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If the optical system of a telescope is perturbed from rotational symmetry, the Zernike wavefront aberration coefficients describing that system can be expressed as a function of position in the focal plane using spin-weighted Zernike polynomials. Methodologies are presented to derive these polynomials to arbitrary order. This methodology is applied to aberration patterns produced by a misaligned Ritchey-Chrétien telescope and to distortion patterns at the focal plane of the DESI optical corrector, where it is shown to provide a more efficient description of distortion than conventional expansions.

If the optical system of a telescope is perturbed from rotational symmetry, the Zernike wavefront aberration coefficients describing that system can be expressed as a function of position in the focal plane using spin-weighted Zernike polynomials. Methodologies are presented to derive these polynomials to arbitrary order. This methodology is applied to aberration patterns produced by a misaligned Ritchey–Chrétien telescope and to distortion patterns at the focal plane of the DESI optical corrector, where it is shown to provide a more efficient description of distortion than conventional expansions.

Gravitational lensing is a powerful tool for the study of the distribution of dark matter in the Universe. The cold-dark-matter model of the formation of large-scale structures (that is, clusters of galaxies and even larger assemblies) predicts 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 the existence of quasars gravitationally lensed by concentrations of dark matter 7 so massive that the quasar images would be split by over 7 arcsec. Numerous searches 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 for large-separation lensed quasars have, however, been unsuccessful. All of the roughly 70 lensed quasars known 12 , including the first lensed quasar discovered 13 , have smaller separations that can be explained in terms of galaxy-scale concentrations of baryonic matter. Although gravitationally lensed galaxies 14 with large separations are known, quasars are more useful cosmological probes because of the simplicity of the resulting lens systems. Here we report the discovery of a lensed quasar, SDSS J1004 + 4112, which has a maximum separation between the components of 14.62 arcsec. Such a large separation means that the lensing object must be dominated by dark matter. Our results are fully consistent with theoretical expectations 3 , 4 , 5 based on the cold-dark-matter model.

New redshifts have been obtained for H ii regions along the major axis. These data, combined with a reanalysis of previously published work, show that optical and 21-cm determinations of the rotation curve are in excellent agreement.

If the optical system of a telescope is perturbed from rotational symmetry, the Zernike wavefront aberration coefficients describing that system can be expressed as a function of position in the focal plane using spin-weighted Zernike polynomials. Methodologies are presented to derive these polynomials to arbitrary order. This methodology is applied to aberration patterns produced by a misaligned Ritchey Chretian telescope and to distortion patterns at the focal plane of the DESI optical corrector, where it is shown to provide a more efficient description of distortion than conventional expansions.

Astronomical images are often plagued by unwanted artifacts that arise from a number of sources including imperfect optics, faulty image sensors, cosmic ray hits, and even airplanes and artificial satellites. Spurious reflections (known as \"ghosts\") and the scattering of light off the surfaces of a camera and/or telescope are particularly difficult to avoid. Detecting ghosts and scattered light efficiently in large cosmological surveys that will acquire petabytes of data can be a daunting task. In this paper, we use data from the Dark Energy Survey to develop, train, and validate a machine learning model to detect ghosts and scattered light using convolutional neural networks. The model architecture and training procedure is discussed in detail, and the performance on the training and validation set is presented. Testing is performed on data and results are compared with those from a ray-tracing algorithm. As a proof of principle, we have shown that our method is promising for the Rubin Observatory and beyond.

The GRavitational lEnsing Accuracy Testing 3 (GREAT3) challenge is the third in a series of image analysis challenges, with a goal of testing and facilitating the development of methods for analyzing astronomical images that will be used to measure weak gravitational lensing. This measurement requires extremely precise estimation of very small galaxy shape distortions, in the presence of far larger intrinsic galaxy shapes and distortions due to the blurring kernel caused by the atmosphere, telescope optics, and instrumental effects. The GREAT3 challenge is posed to the astronomy, machine learning, and statistics communities, and includes tests of three specific effects that are of immediate relevance to upcoming weak lensing surveys, two of which have never been tested in a community challenge before. These effects include realistically complex galaxy models based on high-resolution imaging from space; spatially varying, physically-motivated blurring kernel; and combination of multiple different exposures. To facilitate entry by people new to the field, and for use as a diagnostic tool, the simulation software for the challenge is publicly available, though the exact parameters used for the challenge are blinded. Sample scripts to analyze the challenge data using existing methods will also be provided. See http://great3challenge.info and http://great3.projects.phys.ucl.ac.uk/leaderboard/ for more information.

Photoelectric photometry is presented for over 400 stars using the uvgr system of Thuan and Gunn. Stars were selected to cover a wide range of spectral type, luminosity class, and metallicity. A mean main sequence is derived along with reddening curves and approximate transformations to the UBVR system. The calibration of the standard-star sequence is significantly improved.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is currently measuring the spectra of 40\\,million galaxies and quasars, the largest such survey ever made to probe the nature of cosmological dark energy. The 4-meter Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory has been adapted for DESI, including the construction of a 3.2-degree diameter prime focus corrector that focuses astronomical light onto a 0.8-meter diameter focal surface with excellent image quality over the DESI bandpass of 360-980nm. The wide-field corrector includes six lenses, as large as 1.1-meters in diameter and as heavy as 237\\,kilograms, including two counter-rotating wedged lenses that correct for atmospheric dispersion over Zenith angles from 0 to 60 degrees. The lenses, cells, and barrel assembly all meet precise alignment tolerances on the order of tens of microns. The barrel alignment is maintained throughout a range of observing angles and temperature excursions in the Mayall dome by use of a hexapod, which is itself supported by a new cage, ring, and truss structure. In this paper we describe the design, fabrication, and performance of the new corrector and associated structure, focusing on how they meet DESI requirements. In particular we describe the prescription and specifications of the lenses, design choices and error budgeting of the barrel assembly, stray light mitigations, and integration and test at the Mayall telescope. We conclude with some validation highlights that demonstrate the successful corrector on-sky performance, and list some lessons learned during the multi-year fabrication phase.

In this white paper, we present an experimental road map for spectroscopic experiments beyond DESI. DESI will be a transformative cosmological survey in the 2020s, mapping 40 million galaxies and quasars and capturing a significant fraction of the available linear modes up to z=1.2. DESI-II will pilot observations of galaxies both at much higher densities and extending to higher redshifts. A Stage-5 experiment would build out those high-density and high-redshift observations, mapping hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies in three dimensions, to address the problems of inflation, dark energy, light relativistic species, and dark matter. These spectroscopic data will also complement the next generation of weak lensing, line intensity mapping and CMB experiments and allow them to reach their full potential.