Engineering topics

Warren-Smith, R. F.

Publications and source records attributed to Warren-Smith, R. F..

3 records

NASA NTRS1992

The STARLINK software collection

The UK's STARLINK project based at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory develops and distributes software applicable to a wide range of problems in Astronomy; it covers most wavebands, caters for a variety of instrumentation, and ranges from programming tools and libraries through to large package of applications. The facilities available and gives details of how they may be obtained are summarized. Recent developments and other features of particular interest are highlighted.

Warren-Smith, R. F.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Optical polarimetry and thermal imaging of the disc around Beta Pictoris

The dust disk around the main-sequence A5 star Beta Pic is characterized on the basis of recently obtained data. Optical polarimetry indicates that the disk has polarization of about 15 percent and polarization vectors normal to the scattering plane, indicating that the features observed are indeed a dust disk made visible by scattering. Thermal images of the central 13-arcsec-diameter region, obtained at 10 and 20 microns by Telesco et al. (1988) using the NASA Marshall 20-pixel bolometer array, suggest that the dust grains in the disk have a mean diameter of 1 micron or smaller. Also discussed are (1) unsuccessful searches for other nearby stars with disks and (2) the potential value of Hubble Space Telescope images for understanding the structure of Beta Pic.

Wolstencroft, R. D.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Polarization images of Comet Halley

Observations from two dates 5 Jan. and 7 Jan. 1986 are presented. The images were obtained with the Durham imaging polarimeter on the 1-m telescope of the Wise Observatory, Israel. The observations were made through a broadband filter centered at 0.67 microns with a 0.17 micron effective bandwidth. This wavelength region should be dominated by continuum radiation. The intensity images cover 46 x 78 arcsecs. The intensity images are shown in logorithmic form and they are analyzed.

Eaton, N.↗