Last Successful Campaigns of the OCCASO Project
The Open Clusters Chemical Abundances from Spanish Observatories project (OCCASO, 2013-2015) has just finished successfully the second run of observations at the Mercator Telescope using the HERMES Fibre-fed echelle spectrograph in high resolution mode (R∼85000). Two more runs were observed with the NOT telescope and the high-resolution FIbre-fed Echelle Spectrograph (FIES) last April and September. Up to now we have been able to measure 45 stars in 9 clusters. Our project in collaboration with the IAC, OABo (Italy) and OCA (France) aims to determine homogeneous abundances for more...
read moreThe Perseus spiral arm in the Anticenter direction
The thesis developed by Maria Monguió was just presented this November, 11/2013 The main purpose of her work is to map the radial variation of the stellar density for the young stellar population in the Galactic anticenter direction in order to understand the structure and location of the Perseus spiral arm. A Strömgren photometric survey covering 16 square degrees in the anticenter direction was carried out using the Wide Field Camera at the Isaac Newton Telescope. As a result, a main catalog of 35974 stars with all Strömgren indexes has been obtained, together with a extended one...
read moreThe Graphical user interface of the Gaia Object Generator (GOG)
The Gaia Object Generator (GOG) is a software developed by the CU2 team of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC), mostly at the University of Barcelona. The main goal of GOG is simulate the Gaia ‘products’. It provides: * `True data’ and data as observed by Gaia (affected by errors). * Epoch (transit) and combined (end-of-mission) data. It is based on a model of the Gaia instruments and error models provided by other CUs of DPAC (the models will be updated during mission operations). GOG can generate a model catalogue from the GUMS universe model...
read moreSoyuz-Fregat Model Rockets
As you may know the Gaia satellite will be launched by a Soyuz-Fregat rocket. Therefore it was somehow unavoidable for me to build a Soyuz-Fregat model. I am building scale model rocket for several years already – and I am flying them. My job as astrophysicist is mainly computer-based work. Thus, building something with your own hands is a nice alternative approach for your spare time. The Russian Soyuz rocket has an unusual form with its four conical-shaped booster stages. The more usual form is to have cylindrical stages as most of the space launchers. But it turned out that the...
read moreEclipse Calculator, a new mobile app
Which future eclipses will be visible from my location? What will they be like? How long will they last? These are some of the questions answered by the new application Eclipse Calculator, designed by University of Barcelona researcher Eduard Masana for Android mobiles. Eclipse Calculator is an appealing tool for those who love astronomy; it is easy to use and provides information about all solar and lunar eclipses or planetary transits from 1900 to 2100. The application, public and free, can be downloaded from the Google Play website . It is currently available in Catalan,...
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