Publications (91)
Prospect for UV observations from the Moon
Margarita Safonova, Joice Mathew, Rekhesh Mohan +6
Space astronomy in the last 40 years has largely been done from spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) for which the technology is proven and delivery mechanisms are readily available…
OVI Asymmetry and an Accelerated Outflow in an Obscured Seyfert: FUSE and HST STIS Spectroscopy of Markarian533
Prajval Shastri, John Hutchings, Jayant Murthy +2
We present far-ultraviolet spectra of the Seyfert2 galaxy Mrk533 obtained with FUSE. These spectra show narrow asymmetrical OVI 1032,1038 emission lines with stronger wings shortwa…
FUV Scattering by Dust in Orion
P. Shalima, N. V. Sujatha, Jayant Murthy +2
We have modelled diffuse far-ultraviolet spectrum observed by FUSE near M42 as scattering of starlight from the Trapezium stars by dust in front of the nebula. The dust grains are…
Photometric Identification of Objects from Galaxy Evolution Explorer Survey and Sloan Digital Sky Survey
K. Preethi, S. B. Gudennavar, S. G. Bubbly +2
We have used GALEX and SDSS observations to extract 7 band photometric magnitudes for over 80,000 objects in the vicinity of the North Galactic Pole. Although these had been identi…
Ultraviolet Extinction Sky Survey (UVESS): A mission concept for probing the interstellar medium in the Milky Way and Local Group galaxies
Joice Mathew, Andrew Battisti, Israel Vaughn +3
The 2175 Ã bump shows considerable variations in its strength, width, and central wavelength when observed along different sightlines in the Milky Way and other galaxies. These var…
Towards a BRICS Optical Transient Network (BRICS-OTN)
David A. H. Buckley, Vanessa A. McBride, Ulisses Barres de Almeida +8
This paper is based on a proposal submitted for a BRICS astronomy flagship program, which was presented at the 2019 meeting of the BRICS Astronomy Working Group, held in Rio de Jan…
Design and modeling of a tunable spatial heterodyne spectrometer for emission line studies
Nirmal Kaipachery, Sridharan Rengaswamy, Sripadmanaban Sriram +6
Spatial Heterodyne Spectroscopy (SHS) is a relatively novel interferometric technique similar to the Fourier transform spectroscopy with heritage from the Michelson Interferometer.…
MSX Observations of Diffuse UV Emission in Orion
Jayant Murthy, R. C. Henry, L. J. Paxton +1
We have observed intense diffuse radiation in the UV (1400 A - 2600 A) from three fields around M42 in Orion. Intensities of 20000 photons cm-2 s-1 sr-1 A-1 were observed to the ea…
Large Scale Extinction Maps with UVIT
S. Ravichandran, Preethi Krishnamoorthy, Margarita Safonova +1
The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) is scheduled to be launched as a part of the ASTROSAT satellite. As part of the mission planning for the instrument we have studied the eff…
Observations of High Galactic Latitude Line and Continuum Emission (912 - 1600 Ã ) with New Horizons
Jayant Murthy, James Overduin, Seth Redfield +5
We present observations of the cosmic ultraviolet background (CUVB) from 912 - 1600 A using the Stem aperture of the Alice spectrograph on the New Horizons spacecraft at 56 AU from…
UVIT Observations of UV-Bright Stars in four Galactic Globular Clusters
Ranjan Kumar, Ananta C. Pradhan, M. Parthasarathy +3
We have performed photometric analysis of four Galactic globular clusters (GGCs): NGC 4147, NGC 4590, NGC 5053 and NGC 7492 using far-UV and near-UV filters of the Ultraviolet Imag…
Study of Bubble Nebula using IUE high resolution Spectra
M. Y. Anand, B. A. I Kagali, Jayant Murthy
In this paper we have analyzed IUE high resolution spectra of the central star (BD+602522) of the Bubble nebula. We discuss velocities of the different regions along the line of si…
Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) crossing the Jupiter orbit
Margarita Safonova, Noah Brosch, Shai Kaspi +4
We report results of intensive time-resolved imaging photometry and synoptic deep imaging of the comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) performed in February 2013. The data were obtained at the Wi…
A Novel Exoplanetary Habitability Score via Particle Swarm Optimization of CES Production Functions
Abhijit Theophilus, Snehanshu Saha, Suryoday Basak +1
The search for life has two goals essentially: looking for planets with Earth-like conditions (Earth similarity) and looking for the possibility of life in some form (habitability)…
Verification of Photometric Parallaxes with Gaia DR2 Data
Oleg Malkov, Sergey Karpov, Dana Kovaleva +10
Results of comparison of Gaia DR2 parallaxes with data derived from a combined analysis of 2MASS (Two Micron All-Sky Survey), SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey), GALEX (Galaxy Evoluti…
Observations of Far-Ultraviolet Diffuse Emission from the Small Magellanic Cloud
Ananta C. Pradhan, Jayant Murthy, Amit Pathak
We report the first observations of far-ultraviolet (FUV: 1000 -- 1150 Ã ) diffuse radiation from the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) using observations from the {\em Far Ultraviolet…
Estimation of C II and C II* column densities along Galactic sight-lines
Veena S. Parvathi, Ulysses J. Sofia, Jayant Murthy +1
We present interstellar C II (1334.5323 Ã ) and C II* (1335.7077 Ã ) column density measurements along 14 Galactic sight-lines. These sight-lines sample a variety of Galactic disk…
Discovery of an Ionizing Radiation Field in the Universe
Richard Conn Henry, Jayant Murthy, James Overduin
We draw attention to observational evidence indicating that a substantial fraction of the well-known cosmic celestial diffuse ultraviolet background radiation field is actually due…
The Diffuse Ultraviolet Foreground
Jayant Murthy
Ultraviolet observations from low Earth orbit (LEO) have to deal with a foreground comprised of airglow and zodiacal light which depend on the look direction and on the date and ti…
GALEX Diffuse Observations of the Sky: The Data
Jayant Murthy
I present tabulations of the diffuse observations made by the GALEX spacecraft in two UV bands (FUV: 1539 A and NUV: 2316 A) from the (almost) final data release of the GALEX space…
Wide-field Ultraviolet Imager for Astronomical Transient Studies
Joice Mathew, S. Ambily, Ajin Prakash +6
Though the ultraviolet (UV) domain plays a vital role in the studies of astronomical transient events, the UV time-domain sky remains largely unexplored. We have designed a wide-fi…
Diffuse Radiation from the Aquila Rift
S. N. Jyothy, Jayant Murthy, Narayanankutty Karuppath +1
We present an analysis of the diffuse ultraviolet (UV) background in a low latitude region near the Aquila Rift based on observations made by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX).…
Comparing the Inner and Outer Star Forming Complexes in the Nearby Spiral Galaxies NGC 628, NGC 5457 and NGC 6946 using UVIT Observations
Jyoti Yadav, Mousumi Das, Narendra Nath Patra +5
We present a far-UV (FUV) study of the star-forming complexes (SFCs) in three nearby galaxies using the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT). The galaxies are close to face-on and…
Near UV Imager with an MCP Based Photon Counting Detector
S. Ambily, Joice Mathew, Mayuresh Sarpotdar +5
We are developing a compact UV Imager using light weight components, that can be flown on a small CubeSat or a balloon platform. The system has a lens-based optics that can provide…
A generic FPGA-based detector readout and real-time image processing board
Mayuresh Sarpotdar, Joice Mathew, Margarita Safonova +1
For space-based astronomical observations, it is important to have a mechanism to capture the digital output from the standard detector for further on-board analysis and storage. W…
Dust Scattered Radiation in the Galactic Poles
Jayant Murthy, Richard C. Henry, James Overduin
We have modeled the diffuse background at the Galactic Poles in the far-ultraviolet (FUV: 1536 Ã ) and the near-ultraviolet (NUV: 2316 Ã ). The background is well-fit using a singl…
A Comparative Analysis of the Cobb-Douglas Habitability Score (CDHS) with the Earth Similarity Index (ESI)
Surbhi Agrawal, Suryoday Basak, Snehanshu Saha +2
We present an analytical comparison of the Cobb-Douglas Habitability Production Function (CD-HPF) and the Earth Similarity Index (ESI). The key differences between the ESI and CD-H…
Development Of Raspberry Pi-based Processing Unit for UV Photon-Counting Detectors
Bharat Chandra P, Binukumar G., Shubham Janakiram +6
In ultraviolet (UV) astronomical observations, photons from the sources are very few compared to the visible or infrared (IR) wavelength ranges. Detectors operating in the UV usual…
Time variations in the UV background
Jayant Murthy, Amith S. Gowtham
We have found variations in the diffuse ultraviolet background on the scale about 10 days over the 10 year life of the GALEX mission. These variations are only apparent in the near…
An Ultraviolet imager to study bright UV sources
Joice Mathew, Ajin Prakash, Mayuresh Sarpotdar +3
We have designed and developed a compact ultraviolet imaging payload to fly on a range of possible platforms such as high altitude balloon experiments, cubesats, space missions, et…
Far Ultraviolet Diffuse Emission from the Large Magellanic Cloud
Ananta C. Pradhan, Amit Pathak, Jayant Murthy
We present the first observations of diffuse radiation in the far ultraviolet (1000 -- 1150 Ã ) from the Large Magellanic Cloud based on observations made with the {\it Far Ultravi…
Investigating the In-Flight Performance of the UVIT Payload on ASTROSAT
P. T. Rahna, Jayant Murthy, M. Safonova +3
We have studied the performance of the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope payload on AstroSat and derived a calibration of the FUV and NUV instruments on board. We find that the sensiti…
High-Altitude Ballooning Program at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics
A. Nayak, A. G. Sreejith, M. Safonova +1
We have begun a program of high altitude ballooning at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. Recent advances in balloons as well as in electronics have made possible sci…
TAUVEX: status in 2011
Noah Brosch, Jayant Murthy
We present a short history of the TAUVEX instrument, conceived to provide multi-band wide-field imaging in the ultraviolet, emphasizing the lack of sufficient and aggressive suppor…
A study of the star forming regions in the spiral galaxy NGC 2336 using the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT)
P. T. Rahna, M. Das, Jayant Murthy +2
We present a far-UV (FUV) and near-UV (NUV) imaging study of recent star formation in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 2336 using the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT). NGC 2336 is…
Modeling the Cosmic Ultraviolet Background at the North Galactic Pole
Jayant Murthy
I explore models of the dust-scattered component of the Cosmic Ultraviolet Background (CUVB) at the North Galactic Pole (NGP) in order to develop a framework for calculating the du…
Game of Orbits: A Gaming Approach to Neptune's Discovery
Siddharth Bhatnagar, Jayant Murthy
One reason that the planet Neptune will be remembered for, is to do with the fact that it was the first planet whose existence was postulated before being observed. This was based…
An Overview of High-Altitude Balloon Experiments at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics
Margarita Safonova, Akshata Nayak, A. G. Sreejith +8
We have initiated the High-Altitude Ballooning programme at Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, in the year 2011 with the primary purpose of developing and flying low-cost…
A catalogue of 108 extended planetary nebulae observed by GALEX
Ananta C. Pradhan, Swayamtrupta Panda, Mudumba Parthasarathy +2
We present the ultraviolet (UV) imaging observation of planetary nebulae (PNe) using archival data of Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). We found 358 PNe detected by GALEX in near-…
Observations of the Diffuse FUV Background with FUSE
Jayant Murthy, David J. Sahnow
We have used observations taken under the FUSE S405/S505 channel realignment program to explore the diffuse FUV (1000 - 1200 Ã ) radiation field. Of the 71 independent locations in…
Development of Data Acquisition Methods for an FPGA-Based Photon Counting Detector
S. Ambily, Mayuresh Sarpotdar, Joice Mathew +5
MCP-based detectors are widely used in the ultraviolet (UV) region due to their low noise levels, high sensitivity and good spatial and temporal resolution. We have developed a com…
Measurement of Dust Optical Properties in Coalsack
N. V. Sujatha, Jayant Murthy, P. Shalima +1
We have used FUSE and Voyager observations of dust scattered starlight in the neighborhood of the Coalsack Nebula to derive the optical constants of the dust grains. The albedo is…
The Near Ultraviolet Transient Surveyor (NUTS): An ultraviolet telescope to observe variable sources
S. Ambily, Mayuresh Sarpotdar, Joice Mathew +9
Observing the ultraviolet (UV) sky for time-variable phenomena is one of the many exciting science goals that can be achieved by a relatively small aperture telescope in space. The…
[O~{\small VI} from the SBs of the LMC
Ananta C. Pradhan, Amit Pathak, Jayant Murthy +1
We have presented the observations of O {\small VI} absorption at 1032 Ã towards 22 sightlines in 10 superbubbles (SBs) of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using the data obtained…
Low-Cost Raspberry Pi Star Sensor for Small Satellites
Bharat Chandra P, Mayuresh Sarpotdar, Binukumar G. Nair +5
We present here a low-cost Raspberry Pi (RPi)-based star sensor StarberrySense using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, developed and built for applications in small satel…
Habitability Classification of Exoplanets: A Machine Learning Insight
Suryoday Basak, Surbhi Agrawal, Snehanshu Saha +4
We explore the efficacy of machine learning (ML) in characterizing exoplanets into different classes. The source of the data used in this work is University of Puerto Rico's Planet…
A 3D Automated Classification Scheme for the TAUVEX data pipeline
Archana Bora, Ranjan Gupta, Harinder P. Singh +3
In order to develop a pipeline for automated classification of stars to be observed by the TAUVEX ultraviolet space Telescope, we employ an artificial neural network (ANN) techniqu…
A software package for evaluating the performance of a star sensor operation
Mayuresh Sarpotdar, Joice Mathew, A. G. Sreejith +5
We have developed a low-cost off-the-shelf component star sensor (StarSense) for use in minisatellites and CubeSats to determine the attitude of a satellite in orbit. StarSense is…
Opportunities for Astrophysical Science from the Inner and Outer Solar System
Michael Zemcov, Iair Arcavi, Richard G. Arendt +22
Astrophysical measurements away from the 1 AU orbit of Earth can enable several astrophysical science cases that are challenging or impossible to perform from Earthbound platforms,…
Astrophysics with New Horizons: Making the Most of a Generational Opportunity
Michael Zemcov, Iair Arcavi, Richard Arendt +12
The outer solar system provides a unique, quiet vantage point from which to observe the universe around us, where measurements could enable several niche astrophysical science case…
Nightfall: Can Kalgash Exist
Smaran Deshmukh, Jayant Murthy
We investigate the imaginary world of Kalgash, a planetary system based on the novel "Nightfall" (Asimov & Silverberg, 1991). The system consists of a planet, a moon and an astonis…
Upper limits on O VI Emission From Voyager
Jayant Murthy, R. C. Henry, R. L. Shelton +1
We have examined 426 {\it Voyager} fields distributed across the sky for \ion{O}{6} ( 1032/1038 Ã ) emission from the Galactic diffuse interstellar medium. No such emission w…
Theoretical Validation of Potential Habitability via Analytical and Boosted Tree Methods: An Optimistic Study on Recently Discovered Exoplanets
Snehanshu Saha, Suryoday Basak, Kakoli Bora +4
Seven Earth-sized planets, TRAPPIST-1 system, were discovered in February 2017. Three of these planets are in the habitable zone (HZ) of their star, making them potentially habitab…
In-orbit Performance of UVIT on ASTROSAT
Annapurni Subramaniam, Shyam N. Tandon, John Hutchings +23
We present the in-orbit performance and the first results from the ultra-violet Imaging telescope (UVIT) on ASTROSAT. UVIT consists of two identical 38cm coaligned telescopes, one…
Intense Diffuse Far-UV Emission from the Orion Nebula
Jayant Murthy, David J. Sahnow, R. C. Henry
We present spectra of the diffuse FUV (900 -- 1200 Ã ) emission from a region near the Orion Nebula: the first high resolution spectra of the diffuse background radiation. These ob…
Near Ultraviolet Transient Explorer (NUTEx): A CubeSat-Based NUV Imaging Payload for Transient Sky Surveys
Shubham Ghatul, Rekhesh Mohan, Jayant Murthy +5
The Near Ultraviolet Transient Explorer (NUTEx) is a CubeSat-based near-ultraviolet (NUV) imaging payload designed for transient sky surveys and is currently under development. Cub…
Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas (SING): Instrument Design, Assembly and Calibration
Bharat Chandra P, Binukumar G. Nair, Shubham Jankiram Ghatul +7
The Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas (SING) is a near-ultraviolet (NUV) low-resolution spectrograph payload designed to operate in the NUV range, 1400 $\unicode{x212B}$ -…
Dust Properties in the FUV in Ophiuchus
N. V. Sujatha, P. Shalima, Jayant Murthy +1
We have derived the albedo () and phase function asymmetry factor () of interstellar dust grains at 1100 Ã ~ using archival {\it Voyager} observations of diffuse radiation in…
A geometric method to locate Neptune
Siddharth Bhatnagar, Jayanth P. Vyasanakere, Jayant Murthy
We develop a direct geometric method to determine the orbital parameters and mass of a planet, and we then apply the method to Neptune using high-precision data for the other plane…
Testing a Prototype 1U CubeSat on a Stratospheric Balloon Flight
Akaash Srikanth, Bharat Chandra, Binukumar G Nair +6
High-altitude balloon experiments are becoming very popular among universities and research institutes as they can be used for testing instruments eventually intended for space, an…
Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) observation of the Galactic Globular Cluster NGC 7492
Ranjan Kumar, Ananta C. Pradhan, Abhisek Mohapatra +4
We present detailed photometric observations of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 7492 using the data obtained with two far-ultraviolet (FUV: 1300 - 1800 Ã ) and three near-ultravi…
Prospect for UV observations from the Moon. III. Assembly and ground calibration of Lunar Ultraviolet Cosmic Imager (LUCI)
Joice Mathew, B. G. Nair, Margarita Safonova +14
The Lunar Ultraviolet Cosmic Imager (LUCI) is a near-ultraviolet (NUV) telescope with all-spherical mirrors, designed and built to fly as a scientific payload on a lunar mission wi…
GALEX Observations of Diffuse UV Radiation at High Spatial Resolution from the Sandage Nebulosity
N. V. Sujatha, Jayant Murthy, Abhay Karnataki +2
Using the GALEX ultraviolet imagers we have observed a region of nebulosity first identified as starlight scattered by interstellar dust by Sandage (1976). Apart from airglow and z…
JUDE (Jayant's UVIT Data Explorer) Pipeline User Manual
P T Rahna, Jayant Murthy, Margarita Safonova
We have written a reference manual to use JUDE (Jayant's UVIT data Explorer) data pipeline software for processing and reducing the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) Level~1 dat…
JUDE: An Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope Pipeline
Jayant Murthy, P. T. Rahna, Firoza Sutaria +3
The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) was launched as part of the multi-wavelength Indian ASTROSAT mission on 28 September, 2015 into a low Earth orbit. A 6-month performance ve…
Survey of O VI absorption in the Large Magellanic Cloud
A. Pathak, A. C. Pradhan, N. V. Sujatha +1
We present a survey of interstellar O VI absorption in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) towards 70 lines of sight based on Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) observation…
Balloon UV Experiments for Astronomical and Atmospheric Observations
A. G. Sreejith, Joice Mathew, Mayuresh Sarpotdar +5
The ultraviolet (UV) window has been largely unexplored through balloons for astronomy. We discuss here the development of a compact near-UV spectrograph with fiber optics input fo…
Components of the Diffuse Ultraviolet Radiation at High Latitudes
M. S. Akshaya, Jayant Murthy, S. Ravichandran +2
We have used data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer to study the different components of the diffuse ultraviolet background in the region between the Galactic latitudes 70-80 degr…
Modelling Dust Scattering in our Galaxy
Jayant Murthy
I have used Monte Carlo models with multiple scattering to predict the dust scattered light from our Galaxy and have compared the predictions with data in two UV bands from the GAL…
The Diffuse Ultraviolet and Optical Background: Status and Future Prospects
Jayant Murthy, M. S. Akshaya, S. Ravichandran
The ultraviolet and optical background forms a baseline for any observation of the sky. It includes emission lines and scattered light from the atmosphere; resonant scattering from…
The Diffuse Radiation Field at High Galactic Latitudes
M. S. Akshaya, Jayant Murthy, S. Ravichandran +2
We have used GALEX observations of the North and South Galactic poles to study the diffuse ultraviolet background at locations where the Galactic light is expected to be at a minim…
SAMPLE -- Stratospheric Altitude Microbiology Probe for Life Existence -- A Method of Collection of Stratospheric Samples Using Balloon-Borne Payload System
Margarita Safonova, Bharat Chandra P, Binukumar G. Nair +8
The Earth possesses many environmental extremes that mimic conditions on extraterrestrial worlds. The stratosphere at 30-40 km altitude closely resembles the surface of Mars in ter…
Measurements of gondola motion on a stratospheric balloon flight
Margarita Safonova, K. Nirmal, A. G. Sreejith +9
Balloon experiments are an economically feasible method of conducting observations in astronomy that are not possible from the ground. The astronomical payload may include a telesc…
Excess Ultraviolet Emission at High Galactic Latitudes: A New Horizons View
Jayant Murthy, J. Michael Shull, Marc Postman +11
We present new observations of the cosmic ultraviolet background (CUVB) at high Galactic latitudes (), made using the Alice UV spectrograph on board the New Horiz…
The Diffuse Ultraviolet Background Close to the Galactic Plane
Jayant Murthy, R. C. Henry, James Overduin
We have used Voyager and Galex observations to map the diffuse Galactic light near the Galactic equator. We find that most of the observations are relatively faint with surface bri…
O~{\small VI} absorption in the Milky Way along the Large Magellanic Cloud lines of sight
Rathin Sarma, Amit Pathak, Ananta C. Pradhan +2
We have used \textit{Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE)} observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to determine the O {\small VI} column densities in the Milky Wa…
Modeling of Dust Scattering in the Coalsack
Jayant Murthy, P. Shalima
Murthy et. al.(1994) discovered intense UV (1100 Ã ) emission from the directi on of the Coalsack Nebula. We have used their results in conjunction with a Mon te Carlo model for th…
Mapping the Diffuse Ultraviolet Sky with GALEX
Jayant Murthy, Richard C. Henry, N. V. Sujatha
We present a map of the diffuse ultraviolet cosmic background in two wavelength bands (FUV: 1530 Ã ; NUV: 2310 Ã ) over almost 75% of the sky using archival data from the GALEX mis…
Dust Scattering from the Taurus Molecular Cloud
Sathyanarayan, Jayant Murthy, K. Narayanankutty
We present an analysis of the diffuse ultraviolet (UV) emission near the Taurus Molecular Cloud based on observations made by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). We used a Monte…
Dust properties from GALEX observations of a UV halo around Spica
P. Shalima, Jayant Murthy, Ranjan Gupta
GALEX has detected ultraviolet halos extending as far as 5 around four bright stars (Murthy et al. (2011)). These halos are produced by scattering of starlight by dust gr…
A Raspberry Pi-Based Attitude Sensor
A. G. Sreejith, Joice Mathew, Mayuresh Sarpotdar +4
We have developed a lightweight low-cost attitude sensor, based on a Raspberry Pi, built with readily available commercial components. It can be used in experiments where weight an…
Noise modeling and analysis of an IMU-based attitude sensor: improvement of performance by filtering and sensor fusion
K. Nirmal, A. G. Sreejith, Joice Mathew +5
We describe the characterization and removal of noise present in the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) MPU-6050. This IMU was initially used in an attitude sensor (AS) developed in-h…
Prospect for UV observations from the Moon. II. Instrumental Design of an Ultraviolet Imager LUCI
Joice Mathew, Ajin Prakash, Mayuresh Sarpotdar +6
We present a design for a near-ultraviolet (NUV) imaging instrument which may be flown on a range of available platforms, including high-altitude balloons, nanosatellites, or space…
Pointing System for the Balloon-Borne Astronomical Payloads
K. Nirmal, A. G. Sreejith, Joice Mathew +5
We describe the development and implementation of a light-weight, fully autonomous 2-axis pointing and stabilization system designed for balloon-borne astronomical payloads. The sy…
A sky survey of ultraviolet sources observed through AstroSat's UVIT: A point source catalog
Swagat Bordoloi, P. Shalima, Rupjyoti Gogoi +1
The Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) onboard India's first dedicated multiwavelength satellite \textit{AstroSat} observed a significant fraction of the sky in the ultraviolet…
UVIT study of UV bright stars in the globular cluster NGC 4147
Ranjan Kumar, Ananta C. Pradhan, Mudumba Parthasarathy +4
We present far ultraviolet (FUV) observations of globular cluster NGC 4147 using three FUV filters, BaF2 (F154W), Sapphire (F169M), and Silica (F172M) of Ultra-Violet Imaging Teles…
The Mystery of the Cosmic Diffuse Ultraviolet Background Radiation
Richard Conn Henry, Jayant Murthy, James Overduin +1
The diffuse cosmic background radiation in the GALEX far ultraviolet (FUV, 1300 Ã - 1700 Ã ) is deduced to originate only partially in the dust-scattered radiation of FUV-emitting…
Observations of Diffuse Ultraviolet Emission from Draco
N. V. Sujatha, Jayant Murthy, Rahul Suresh +2
We have studied small scale (2 arcmin) spatial variation of the diffuse UV radiation using a set of 11 GALEX deep observations in the constellation of Draco. We find a good correla…
Dust-Scattered Ultraviolet Halos around Bright Stars
Jayant Murthy, Richard Conn Henry
We have discovered ultraviolet halos extending as far as 5° around four (of six) bright UV stars using data from the GALEX satellite. These halos are due to the scattering of the…
Study of UV bright sources in globular cluster NGC 4590 using Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) observations
Ranjan Kumar, Ananta C. Pradhan, M. Parthasarathy +5
We have studied ultraviolet (UV) bright sources in the Galactic globular cluster (GGC) NGC 4590 using Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) on-board the \mbox{\em AstroSat} satellit…
Prospects for Observations of Transient UV Events with the TAUVEX UV Observatory
Margarita Safonova, C. Sivaram, Jayant Murthy
Transient events have posed special problems in astronomy because of the intrinsic difficulty of their detection, and a new class of observatories such as the Pan-STARRS and LSST a…