We present the results of the search for candidate Planetary Nebulae interacting with the interstellar medium (PN–ISM) in the framework of the INT Photometric Hα Survey (IPHAS) and located in the right ascension range 18–20 h. The detection capability of this new Northern survey, in terms of depth and imaging resolution, has allowed us to overcome the detection problem generally associated to the low surface brightness inherent to PNe-ISM. We discuss the detection of 21 IPHAS PN–ISM candidates. Thus, different stages of interaction were observed, implying various morphologies i.e. from the unaffected to totally disrupted shapes. The majority of the sources belong to the so-called WZO2 stage which main characteristic is a brightening of the nebula's shell in the direction of motion. The new findings are encouraging as they would be a first step into the reduction of the scarcity of observational data and they would provide new insights into the physical processes occurring in the rather evolved PNe.

The parameters of the HI Parkes All-Sky Surveys (HIPASS), as proposed by the Multibeam Survey Working Group, are described, as are the advantages and disadvantages of various multibeam observing techniques, including telescope scanning. The best techniques, in terms of minimising the variance in image sensitivity, are calculated. Some of the observing techniques may be applicable to other multibeam surveys.

The low-frequency polarisation properties of radio sources are poorly studied, particularly in statistical samples. However, the new generation of low-frequency telescopes, such as the Murchison Widefield Array (the precursor for the low-frequency component of the Square Kilometre Array) offers an opportunity to probe the physics of radio sources at very low radio frequencies. In this paper, we present a catalogue of linearly polarised sources detected at 216 MHz, using data from the Galactic and Extragalactic All-sky Murchison Widefield Array survey. Our catalogue covers the Declination range –17° to –37° and 24 h in Right Ascension, at a resolution of around 3 arcminutes. We detect 81 sources (including both a known pulsar and a new pulsar candidate) with linearly polarised flux densities in excess of 18 mJy across a survey area of approximately 6 400 deg2, corresponding to a surface density of 1 source per 79 deg2. The level of Faraday rotation measured for our sources is broadly consistent with those recovered at higher frequencies, with typically more than an order of magnitude improvement in the uncertainty compared to higher-frequency measurements. However, our catalogue is likely incomplete at low Faraday rotation measures, due to our practice of excluding sources in the region where instrumental leakage appears. The majority of sources exhibit significant depolarisation compared to higher frequencies; however, a small sub-sample repolarise at 216 MHz. We also discuss the polarisation properties of four nearby, large-angular-scale radio galaxies, with a particular focus on the giant radio galaxy ESO 422–G028, in order to explain the striking differences in polarised morphology between 216 MHz and 1.4 GHz.

An all-sky comprehensive catalogue of calculated radio and X-ray associations to optical objects is presented. Included are X-ray sources from XMM-Newton, Chandra and ROSAT catalogues, radio sources from NVSS, FIRST and SUMSS catalogues, and optical data, identifications and redshifts from the APM, USNO-A, SDSS-DR7 and the extant literature. This ‘Atlas of Radio/X-ray Associations’ inherits many techniques from the predecessor Quasars.org (2004) catalogue, but object selection is changed and processing tweaked. Optical objects presented are those which are calculated with ≥40% confidence to be associated with radio/X-ray detections, totalling 602 570 objects in all, including 23 681 double radio lobe detections. For each of these optical objects I display the calculated percentage probabilities of its being a QSO, galaxy, star, or erroneous radio/X-ray association, plus any identification from the literature. The catalogue includes 105 568 uninvestigated objects listed as 40% to >99% likely to be a QSO. The catalogue is available at http://quasars.org/arxa.htm.

In this paper we present a new method for obtaining the optical wavelength-dependent reddening function of planetary nebulae (PN), using the nebular and stellar continuum. The data used was a spectrum of NGC 6302 obtained using the Double Beam Spectrograph on the 2.3 m telescope at Siding Springs Observatory over three nights. This resulted in a spectrum covering a wavelength range 3300–8600 Å with a large dynamical range and a mean signal to noise of >102 Å−1 in the nebular continuum. With such a high S/N the continuum can be accurately compared with a theoretical model of nebular plus stellar continuum. The nebular electron temperature and density used in the model are determined using ratios of prominent emission lines. The reddening function can then be obtained from the ratio of the theoretical and the observed continuum. In the case of NGC 6302, it is known that much of the reddening arises from dust within or around the nebula, so that any differences between the measured reddening law and the 'standard' interstellar reddening law will reflect differences in the nebular grain size distribution or composition. We find that for NGC 6302, the visible to IR extinction law is indistinguishable from 'standard' interstellar reddening, but that the UV extinction curve is much steeper than normal, suggesting that more small dust grains had been ejected into the nebula by the PN central star. We have detected the continuum from the central star and determined its Zanstra temperature to be of order 150,000 K. Finally, using the extinction law that we have determined, we present a complete dereddened line list of nearly 600 emission lines, and report on the detection of the He(2–10) and He(2–8) Raman features at λ4331 Å and λ4852 Å, and the detection of Raman scattered O VI features at λ6830 Å and λ7087 Å. We believe this to be the first detection of this process in a PN.

Preliminary specifications for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) call for 25% of the total collecting area of the dish array to be located at distances greater than 180 km from the core, with a maximum baseline of at least 3000 km. The array will provide angular resolution θ ≲ 40–2 mas at 0.5–10 GHz with image sensitivity reaching ≲50 nJy beam−1 in an 8-hour integration with 500-MHz bandwidth. Given these specifications, the high-angular-resolution component of the SKA will be capable of detecting brightness temperatures ≲200K with milliarcsecond-scale angular resolution. The aim of this article is to bring together in one place a discussion of the broad range of new and important high-angular-resolution science that will be enabled by the SKA, and in doing so, address the merits of long baselines as part of the SKA. We highlight the fact that high angular resolution requiring baselines greater than 1000 km provides a rich science case with projects from many areas of astrophysics, including important contributions to key SKA science.

Towards the end of February 1968 the astronomical world was staggered by a paper from the Milliard Radio Observatory at Cambridge announcing the discovery of an astonishing periodic phenomenon. The characteristics of the pulsating radio source—or pulsar as it came to be called—involved a fantastic multiplicity of time-scales. The duration of the individual events was measured in tens of milliseconds, the repetition rate was of the order of a second, the pulse amplitude showed drastic variations over times of seconds, minutes, hours and even months and, lastly, the stability of the basic periodicity indicated a time-scale of millions of years. A series of pulses from CP 1919, the first pulsar, is shown in Figure 1, and one notices here both the regularity of the pulses and the variation in their amplitude with time. When the individual pulses were observed on an expanded time-scale it was found that the pulses were made up of sub-pulses (Figure 2) and that there was considerable structure even down to a millisecond time-scale.

We have developed an easy-to-use, mouse-driven program for the interactive fitting of interstellar absorption lines in high-resolution astronomical spectra. The program, Xvoigt, gives values for the column density and velocity dispersion of the absorbing clouds. It runs under the popular X Window system available on most workstations, and offers significant enhancements over existing profile-fitting software. Xvoigt can be an important adjunct to automatic programs for fitting absorption lines in low to moderate signal-to-noise QSO or other spectra, and is ideal for demonstrating the details and difficulties of absorption line analysis.

Atmospheric modelling of the components of the visually close binary systems Hip70973 and Hip72479 was used to estimate the individual physical parameters of their components. The model atmospheres were constructed using a grid of Kurucz solar metalicity blanketed models and used to compute a synthetic spectral energy distribution for each component separately, and hence for the combined system. The total observational spectral energy distributions of the systems were used as a reference for comparison with the synthetic ones. We used the feedback modified parameters and iteration method to obtain the best fit between synthetic and observational spectral energy distributions. The physical parameters of the components of the system Hip70973 were derived as = 5700 ± 75 K, = 5400 ± 75 K, log ga = 4.50 ± 0.05, log gb = 4.50 ± 0.05, Ra = 0.98 ± 0.07 R⊙, Rb = 0.89 ± 0.07 R⊙, and π = 26.25 ± 1.95 mas, with G4 and G9 spectral types, and those of the system Hip72479 as = 5400 ± 50 K, = 5180 ± 50 K, log ga = 4.50 ± 0.05, log gb = 4.60 ± 0.05, Ra = 0.89 ± 0.07 R⊙, Rb = 0.80 ± 0.07 R⊙, and π = 23.59 ± 1.00 mas, with G9 and K1 spectral types.

The properties of the M dwarfs have been investigated by spectroscopic and photometric observations of over 150 red, high proper motion stars. Most of these stars have red magnitudes fainter than 12 magnitude.

We present an optical intraday variability (IDV) study of S5 0716+714 carried out over 52 nights. The source showed detectable variations (>0.05 mag) in 80% of the nights. Typical variation rates of 0.02 mag/hour have been found to last on average 4 hours, with the average rising rate faster than the decreasing one. A maximum rising rate of 0.16 mag/hour has been observed. If the luminosity variation is due to jittering in the jet direction, a comoving dθ/dt rate of ∼100 arcsec/hour is required, assuming for the jet θ ∼ 7° and Γ ∼ 14.

Current observations and theories of solar bursts of types I, II and III suggest that the observed radiation may be emitted at a frequency close to the (fundamental) plasma frequency or its second harmonic. Refraction in a spherically symmetric corona would prevent radiation at the plasma frequency from reaching the observer except when the source is near the centre of the solar disk. However, it is found that fundamental frequency bursts are observed from anywhere on the disk. Recent analyses by Steinberg et al. and Riddle, in which the scattering of the radiation by coronal inhomogeneities was considered (in addition to refraction in an otherwise spherically symmetric corona), show that the radiation can escape from the plasma level and be observed for sources positioned almost anywhere on the disk. In addition, these authors and Fokker showed that a point source of radiation at the plasma frequency, or its harmonic, would be observed as an extended source with dimensions comparable with those observed. One implication was that the true source size is much smaller than the observed size.

Using the 22-m ‘Mopra’ antenna (near Coonabarabran, NSW) of the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF), we have observed emission from the 115-GHz J = 1−0 transition of CO towards the centre of each of the 1101 clouds listed in the Catalogue of Southern Dark Clouds (SDC) of Hartley et al. (1986). The velocity range covered was −96 to +70 km s−1, with a velocity resolution of 0· 120 km s−1. CO was detected at 1049 of the positions, with 367 spectra showing emission at more than one radial velocity. Here we present the most comprehensive general survey of the SDC catalogue, with the intensity, velocity and half-width of the CO detection and a code describing the profile shape. The presence of blue- or red-shifted wings in many observations can provide a starting point in searches for star-forming regions.

Recent large-scale surveys of galactic bulge stars allowed to build a detailed map of the bulge kinematics. The bulge exhibits cylindrical rotation consistent with a disky origin which evolved through bar-driven secular evolution. However, correlations between metallicity and kinematics complicate this picture. In particular a metal-poor component with distinct kinematic signatures has been detected. Its origin, density profile and link with the other Milky Way stellar populations are currently still poorly constrained.

In the present article, we investigate the behavior of orbits in a time-independent axially symmetric galactic-type potential. This dynamical model can be considered to describe the motion in the central parts of a galaxy, for values of energies larger than the energy of escape. We use the classical surface-of-section method in order to visualize and interpret the structure of the phase space of the dynamical system. Moreover, the Lyapunov characteristic exponent is used in order to make an estimation of the degree of chaoticity of the orbits in our galactic model. Our numerical calculations suggest that in this galactic-type potential there are two kinds of orbits: (i) escaping orbits and (ii) trapped orbits, which do not escape at all. Furthermore, a large number of orbits of the dynamical system display chaotic motion. Among the chaotic orbits, there are orbits that escape quickly and also orbits that remain trapped for vast time intervals. When the value of a test particle's energy slightly exceeds the energy of escape, the number of trapped regular orbits increases as the value of the angular momentum increases. Therefore, the extent of the chaotic regions observed in the phase plane decreases as the energy value increases. Moreover, we calculate the average value of the escape period of chaotic orbits and try to correlate it with the value of the energy and also with the maximum value of the z component of the orbits. In addition, we find that the value of the Lyapunov characteristic exponent corresponding to each chaotic region for different values of energy increases exponentially as the energy increases. Some theoretical arguments are presented in order to support the numerically obtained outcomes.

We present the first results from a study of the radio continuum properties of galaxies in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, (2dFGRS) based on thirty 2dF fields covering a total area of about 100 deg2. About 1·5% of galaxies with bJ < 19·4 mag. are detected as radio continuum sources in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). Of these, roughly 40% are star-forming galaxies and 60% are active galaxies (mostly low-power radio galaxies and a few Seyferts). The combination of 2dFGRS and NVSS will eventually yield a homogeneous set of around 4000 radio-galaxy spectra, which will be a powerful tool for studying the distribution and evolution of both AGN and starburst galaxies out to z ∼ 0·3.

The interaction between the Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds has resulted in several high-velocity complexes which are connected to the Clouds. The complexes are known as the Magellanic Bridge, an HI connection between the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the Magellanic Stream, a 10° × 100° HI filament which trails the Clouds, and the Leading Arm, a diffuse HI filament which leads the Clouds. The mechanism responsible for these features formation remains under some debate, with the lack of detailed HI observations being one of the limiting factors in resolving the issue. Here I present several large mosaics of HI Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS) data which show the full extent of the three Magellanic complexes at almost twice the resolution of previous observations. These interactive features are connected, but unique in their spatial and velocity distribution. The differences may shed light on their origin and present environment. Dense clumps of HI along the sightline to the Sculptor Group, which may or may not be associated with the Magellanic complexes, are also discussed.

With the ATNF Mopra telescope we are performing a survey in the 12CO(1–0) line to map the molecular gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud. For some regions we also obtained interferometric maps of the high density gas tracers HCO+ and HCN with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Here we discuss the properties of the elongated molecular complex that stretches about 2 kpc southward from 30 Doradus. Our data suggest that the complex, which we refer to as the ‘molecular ridge’, is not a coherent feature but consists of many smaller clumps that share the same formation history. Likely triggers of molecular-cloud formation are shocks and shearing forces that are present in the surrounding south-eastern Hi overdensity region, a region influenced by strong ram pressure and tidal forces. The molecular ridge is at the western edge of the the overdensity region where a bifurcated velocity structure transitions into a single disk velocity component. We find that the 12CO(1–0) and Hi emission peaks in the molecular ridge are typically near each other but never coincide. A likely explanation is the conversion of warmer, low-opacity Hi to colder, high-opacity Hi from which H2 subsequently forms. On smaller scales we find that very dense molecular gas, as traced by interferometric HCO+ and HCN maps, is associated with star formation along shocked filaments and with rims of expanding shell-like structures, both created by feedback from massive stars.

The SkyMapper 1.3 m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory has now begun regular operations. Alongside the Southern Sky Survey, a comprehensive digital survey of the entire southern sky, SkyMapper will carry out a search for supernovae and other transients. The search strategy, covering a total footprint area of ~2 000 deg2 with a cadence of ⩽5 d, is optimised for discovery and follow-up of low-redshift type Ia supernovae to constrain cosmic expansion and peculiar velocities. We describe the search operations and infrastructure, including a parallelised software pipeline to discover variable objects in difference imaging; simulations of the performance of the survey over its lifetime; public access to discovered transients; and some first results from the Science Verification data.

The low-frequency linearly polarised radio source population is largely unexplored. However, a renaissance in low-frequency polarimetry has been enabled by pathfinder and precursor instruments for the Square Kilometre Array. In this second paper from the POlarised GaLactic and Extragalactic All-Sky MWA Survey-the POlarised GLEAM Survey, or POGS-we present the results from our all-sky MWA Phase I Faraday Rotation Measure survey. Our survey covers nearly the entire Southern sky in the Declination range $-82^\circ$ to $+30^\circ$ at a resolution between around three and seven arcminutes (depending on Declination) using data in the frequency range 169−231 MHz. We have performed two targeted searches: the first covering 25 489 square degrees of sky, searching for extragalactic polarised sources; the second covering the entire sky South of Declination $+30^\circ$, searching for known pulsars. We detect a total of 517 sources with 200 MHz linearly polarised flux densities between 9.9 mJy and 1.7 Jy, of which 33 are known radio pulsars. All sources in our catalogues have Faraday rotation measures in the range $-328.07$ to $+279.62$ rad m−2. The Faraday rotation measures are broadly consistent with results from higher-frequency surveys, but with typically more than an order of magnitude improvement in the precision, highlighting the power of low-frequency polarisation surveys to accurately study Galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields. We discuss the properties of our extragalactic and known-pulsar source population, how the sky distribution relates to Galactic features, and identify a handful of new pulsar candidates among our nominally extragalactic source population.