304819/2017-4) and FAPESP (grant 2012/00800-4). This paper has gone through internal review by the J-PAS collaboration. Based on observations made with the JST/T250 telescope and JPCam at the Observatorio Astrofisico de Javalambre (OAJ), in Teruel, owned, managed, and operated by the Centro de Estudios de Fisica del Cosmos de Aragon (CEFCA). We acknowledge the OAJ Data Processing and Archiving Unit (UPAD) for reducing and calibrating the OAJ data used in this work. Funding for the J-PAS Project has been provided by the Governments of Spain and Aragon through the Fondo de Inversion de Teruel, European FEDER funding and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and by the Brazilian agencies FINEP, FAPESP, FAPERJ and by the National Observatory of Brazil. Additional funding was also provided by the Tartu Observatory and by the J-PAS Chinese Astronomical Consortium.

Context. The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) is an observational campaign that aims to obtain photometry in 12 ultraviolet-visible filters (0.3-1 μm) over ∼8500 deg2 of the sky observable from Javalambre (Teruel, Spain). Due to its characteristics and observation strategy, this survey will allow a great number of Solar System small bodies to be analyzed, and with improved spectrophotometric resolution with respect to previous large-area photometric surveys in optical wavelengths. Aims. The main goal of the present work is to present the first catalog of magnitudes and colors of minor bodies of the Solar System compiled using the first data release (DR1) of the J-PLUS observational campaign: the Moving Objects Observed from Javalambre (MOOJa) catalog. Methods. Using the compiled photometric data we obtained very-low-resolution reflectance (photo)spectra of the asteroids. We first used a σ-clipping algorithm in order to remove outliers and clean the data. We then devised a method to select the optimal solar colors in the J-PLUS photometric system. These solar colors were computed using two different approaches: on one hand, we used different spectra of the Sun convolved with the filter transmissions of the J-PLUS system, and on the other, we selected a group of solar-type stars in the J-PLUS DR1 according to their computed stellar parameters. Finally, we used the solar colors to obtain the reflectance spectra of the asteroids. Results. We present photometric data in the J-PLUS filters for a total of 3122 minor bodies (3666 before outlier removal), and we discuss the main issues with the data, as well as some guidelines to solve them. © ESO 2021., DM acknowledges the CNPq for the support in form of a PCI grant, and also the FAPERJ for the support in the form of a Pós-Doutorado Nota 10 grant. JMC acknowledges CPNq for support through a research fellowship. AAC acknowledges support from FAPERJ (grant E26/203.186/2016) and CNPq (grants 304971/2016-2 and 401669/2016-5), from the Universidad de Alicante under contract UATALENTO18-02, and from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709) MDP ackowledges funding by the Preeminent Postdoctoral Program (P3) at the University of Central Florida. JL acknowledges support from the project AYA2015-67772-R (MINECO). AG acknowledges CAPES for the support in the form of a Phd. grant. MM acknowledges funding by the European Space Agency under the research contract C4000122918. ESM and FJE acknowledge funding by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) Projects AYA2017-84089 and MDM-2017-0737 at Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu. The present work is based on observations made with the JAST/T80 telescope for the J-PLUS project at the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre in Teruel, a Spanish Infraestructura Cientifico-Técnica Singular (ICTS) owned, managed and operated by the Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA). Data has been processed and provided by CEFCA’s Unit of Processing and Archiving Data (UPAD). Funding for the J-PLUS Project has been provided by the Governments of Spain and Aragón through the Fondo de Inversiones de Teruel; the Aragón Government through the Research Groups E96, E103, and E16_17R; the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE) with grants PGC2018-097585-B-C21 and PGC2018-097585-B-C22; the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under AYA2015-66211-C2-1-P, AYA2015-66211-C2-2, AYA2012-30789, and ICTS-2009-14; and European FEDER funding (FCDD10-4E-867, FCDD13-4E-2685). The Brazilian agencies FAPESP and the National Observatory of Brazil have also contributed to this project.

Wide field photometric surveys aim at observing large areas of sky in various filters. Yet, almost all surveys use constant exposure times, regardless of the quality of the images or the level of background, mostly due to the moon, which may result in a lack of homogeneity in the data sets. In the J-PLUS survey,1 modulating the exposure time with the sky background has resulted not only in an improved homogeneity of the data but also in a significant improvement of the efficiency of the survey execution. In this paper, we show the effect on J-PAS and J-PLUS of using fixed exposure times, regardless of the Moon background, and we describe the system to estimate this background reliably and provide a significant improvement, not only in the quality of the observations, but also in the survey speed.

Context. The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) has obtained precise photometry in twelve specially designed filters for large numbers of Galactic stars. Deriving their precise stellar atmospheric parameters and individual elemental abundances is crucial for studies of Galactic structure, and the assembly history and chemical evolution of our Galaxy. Aims. Our goal is to estimate not only stellar parameters (effective temperature, Teff, surface gravity, log g, and metallicity, [Fe/H]), but also [{\alpha}/Fe] and four elemental abundances ([C/Fe], [N/Fe], [Mg/Fe], and [Ca/Fe]) using data from J-PLUS DR1. Methods. By combining recalibrated photometric data from J-PLUS DR1, Gaia DR2, and spectroscopic labels from LAMOST, we design and train a set of cost-sensitive neural networks, the CSNet, to learn the non-linear mapping from stellar colors to their labels. Results. We have achieved precisions of {\delta}Teff {\sim}55K, {\delta}logg{\sim}0.15dex, and {\delta}[Fe/H]{\sim}0.07dex, respectively, over a wide range of temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity. The uncertainties of the abundance estimates for [{\alpha}/Fe] and the four individual elements are in the range 0.04-0.08 dex. We compare our parameter and abundance estimates with those from other spectroscopic catalogs such as APOGEE and GALAH, and find an overall good agreement. Conclusions. Our results demonstrate the potential of well-designed, high-quality photometric data for determinations of stellar parameters as well as individual elemental abundances. Applying the method to J-PLUS DR1, we have obtained the aforementioned parameters for about two million stars, providing an outstanding data set for chemo-dynamic analyses of the Milky Way. The catalog of the estimated parameters is publicly accessible., Comment: 30 pages, 26 figures, 3 tables, accepted by A&A

We present a synthetic galaxy lightcone specially designed for narrow-band optical photometric surveys. To reduce time-discreteness effects, unlike previous works, we directly include the lightcone construction in the \texttt{L-Galaxies} semi-analytic model applied to the subhalo merger trees of the {\tt Millennium} simulation. Additionally, we add a model for the nebular emission in star-forming regions, which is crucial for correctly predicting the narrow/medium-band photometry of galaxies. Explicitly, we consider, individually for each galaxy, the contribution of 9 different lines: $\rm Ly{\alpha}$ (1216\AA), \Hb (4861\AA), \Ha (6563\AA), {\oii} (3727\AA, 3729\AA), {\oiii} (4959\AA, 5007\AA), $\rm [\ion{Ne}{III}]$ (3870\AA), {\oi} (6300\AA), $\rm [\ion{N}{II}]$ (6548\AA, 6583\AA), and $\rm [\ion{S}{II}]$ (6717\AA, 6731\AA). We validate our lightcone by comparing galaxy number counts, angular clustering, and \Ha, \Hb, {\oii} and {\oiiiFd} luminosity functions to a compilation of observations. As an application of our mock lightcones, we generate catalogues tailored for J-PLUS, a large optical galaxy survey featuring 5 broad and 7 medium band filters. We study the ability of the survey to correctly identify, with a simple \textit{three filter method}, a population of emission-line galaxies at various redshifts. We show that the $4000\AA$ break in the spectral energy distribution of galaxies can be misidentified as line emission. However, all significant excess (larger than 0.4 magnitudes) can be correctly and unambiguously attributed to emission line galaxies. Our catalogues are publicly released to facilitate their use in interpreting narrow-band surveys and for quantifying the impact of line emission in broad band photometry., Comment: Published in A&A; Mock catalogue available at https://www.j-plus.es/ancillarydata/mock\_galaxy\_lightcone

Both meteorology and optical conditions are crucial for selecting the best site to host extremely large telescopes such as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the European project (E-ELT). For the E-ELT, a year-long meteorological campaign was performed at our two reference sites, the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) and Cerro Ventarrones (very close to the VLT site at Paranal), and at other sites also considered as alternatives to the reference sites: Aklim, Macon, and Izana (Observatorio del Teide; OT). In this article, we present a statistical analysis of the ground meteorological properties recorded at these sites, making use of automatic weather stations (AWSs) equipped with standard meteorological sensors providing the air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction, using standard procedures across all sites. Meteorology offers but one discriminant in the complicated question of where to site such a major facility as the E-ELT (other factors being seeing, local geology, the economics of the logistics, etc.), both for determining the feasibility of telescope and instrumentation design and construction and for determining the useful observing time. However, the final decision of where to locate a major telescope depends in part on all these—and other—considerations and not on any one criterion alone. In summary, for 90% of the nighttime, the wind speed is lower than 18 m s-1, the telescope operational limit at all the sites except Macon. For this reason, Macon was discarded in the final site selection as, for 25% of the time, the wind speed is greater than 17 m s-1. The smallest nighttime temperature gradient is at ORM, whereas the lowest mean relative humidity value is reached at the Ventarrones site. Izana was discarded in the site selection study from the very beginning due to lack of funding to install further site-testing equipement (e.g., Multi-Aperture Scintillation Sensor-Differential Image Motion Monitor (MASS-DIMM)). We investigate the statistical distributions of annual and monthly meteorological conditions for day and night separately. This is the third paper in a series discussing the E-ELT FP6 site characterization project.

AMOS has recently completed the alignment campaign of the 2.6m telescope for the Observatorio Astrofisico de Javalambre (OAJ). AMOS developed an innovative alignment technique for wide field-of-view telescopes that has been successfully implemented on the OAJ 2.6m telescope with the active support of the team of CEFCA (Centro de Estudios de Fisica del Cosmos de Aragon). The alignment relies on two fundamental techniques: (1) the wavefront-curvature sensing (WCS) for the evaluation of the telescope aberrations at arbitrary locations in the focal plane, and (2) the comafree point method for the adjustment of the position of the secondary mirror (M2) and of the focal plane (FP). The alignment campaign unfolds in three steps: (a) analysis of the repeatability of the WCS measurements, (b) assessment of the sensitivity of telescope wavefront error to M2 and FP position adjustments, and (c) optical alignment of the telescope. At the end of the campaign, seeing-limited performances are demonstrated in the complete focal plane. With the help of CEFCA team, the image quality of the telescope are investigated with a lucky-imaging method. Image sizes of less than 0.3 arcsec FWHM are obtained, and this excellent image quality is observed over the complete focal plane.

The site for the future European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) is already known to be Armazones, near Paranal (Chile). The selection was based on a variety of considerations, with an important one being the quality of the atmosphere for the astronomy planned for the ELT. We present an overview of the characterization of the atmospheric parameters of candidate sites, making use of standard procedures and instruments as carried out within the Framework Programme VI (FP6) of the European Union. We have achieved full characterization of the selected sites for the parameters considered. Further details on adaptive optics results and climatology will be the subject of two forthcoming articles. A summary of the results of the FP6 site-testing campaigns at the different sites is provided.

The success of many cosmological surveys in the near future is highly grounded on the quality of their photometry. The Javalambre-PAU Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) will image more than 8500 deg2 of the Northern Sky Hemisphere in 54 narrow + 2 medium/broad optical bands plus Sloan u, g and r bands. The main goal of J-PAS is to provide the best constrains on the cosmological parameters before the arrival of projects like Euclid or LSST. To achieve this goal the uncertainty in photo-z cannot be larger than 0.3% for several millions of galaxies and this is highly dependent on the photometric accuracy.The photometric calibration of J-PAS will imply the intensive use of huge amounts of data and the use of statistical tools is unavoidable. Here, we present some of the key steps in the photometric calibration of J-PAS that will demand a suitable statistical approach.

This is the second article of a series devoted to European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) site characterization. In this article we present the main properties of the parameters involved in high angular resolution observations from the data collected in the site testing campaign of the E-ELT during the Design Study (DS) phase. Observations were made in 2008 and 2009, in the four sites selected to shelter the future E-ELT (characterized under the ELT-DS contract): Aklim mountain in Morocco, Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) in Spain, Mac\'on range in Argentina, and Cerro Ventarrones in Chile. The same techniques, instruments and acquisition procedures were taken on each site. A Multiple Aperture Scintillation Sensor (MASS) and a Differential Image Motion Monitor (DIMM) were installed at each site. Global statistics of the integrated seeing, the free atmosphere seeing, the boundary layer seeing and the isoplanatic angle were studied for each site, and the results are presented here. In order to estimate other important parameters such as the coherence time of the wavefront and the overall parameter "coherence \'etendue" additional information of vertical profiles of the wind speed was needed. Data were retrieved from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) archive. Ground wind speed was measured by Automatic Weather Stations (AWS). More aspects of the turbulence parameters such as their seasonal trend, their nightly evolution and their temporal stability were also obtained and analyzed., Comment: 46 pages and 17 figures. Accepted to be published in PASP

During the last 20 years, many DIMM instruments have been developed to measure astronomical seeing. The IAC has been involved in several projects to run different campaigns to characterize its observatories. However, the cost in manpower to maintain and operate these instruments has been too high and it is mandatory to minimize this effort by constructing a reliable, robust and available seeing monitor. A review of all sources of errors has been done in order to fit very reliable measurements: acquisition parameters, box size, signal threshold, SNR threshold, flux, deformations and vibrations for centroid calculations, best pixel scale, jitter in the images sampling, light bandwidth, CCD noise, as well as the centroid calculation algorithm. Experimental measurements about the influence of exposure time, number of images for computing the seeing or defocus have been carried out to identify the practical limits of the instrument. The IAC automatic DIMM design has been reviewed to improve its robustness and its availability to guarantee the minimum down-time and to maximize the time between failures. The new design will be shown as part of this work.

We present in this paper the new cute-SCIDAR instrument, entirely developed by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), delivered recently at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Paranal Observatory (Chile). This instrument, supported by the European Community (Framework Programme 6, Extremely Large Telescope Design Study), carries out the generalized SCIntillation Detection And Ranging (g-SCIDAR) technique to obtain the temporal evolution of turbulence profiles C N2 with height. A new design was made in order to fit the VLT Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) interfaces and control requirements. Also, a new software arch itecture allows a full remote control, and a data analysis pipeline provides turbulence profiles in real-time, which is the main achievement of this new cute-SCIDAR. Details of its design and results of its excellent performance are included. Keywords: atmospheric optical turbulence, site testi ng, site characterization, instrumentation 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The SCIDAR technique SCIDAR has proved to be the most efficient and reliable technique to measure with accuracy the optical vertical structure of the atmospheric turbulence strength obtained from ground level. The concept (Vernin & Roddier, 1973