TY  - JOUR
A1  - Trinh, Christopher Q.
A1  - Ellis, Simon C.
A1  - Bland-Hawthorn, Joss
A1  - Lawrence, Jon S.
A1  - Horton, Anthony J.
A1  - Leon-Saval, Sergio G.
A1  - Shortridge, Keith
A1  - Bryant, Julia
A1  - Case, Scott
A1  - Colless, Matthew
A1  - Couch, Warrick
A1  - Freeman, Kenneth
A1  - Löhmannsröben, Hans-Gerd
A1  - Gers, Luke
A1  - Glazebrook, Karl
A1  - Haynes, Roger
A1  - Lee, Steve
A1  - O'Byrne, John
A1  - Miziarski, Stan
A1  - Roth, Martin M.
A1  - Schmidt, Brian
A1  - Tinney, Christopher G.
A1  - Zheng, Jessica
T1  - Gnosis - the first instrument to use fiber bragg gratings for OH  suppression
JF  - The astronomical journal
N2  - The near-infrared is an important part of the spectrum in astronomy, especially in cosmology because the light from objects in the early universe is redshifted to these wavelengths. However, deep near-infrared observations are extremely difficult to make from ground-based telescopes due to the bright background from the atmosphere. Nearly all of this background comes from the bright and narrow emission lines of atmospheric hydroxyl (OH) molecules. The atmospheric background cannot be easily removed from data because the brightness fluctuates unpredictably on short timescales. The sensitivity of ground-based optical astronomy far exceeds that of near-infrared astronomy because of this long-standing problem. GNOSIS is a prototype astrophotonic instrument that utilizes "OH suppression fibers" consisting of fiber Bragg gratings and photonic lanterns to suppress the 103 brightest atmospheric emission doublets between 1.47 and 1.7 mu m. GNOSIS was commissioned at the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope with the IRIS2 spectrograph to demonstrate the potential of OH suppression fibers, but may be potentially used with any telescope and spectrograph combination. Unlike previous atmospheric suppression techniques GNOSIS suppresses the lines before dispersion and in a manner that depends purely on wavelength. We present the instrument design and report the results of laboratory and on-sky tests from commissioning. While these tests demonstrated high throughput (approximate to 60%) and excellent suppression of the skylines by the OH suppression fibers, surprisingly GNOSIS produced no significant reduction in the interline background and the sensitivity of GNOSIS+IRIS2 is about the same as IRIS2. It is unclear whether the lack of reduction in the interline background is due to physical sources or systematic errors as the observations are detector noise dominated. OH suppression fibers could potentially impact ground-based astronomy at the level of adaptive optics or greater. However, until a clear reduction in the interline background and the corresponding increasing in sensitivity is demonstrated optimized OH suppression fibers paired with a fiber-fed spectrograph will at least provide a real benefit at low resolving powers.
KW  - atmospheric effects
KW  - infrared: diffuse background
KW  - instrumentation: miscellaneous
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/145/2/51
SN  - 0004-6256
VL  - 145
IS  - 2
PB  - IOP Publ. Ltd.
CY  - Bristol
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Abramowski, Attila
A1  - Acero, F.
A1  - Aharonian, Felix A.
A1  - Akhperjanian, A. G.
A1  - Anton, Gisela
A1  - Balenderan, Shangkari
A1  - Balzer, Arnim
A1  - Barnacka, Anna
A1  - Becherini, Yvonne
A1  - Tjus, J. Becker
A1  - Behera, B.
A1  - Bernlöhr, K.
A1  - Birsin, E.
A1  - Biteau, Jonathan
A1  - Bochow, A.
A1  - Boisson, Catherine
A1  - Bolmont, J.
A1  - Bordas, Pol
A1  - Brucker, J.
A1  - Brun, Francois
A1  - Brun, Pierre
A1  - Bulik, Tomasz
A1  - Carrigan, Svenja
A1  - Casanova, Sabrina
A1  - Cerruti, M.
A1  - Chadwick, Paula M.
A1  - Chaves, Ryan C. G.
A1  - Cheesebrough, A.
A1  - Colafrancesco, Sergio
A1  - Cologna, Gabriele
A1  - Conrad, Jan
A1  - Couturier, C.
A1  - Dalton, M.
A1  - Daniel, M. K.
A1  - Davids, I. D.
A1  - Degrange, B.
A1  - Deil, C.
A1  - deWilt, P.
A1  - Dickinson, H. J.
A1  - Djannati-Ataï, A.
A1  - Domainko, W.
A1  - Drury, L. O'C.
A1  - Dubus, G.
A1  - Dutson, K.
A1  - Dyks, J.
A1  - Dyrda, M.
A1  - Egberts, Kathrin
A1  - Eger, P.
A1  - Espigat, P.
A1  - Fallon, L.
A1  - Farnier, C.
A1  - Fegan, S.
A1  - Feinstein, F.
A1  - Fernandes, M. V.
A1  - Fernandez, D.
A1  - Fiasson, A.
A1  - Fontaine, G.
A1  - Foester, A.
A1  - Fuessling, M.
A1  - Gajdus, M.
A1  - Gallant, Y. A.
A1  - Garrigoux, T.
A1  - Gast, H.
A1  - Giebels, B.
A1  - Glicenstein, J. F.
A1  - Glueck, B.
A1  - Goeing, D.
A1  - Grondin, M. -H.
A1  - Grudzinska, M.
A1  - Haeffner, S.
A1  - Hague, J. D.
A1  - Hahn, J.
A1  - Hampf, D.
A1  - Harris, J.
A1  - Hauser, M.
A1  - Heinz, S.
A1  - Heinzelmann, G.
A1  - Henri, G.
A1  - Hermann, G.
A1  - Hillert, A.
A1  - Hinton, James Anthony
A1  - Hofmann, W.
A1  - Hofverberg, P.
A1  - Holler, Markus
A1  - Horns, D.
A1  - Jacholkowska, A.
A1  - Jahn, C.
A1  - Jamrozy, M.
A1  - Jung, I.
A1  - Kastendieck, M. A.
A1  - Katarzynski, K.
A1  - Katz, U.
A1  - Kaufmann, S.
A1  - Khelifi, B.
A1  - Klepser, S.
A1  - Klochkov, D.
A1  - Kluzniak, W.
A1  - Kneiske, T.
A1  - Komin, Nu.
A1  - Kosack, K.
A1  - Kossakowski, R.
A1  - Krayzel, F.
A1  - Krueger, P. P.
A1  - Laffon, H.
A1  - Lamanna, G.
A1  - Lefaucheur, J.
A1  - Lemoine-Goumard, M.
A1  - Lenain, J. -P.
A1  - Lennarz, D.
A1  - Lohse, T.
A1  - Lopatin, A.
A1  - Lu, C. -C.
A1  - Marandon, V.
A1  - Marcowith, Alexandre
A1  - Masbou, J.
A1  - Maurin, G.
A1  - Maxted, N.
A1  - Mayer, M.
A1  - McComb, T. J. L.
A1  - Medina, M. C.
A1  - Mehault, J.
A1  - Menzler, U.
A1  - Moderski, R.
A1  - Mohamed, M.
A1  - Moulin, Emmanuel
A1  - Naumann, C. L.
A1  - Naumann-Godo, M.
A1  - de Naurois, M.
A1  - Nedbal, D.
A1  - Nguyen, N.
A1  - Niemiec, J.
A1  - Nolan, S. J.
A1  - Ohm, S.
A1  - Wilhelmi, E. de Ona
A1  - Opitz, B.
A1  - Ostrowski, M.
A1  - Oya, I.
A1  - Panter, M.
A1  - Parsons, R. D.
A1  - Arribas, M. Paz
A1  - Pekeur, N. W.
A1  - Pelletier, G.
A1  - Perez, J.
A1  - Petrucci, P. -O.
A1  - Peyaud, B.
A1  - Pita, S.
A1  - Puehlhofer, G.
A1  - Punch, M.
A1  - Quirrenbach, A.
A1  - Raab, S.
A1  - Raue, M.
A1  - Reimer, A.
A1  - Reimer, O.
A1  - Renaud, M.
A1  - de los Reyes, R.
A1  - Rieger, F.
A1  - Ripken, J.
A1  - Rob, L.
A1  - Rosier-Lees, S.
A1  - Rowell, G.
A1  - Rudak, B.
A1  - Rulten, C. B.
A1  - Sahakian, V.
A1  - Sanchez, David M.
A1  - Santangelo, A.
A1  - Schlickeiser, R.
A1  - Schulz, A.
A1  - Schwanke, U.
A1  - Schwarzburg, S.
A1  - Schwemmer, S.
A1  - Sheidaei, F.
A1  - Skilton, J. L.
A1  - Sol, H.
A1  - Spengler, G.
A1  - Stawarz, L.
A1  - Steenkamp, R.
A1  - Stegmann, Christian
A1  - Stinzing, F.
A1  - Stycz, K.
A1  - Sushch, Iurii
A1  - Szostek, A.
A1  - Tavernet, J. -P.
A1  - Terrier, R.
A1  - Tluczykont, M.
A1  - Trichard, C.
A1  - Valerius, K.
A1  - van Eldik, C.
A1  - Vasileiadis, G.
A1  - Venter, C.
A1  - Viana, A.
A1  - Vincent, P.
A1  - Voelk, H. J.
A1  - Volpe, F.
A1  - Vorobiov, S.
A1  - Vorster, M.
A1  - Wagner, S. J.
A1  - Ward, M.
A1  - White, R.
A1  - Wierzcholska, A.
A1  - Wouters, D.
A1  - Zacharias, M.
A1  - Zajczyk, A.
A1  - Zdziarski, A. A.
A1  - Zech, Alraune
A1  - Zechlin, H. S.
T1  - HESS discovery of VHE gamma-rays from the quasar PKS 1510-089
JF  - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal
N2  - The quasar PKS 1510-089 (z = 0.361) was observed with the H.E.S.S. array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes during high states in the optical and GeV bands, to search for very high energy (VHE, defined as E >= 0.1 TeV) emission. VHE gamma-rays were detected with a statistical significance of 9.2 standard deviations in 15.8 h of H. E. S. S. data taken during March and April 2009. A VHE integral flux of I(0.15 TeV < E < 1.0TeV) = (1.0 +/- 0.2(stat) +/- 0.2(sys)) x 10(-11) cm(-2) s(-1) is measured. The best-fit power law to the VHE data has a photon index of G = 5.4 +/- 0.7(stat) +/- 0.3(sys). The GeV and optical light curves show pronounced variability during the period of H.E.S.S. observations. However, there is insufficient evidence to claim statistically significant variability in the VHE data. Because of its relatively high redshift, the VHE flux from PKS 1510-089 should suffer considerable attenuation in the intergalactic space due to the extragalactic background light (EBL). Hence, the measured gamma-ray spectrum is used to derive upper limits on the opacity due to EBL, which are found to be comparable with the previously derived limits from relatively-nearby BL Lac objects. Unlike typical VHE-detected blazars where the broadband spectrum is dominated by nonthermal radiation at all wavelengths, the quasar PKS 1510-089 has a bright thermal component in the optical to UV frequency band. Among all VHE detected blazars, PKS 1510-089 has the most luminous broad line region. The detection of VHE emission from this quasar indicates a low level of gamma - gamma absorption on the internal optical to UV photon field.
KW  - gamma rays: galaxies
KW  - quasars: individual: PKS 1510-089
KW  - infrared: diffuse background
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201321135
SN  - 0004-6361
VL  - 554
IS  - 6
PB  - EDP Sciences
CY  - Les Ulis
ER  -