We present optical and near-infrared imaging and long-slit spectroscopy for the blue compact dwarf galaxy (BCD) Mrk 49 in the Virgo Cluster. The surface brightness distribution analysis shows that Mrk 49 consists of an off-centered blue bright compact core of r = 10′′ and a red faint outer exponential envelope. The Hα image and color difference suggest that these two components have different stellar populations: a high surface brightness population of massive young stars and an underlying low surface brightness population of older stars. The redder near-infrared colors of the inner most region suggest that the near-infrared flux of Mrk 49 originates from evolved massive stars associated with the current star-forming activity. The total apparent magnitude is BT = 14.32 mag and the mean effective surface brightness is μeff (B) = 21.56 mag arcsec−2. Long-slit spectroscopy shows that Mrk 49 rotates apparently as a solid body within r = 10′′ in a plane at position angle 55 degrees with an amplitude of about 20 km sec−1. The measured radial velocity of Mrk 49 was derived as 1,535 km sec−1; and the total mass of stars and gases is in the range of 3 to 6 × 109 M⊙. The mass-to-light ratios for the central region of Mrk 49 in I and B band are estimated 1.0 and 0.5, respectively. The upper limit of the dark matter to visible matter ratio seems to be < 5. The oxygen abundance is 12 + log(O/H) = 8.21 ± 0.1 which is about one quarter of the solar value while the relative helium abundance appears to be similar to that of the sun.

We carried out a set of simulations to reproduce the performance of wide-field NEO surveys based on the revised population model of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) constructed by Morbidelli (2006). This is the first time where the new model is carefully compared with discovery statistics, and with the exception of population model, the simulation is identical to the procedure described in Moon et al. (2008). Our simulations show rather large discrepancy between the number of NEO discoveries made by the actual and the simulated surveys. First of all, unlike Bottke et al. (2002)'s, Morbidelli (2006)'s population model overestimates the number of NEOs. However, the latter reproduces orbit distributions of the actual population better. Our analysis suggests that both models significantly underestimate Amors, while overestimating the number of Apollos. Our simulation result implies that substantial modifications of both models are needed for more accurate reproduction of survey observations. We also identify Hungaria region (HU) to be one of the most convincing candidates that supply a large fraction of asteroids to the inner Solar System.

Spectrophotometry of the night sky over Mount Bohyun is presented for the nearly entire visible wavelengths of 3600 ~ 8600Å. The data was obtained under moonless clear sky in February 2004 with the 1.8-m telescope and the long slit spectrograph. The sky spectrum shows a number of strong emission lines originated from light pollution, especially due to high pressure sodium lamps. When compared to the night sky of Kitt Peak, our sky continuum is 1 to 2 magnitude brighter at all wavelengths, the worst being around the broad emission region near 6000Å. The night sky spectrum presented here with almost complete line identifications is a useful reference for arc-independent wavelength calibrations to check the gravity flexure of the spectrograph and the wavelength shift between FeNeArHe arc frames and science frames.

We developed an algorithm to identify and determine periods of variable sources. With its robustness and high speed, it is expected to become an useful tool for surveys with large volume of data. This new scheme consists of an initial coarse. process of finding several candidate periods followed by a secondary process of much finer period search. With this multi-step approach, best candidates among statistically possible periods are produced without human supervision and also without any prior assumption on the nature of the variable star in question. We tested our algorithm with 381 stars taken from the ASAS survey and the result is encouraging. In about 76% cases, our results are nearly identical as their published periods. Our algorithm failed to provide convincing periods for only about 10% cases. For the remaining 14%, our results significantly differ from their periods. We show that, in many of these cases, our periods are superior and much closer to the true periods. However, the existence of failures, and also periods sometimes worse than manually controlled results, indicates that this algorithm needs further improvement. Nevertheless, the present experiment shows that this is a positive step toward a fully automated period analysis for future variability surveys.

We developed a CCD camera that can observe wide fields on the sky. We tested the field of views using various lenses. For cooling the CCD chip, we used a thermoelectric cooling device and tested the cooling efficiency. This camera will continuously observe a part of the sky. The data from the camera will be used to decide the current weather condition by the real-time star counting program (SCount) which will be developed later.

UBVI CCD photometry of open cluster NGC 2324 is presented. C-M diagrams of this cluster show well-defined main sequence with a red giant clump centered at B - V =1.05, V =13.45. We derived the major cluster characteristics; E(B - V)=0.17±0.12 from color-color diagram and mean color of red giant clump stars, (m - M)o=13.1±0.1 from zero age main sequence fitting, and [Fe/H]~-0.32 from comparison the theoretical model developed by Bertelli et al. (1994) to the observed C-M diagrams. We estimate the age of NGC 2324 to be log t~8.8 by applying isochrone fitting and morphological age index method.

We derive a new relationship between the giant branch slope as measured in the color-magnitude diagram (K, J - K) and [Fe/H] metallicity for old open clusters. Previously such relationships have been derived for globular clusters, while similar tendency has been expected for open clusters. New derived correlation, [Fe/H]=-17.2(±0.23)GB slope - 1.95(±0.02), is based on a collection of data for 10 old open clusters. Most clusters behave as expected from the theoretical predictions.

We present the results of near-IR band (JHK) photometric study for the old open cluster To 2. Combined with existing optical data, our IR photometry is used to derive the reddening E(B- V)=0.24±0.12 and the distance (m-M)o=14.6±0.42. Comparison with theoretical isochrones suggests the age and metallicity of To 2 are log t~9.3 and [Fe/H]~-0.3, respectively.

With a large format near-infrared camera at the 2.2-m telescope on Mauna Kea Observatory, we performed J K near-infrared observations for the metal rich globular cluster NGC6712. This cluster lies near the galactic plane and therefore suffers heavy reddening. We present the near-infrared color-magnitude diagram and also derive the metallicity ([Fe/H] ~ -0.96±0.27) as well as its distance modulus ((m - M) ~}13.42±0.12).

The first large-format CCD color-magnitude diagram (CMD) in the B and V passbands is presented for the Galactic globular cluster M53 (NGC 5024). We have discovered 117 new blue straggler (BS) candidates in the field of M53. The analysis of bright BS stars (V <19.0) clearly shows a bimodal radial distribution, with a high frequency in the inner and outer regions. The distribution is similar to that found in M3, a globular cluster with similar central density and concentration.

Beijing-Arizona-Taipei-Connecticut (BATC) survey is a long term project to map the spectral energy distribution of various objects using 15 intermediate band filters and aims to cover about 450 sq degrees of northern sky. The SED information, combined with image structure information, is used to classify objects into several stellar and galaxy categories as well as QSO candidates. In this paper, we present a preliminary setup of robust data reduction procedure recently developed at NCU and also briefly discuss general classification scheme: redshift estimate, and automatic detection of variable objects.