It is dicult for observers to conduct an optical alignment at an observatory without the assistance of an optical engineer if optomechanical parts are to be replaced at night. We present a prac- tical tilt correction method to obtain the optimal optical alignment condition using the symmetricity of optical aberrations of a wide-eld on-axis telescope at night. We conducted coarse tilt correction by visually examining the symmetry of two representative star shapes obtained at two guide chips facing each other, such as east{west or north{south pairs. After coarse correction, we observed four sets of small stamp images using four guide cameras located at each cardinal position by changing the focus positions in 10-m increments and passing through the optimum focus position in the range of 200 m. The standard deviation of each image, as a function of the focus position, was tted with a second-order polynomial function to derive the optimal focus position at each cardinal edge. We derived the tilt angles from the slopes converted by the distance and the focus position dierence between two paired guide chip combinations such as east{west and north{south. We used this method to collimate the on-axis wide-eld telescope KMTNet in Chile after replacing two old focus actuators. The total optical alignment time was less than 30 min. Our method is practical and straightforward for maintaining the optical performance of wide-eld telescopes such as KMTNet.

We present the mid-infrared (MIR) luminosity function (LF) of local (z < 0.3) star-forming (SF) galaxies in the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) field. This work is based on the NEP-Wide point source catalogue and the spectroscopic redshift (z) data for  1700 galaxies obtained by the optical follow-up survey with MMT/Hectospec and WIYN/Hydra. The AKARI's continuous 2 - 24 μm coverage and the spectroscopic redshifts enable us to determine the spectral energy distribution (SED) in the mid-infrared and derive the luminosity functions of galaxies. Our 8 μm LF finds good agreements with the results from SWIRE field over the wide luminosity range, while showing signicant difference from the NOAO deep data in the faint end. The comparison with higher-z sample shows significant luminosity evolution from z > 0.3 to local universe. 12 μm LF also shows a clear indication of luminosity evolution.

The extragalactic background suggests half the energy generated by stars was reprocessed into the infrared (IR) by dust. At z1.3, 90% of star formation is obscured by dust. To fully understand the cosmic star formation history, it is critical to investigate infrared emission. AKARI has made deep mid-IR observation using its continuous 9-band filters in the NEP field (5.4 deg2), using 10% of the entire pointed observations available throughout its lifetime. However, there remain 11,000 AKARI infrared sources undetected with the previous CFHT/Megacam imaging (r ~25.9ABmag). Redshift and IR luminosity of these sources are unknown. These sources may contribute signicantly to the cosmic star-formation rate density (CSFRD). For example, if they all lie at 1< z <2, the CSFRD will be twice as high at the epoch. We are carrying out deep imaging of the NEP eld in 5 broad bands (g; r; i; z; and y) using Hyper Suprime-Camera (HSC), which has 1.5 deg field of view in diameter on Subaru 8m telescope. This will provide photometric redshift information, and thereby IR luminosity for the previously-undetected 11,000 faint AKARI IR sources. Combined with AKARI's mid-IR AGN/SF diagnosis, and accurate mid- IR luminosity measurement, this will allow a complete census of cosmic star-formation/AGN accretion history obscured by dust.

The Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) is a wide-eld photometric system installed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). Here, we present the overall technical specications of the KMTNet observation system, test observation results, data transfer and image processing procedure, and nally, the KMTNet science programs. The system consists of three 1.6 m wide-eld optical telescopes equipped with mosaic CCD cameras of 18k by 18k pixels. Each telescope provides a 2.0 by 2.0 square degree eld of view. We have nished installing all three telescopes and cameras sequentially at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in South Africa, and the Siding Spring Observatory (SSO) in Australia. This network of telescopes, which is spread over three dierent continents at a similar latitude of about 􀀀30 degrees, enables 24-hour continuous monitoring of targets observable in the Southern Hemisphere. The test observations showed good image quality that meets the seeing requirement of less than 1.0 arcsec in I-band. All of the observation data are transferred to the KMTNet data center at KASI via the international network communication and are processed with the KMTNet data pipeline. The primary scientic goal of the KMTNet is to discover numerous extrasolar planets toward the Galactic bulge by using the gravitational microlensing technique, especially earth-mass planets in the habitable zone. During the non-bulge season, the system is used for wide-eld photometric survey science on supernovae, asteroids, and external galaxies.