• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.90.2-90.2
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• 2010

Lunar sodium observations are being prepared by a group of WCU scientists at the Kyung-Hee Observatory. We have been working on 3-D Monte Carlo simulations of the lunar sodium exosphere since 2009, and we need to obtain additional sodium images in order to constrain our models. Using a newly-designed simple coronagraph which is optimized for lunar observations, we plan to make direct sodium image observations. We present the structure of the planned coronagraph, optical-image observation plans, and spectroscopic observation plans of the lunar tail. We will also present updated results from the 3-D Monte Carlo simulations.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.50.3-51
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• 2016

Recent analysis on the thermophysical property of asteroids revealed that their thermal inertia decrease with their sizes at least for main belt asteroids. However, little is known about that of comet-like bodies. In this work we utilized a simple thermophysical model (TPM) to calculate the thermal inertia of a bare nucleus of the comet P/2006 HR30 (Siding Spring) and an asteroid in comet-like orbit 107P/(4015) Wilson-Harrington from AKARI observation data. From five spectroscopic observations of the targets, we find out that the former has thermal inertia of around $2,000J\;m^{-2}K^{-1}s^{-1/2}$ (using pV = 0.055) and the latter has about $1,000-2000J\;m^{-2}K^{-1}s^{-1/2}$ (using pV = 0.055 and 0.043, respectively). These are high enough for both of them to deposit water ice at few centimeters depth, and hence it is difficult to say they are cometary based on the results of this study. These values, however, dependent significantly on the errors of observation and the uncertainties of the input parameters, as well as other conditions which are ignored in simple TPM approach, such as shape model and surface roughness. Further detailed analyses on these cometary bodies will shed light on our understanding of the detailed surfacial characteristics of them.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.45.1-45.1
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• 2015

Galaxy clusters have provided important information to understand the evolution of the universe, since the number density and mass of clusters are tightly related to the cosmological parameters. In addition, galaxy clusters are an excellent laboratory to investigate the galaxy evolution in dense environments. However, finding galaxy clusters at high redshift ($z{\geq}1$) still remains as a main subject in astronomy due to their rareness and difficulty in identifying such objects from optical imaging data alone. Here, we report a spectroscopic follow-up observation of distant galaxy cluster candidates identified by a deep optical-NIR dataset of Infrared Medium-deep Survey. Through the galaxy spectra taken with the IMACS instrument on the Magellan telescope, we confirm at least 3 massive clusters at z~0.92. Interestingly, the maximum spatial separation between these clusters is ~8Mpc, which implies that this system is a new supercluster in the distant universe. We also discuss properties of galaxies in these clusters based on multi-wavelength photometric data.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.54-54
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• 2013

We performed spectroscopic and photometric monitoring observations of a QSO, PG0934+013 for a reverberation-mapping analysis, using the 9-m Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) for spectroscopy and the 2-m Faulkes Telescope North and the South for photometry. The monitoring campaign was carried out for 5 month between December 2012 to April 2013, providing 20 spectroscopic epochs and ~40 photometric epochs. Based on the obtained spectra, which typically have a signal-to-noise ratio to 30-60, we performed multicomponent decomposition using various components, i.e., power-law continuum, FeII emission complex, and broad and narrow emission lines, to properly measure the Hbeta line flux. After a flux normalization using [O III] 5007 line luminosity, we obtained a rms spectrum from all epochs, which shows clear variability of Hbeta line. We find that Hbeta line flux decreases by ~20% during the monitoring period while the continuum flux obtained from the aperture photometry based on the imaging data, shows similar variability. The current Hbeta light curve shows monotonic decrease and a reliable cross correlation analysis between Hbeta and continuum light is difficult. Nevertheless, we obtained a preliminary lag measurements as ~24 light days.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.101-108
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• 2001

Low resolution spectroscopic observations of leo-stationary satellites over the Korean peninsula have been carried out at the KyungHee Optical Satellite Observing Facility (KOSOF) with a 40cm telescope. We have observed 9 telecommunication satellites and 1 weather satellite of 6 countries. The obtained spectral data showed that satellites could be classified and grouped with similar basic spectral feature. We divided the 10 satellites into 4 groups based on spectral slop and reflectance. It is suggested that the material types of the satellites can be determined through spectral comparisons with the ground laboratory data. We will continuously observe additional geo-stationary satellites for the accurate classification of spectral features.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.165-175
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• 2015

We investigate physical properties of the nearby (∼ 7.5 pc) astrometric binary μ Cas in the context of standard evolutionary theory. Based on the spectroscopically determined relative abundances ([α/Fe] ≳ +0.4 dex, [Fe/H] ∼ −0.7 dex), all physical inputs such as opacities and equation of state are consistently generated. By combining recent spectroscopic analyses with the astrometric observations from the HIPPARCOS parallaxes and the CHARA array, the evolutionary model grids have been constructed. Through the statistical evaluation of the χ²-minimization among alternative models, we find a reliable evolutionary solution (M_A, M_B, t_age) = (0.74 M_⊙, 0.19 M_⊙, 11 Gyr) which excellently satisfies observational constraints. In particular, we find that the helium abundance of μ Cas is comparable with the primordial helium contents (Y_p ∼ 0.245). On the basis of the well-defined stellar parameters of the primary star, the internal structure and the p-mode frequencies have been estimated. From our seismic computation, μ Cas is expected to have a first order spacing ∆ν ∼ 169 μHz. The ultimate goal of this study is to describe physical processes inside a low-mass star through a complete modelling from the spectroscopic observation to the evolutionary computation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.45.3-46
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• 2018

Although mass accretion from the disk to the central protostar is a key process of low mass star formation, the accretion mechanism is still poorly understood. To investigate "episodic accretion", which has been suggested as an accretion mechanism in low mass star formation, we have carried out near-infrared spectroscopic observations of three very low-luminosity objects (VeLLOs) and one background source, using InfraRed Camera onboard the AKARI space telescope. The ice absorption features of $H_2O$, $CO_2$, and CO were detected around the wavelengths of 3.0, 4.26, and $4.67{\mu}m$, respectively. In addition, we revealed the XCN ice feature, which is attributed to high energy UV photons produced by the episodic burst accretion. The comparisons of the ice abundances of our targets with those of other YSOs observed previously with AKARI IRC imply that the three VeLLOs had experienced burst accretions although they are now in a very quiescent phase.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.7-18
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• 2018

We have investigated the intensities and full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the high dispersion spectroscopic N III emission lines of AG Peg, observed with the Hamilton Echelle Spectrograph (HES) in three different epochs at Mt. Hamilton's Lick Observatory. The earlier theoretical Bowen line study assumed the continuum fluorescence effect, presenting a large discrepancy with the present data. Hence, we analyzed the observed N III lines assuming line fluorescence as the only suitable source: (1) The O III and N III resonance line profiles near ${\lambda}$ 374 were decomposed, using the Gaussian function, and the contributions from various O III line components were determined. (2) Based on the theoretical resonant N III intensities, the expected N III Bowen intensities were obtained to fit the observed values. Our study shows that the incoming line photon number ratio must be considered to balance at each N III Bowen line level in the ultraviolet radiation according to the observed lines in the optical zone. We also found that the average FWHM of the N III Bowen lines was about $5km{\cdot}s^{-1}$ greater than that of the O III Bowen lines, perhaps due to the inherently different kinematic characteristics of their emission zones.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.34.2-34.2
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• 2020

Reverberation mapping is one of the best ways to investigate the physical mechanism of broad-line regions around central supermassive black holes of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). It is usually used to estimate the masses of supermassive black holes. Although spectroscopic reverberation mapping has used to study dozens of AGN, spectroscopic monitoring campaign of large sample is expansive. Here, we present results of photometric reverberation mapping with medium-band photometry. We monitored five nearby AGN which were already studied with H-alpha emission line. Observation has been performed for ~3 months with ~3 days cadence using three medium-band filters installed in LSGT (Lee Sang Gak Telescope; 0.43m). We found 0.01-0.08 magnitude variations from differential photometry. Also time-lags between continuum light-curves and H-alpha emission line light-curves are found using JAVELIN software. The result shows that our study and previous studies are consistent within uncertainty range. In the near future, medium-band photometric reverberation mapping seems useful to study large AGN samples. We will present preliminary result of following study that report new time lag measurement of six AGNs in the similar way.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.263-274
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• 2004

High resolution spectroscopic observations of BX And using the BOBS (Bohyunsan Optical Echelle Spectrograph) of Bohyunsan Optical Astronomical Observatory (BOAO) were performod during 26-27, Feb. 2003. From the observations, we obtained 38 line spectra of BX And which cover all phases except the phase interval between $0.^p1$ and $0.^p3$. Both methods of the CCF (Cross-Correlation Function) and BF (Broadening Function) were used to get the radial velocities of primary and secondary components. Both velocities of the primary and secondary stars were calculated with the BF method while only primary velocities were determined with the CCF. Using new radial velocity curves, the maximum radial velocities of the primary and secondary stars were obtained as $K_1=90.1km/s\;and\;K_2=196.6km/s$, respectively. New absolute dimension of BX And was deduced with the combination of our spectroscopic solution with the photometric one of Bell et al. (1990).