We present the results of a deep ZYJ near-infrared survey of 13.5deg^2^ in the Upper Scorpius (USco) OB association. We photometrically selected ~100 cluster member candidates with masses in the range of 30-5 Jupiters, according to state-of-the-art evolutionary models. We identified 67 ZYJ candidates as bona fide members, based on complementary photometry and astrometry. We also extracted five candidates detected with Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy at YJ only. One is excluded using deep optical z-band imaging, while two are likely non-members, and three remain as potential members. We conclude that the USco mass function is more likely decreasing in the planetary-mass regime (although a flat mass function cannot yet be discarded), consistent with surveys in other regions.
*** USET sunspot drawing *** The Uccle Solar Equatorial Table (USET)
facility at the Royal Observatory of Belgium has gathered an
uninterrupted series of sunspot drawings since year 1941. This
collection continues to be updated when weather permits. This table
provides information about these drawings.
*** USET Groups *** Values in the USET sunspot group catalog are
derived from the solar drawings obtained by the Uccle Solar Equatorial
Table (USET) facility that is located at the Royal Observatory of
Belgium. The USET sunspot group catalog covers 82 years of
observations in 2021, and is updated every day. A home-made software
(DigiSun) written in Python is used to derive quantities such as
location and areas from the sunspot drawings.
For the classical Cepheid U Sgr, we have constructed an O-C diagram spanning a time interval of 144 years. The O-C diagram has the shape of a parabola, which has made it possible to determine for the first time the quadratic light elements and to calculate the rate of evolutionary increase in the period, dP/dt=0.39(+/-0.10)s/yr, in agreement with the results of theoretical calculations for the third crossing of the instability strip. The available data reduced by the Eddington-Plakidis method reveal small random period fluctuations that do not distort the evolutionary trend in the O-C residuals.
We present a case study in which we used a novel method to identify red supergiant (RSG) candidates in NGC 6822 based on their 1.6um H-bump. We collected 32 bands of photometric data for NGC 6822 ranging from the optical to the mid-infrared (MIR), derived from Gaia, PS1, LGGS, VHS, UKIRT, IRSF, HAWK-I, Spitzer, and WISE. Using the theoretical spectra from MARCS, we demonstrate that there is a prominent difference around 1.6um (H-bump) between targets with high and low surface gravity (HSG and LSG). Taking advantage of this feature, we identify efficient color-color diagrams of rzH (r-z versus z-H) and rzK (r-z versus z-K) to separate HSG (mostly foreground dwarfs) and LSG targets (mainly background red giant stars, asymptotic giant branch stars, and RSGs) from crossmatching of optical and near-infrared (NIR) data. Moreover, synthetic photometry from ATLAS9 gives similar results. We further separated RSG candidates from the remaining LSG candidates as determined by the H-bump method by using semi-empirical criteria on NIR color-magnitude diagrams, where both the theoretic cuts and morphology of the RSG population are considered. This separation produced 323 RSG candidates. The simulation of foreground stars with Besancon models also indicates that our selection criteria are largely free from the contamination of Galactic giants. In addition to the H-bump method, we used the traditional BVR method (B-V versus V-R) as a comparison and/or supplement by applying a slightly aggressive cut to select as many RSG candidates as possible (358 targets). Furthermore, the Gaia astrometric solution was used to constrain the sample, where 181 and 193 targets were selected with the H-bump and BVR method, respectively. The percentages of selected targets in the two methods are similar at ~60%, indicating a comparable accuracy of the two methods. In total, there are 234 RSG candidates after combining targets from the two methods, and 140 (~60%) of them are in common. The final RSG candidates are in the expected locations on the mid-infrared color-magnitude diagram with [3.6]-[4.5]<~0 and J-[8.0]~1.0. The spatial distribution is also coincident with the far-ultraviolet-selected star formation regions, suggesting that the selection is reasonable and reliable. We indicate that our method can also be used to identify other LSG targets, such as red giants and asymptotic giant branch stars, and it can also be applied to most of the nearby galaxies by using recent large-scale ground-based surveys. Future ground- and space-based facilities may promote its application beyond the Local Group.
This catalog is a special subset of the Eichhorn et al. (1970) Pleiades catalog (see <I/90>) updated to B1950.0 positions and with proper motions added. It was prepared for the purpose of predicting occultations of Pleiades stars by the Moon, but is useful for general applications because it contains many faint stars not present in the current series of large astrometric catalogs.
