Context. We present a study of the complex high-mass star forming region IRAS 05137+3919 (also known as Mo18), where multiple jets and a rich stellar cluster have been described in previous works.Aims. Our goal is to determine the number of jets and shed light on their origin, and thus determine the nature of the young stars powering these jets. We also wish to analyse the stellar clusters by resolving the brightest group of stars.Methods. The star forming region was observed in various tracers and the results were complemented with ancillary archival data. The new data represent a substantial improvement over previous studies both in resolution and frequency coverage. In particular, adaptive optics provides us with an angular resolution of 80 mas in the near IR, while new mid- and far-IR data allow us to sample the peak of the spectral energy distribution and thus reliably estimate the bolometric luminosity.Results. Thanks to the near-IR continuum and millimetre line data we can determine the structure and velocity field of the bipolar jets and outflows in this star forming region. We also find that the stars are grouped into three clusters and the jets originate in the richest of these, whose luminosity is similar to 2.4 x 10(4) L circle dot. Interestingly, our high-resolution near-IR images allow us to resolve one of the two brightest stars (A and B) of the cluster into a double source (A1+A2).Conclusions. We confirm that there are two jets and establish that they are powered by B-type stars belonging to cluster C1. On this basis and on morphological and kinematical arguments, we conclude that the less extended jet is almost perpendicular to the line of sight and that it originates in the brightest star of the cluster, while the more extended one appears to be associated with the more extincted, double source A1+A2. We propose that this is not a binary system, but a small bipolar reflection nebula at the root of the large-scale jet, outlining a still undetected circumstellar disk. The gas kinematics on a scale of similar to 0.2 pc seems to support our hypothesis, because it appears to trace rotation about the axis of the associated jet.

We present deep near-infrared J, K s ?> photometry of the old, metal-poor Galactic globular cluster M15 obtained with images collected with the LUCI1 and PISCES cameras available at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). We show how the use of First Light Adaptive Optics (FLAO) system coupled with the PISCES camera allows us to improve the limiting magnitude by ∼2 mag in K s ?> . By analyzing archival Hubble Space Telescope data, we demonstrate that the quality of the LBT/PISCES color–magnitude diagram is fully comparable with analogous space-based data. The smaller field of view is balanced by the shorter exposure time required to reach a similar photometric limit. We investigated the absolute age of M15 by means of two methods: (i) by determining the age from the position of the main-sequence turnoff (MSTO), and (ii) by the magnitude difference between the MSTO and the well-defined knee detected along the faint portion of the MS. We derive consistent values of the absolute age of M15, that is, 12.9 ± 2.6 Gyr and 13.3 ± 1.1 Gyr, respectively.

Using the adaptive optics system of the Large Binocular Telescope, we have obtained near-infrared camera PISCES images of the inner shell of the nebula around the luminous blue variable star P Cygni in the [Fe II] emission line at 1.6435 mu m. We have combined the images in order to cover a field of view of about 20 arcsec around P Cygni, thus providing the high-resolution (0.08 arcsec) two-dimensional spatial distribution of the inner shell of the P Cygni nebula in [Fe II]. We have identified several nebular emission regions that are characterized by a signal-to-noise ratio > 3. A comparison of our results with those available in the literature shows full consistency with the findings of Smith & Hartigan, which are based on radial velocity measurements, and relatively good agreement with the extension of emission nebula in [N II] lambda 6584 found by Barlow et al. We have clearly also detected extended emission inside the radial distance R = 7.8 arcsec and outside R = 9.7 arcsec, which are the nebular boundaries proposed by Smith & Hartigan. New complementary spectroscopic observations are planned in order to measure radial velocities and to derive the three-dimensional distribution of the P Cygni nebula.

Ten years ago the NIRCam science team proposed to conduct "Train the Trainer" workshops for adult leaders from all Girl Scout Councils in the U.S. with an aim to improving basic astronomy materials and to conveying mission-specific information about the science and technologies associated with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). To date we have conducted 20 workshops involving 225 adult leaders (41 U.S. states, Guam, Japan). During this time, the infrastructure of the GSUSA has evolved considerably, as has its approach to STEM education. Here we discuss how our ongoing workshops, educational activities, and our network of trained leaders have evolved to meet the continuing needs of girls and young women within the GSUSA's new framework of Journeys.

A set of six debris disk candidates identified with IRAS or WISE excesses were observed at either 350 um or 450 um with the CSO. Five of the targets - HIP 51658, HIP 68160, HIP 73512, HIP 76375, and HIP 112460 - have among the largest measured excess emission from cold dust from IRAS in the 25-100 um bands. Single temperature blackbody fits to the excess dust emission of these sources predict 350-450 um fluxes above 240 mJy. The final target - HIP 73165 - exhibits weak excess emission above the stellar photosphere from WISE measurements at 22 um, indicative of a population of warm circumstellar dust. None of the six targets were detected, with 3 sigma upper limits ranging from 51-239 mJy. These limits are significantly below the expected fluxes from SED fitting. Two potential causes of the null detections were explored - companion stars and contamination. To investigate the possible influence of companion stars, imaging data were analyzed from new AO data from the MMT and archival HST, NIRI, and POSS/2MASS data. The images are sensitive to all stellar companions beyond a radius of 1-94 AU. One target is identified as a binary system, but with a separation too large to impact the disk. While the gravitational effects of a companion do not appear to provide an explanation for the submm upper limits, the majority of the IRAS excess targets show evidence for contaminating sources, based on investigation of higher resolution WISE and archival Spitzer and Herschel images. Finally, the exploratory submm measurements of the WISE excess source suggest that the hot dust present around these targets is not matched by a comparable population of colder, outer dust. More extensive and more sensitive Herschel observations of WISE excess sources will build upon this initial example to further define the characteristics of warm debris disks sources.

We have performed H and KS band observations of the planetary system around HR 8799 using the new AO system at the Large Binocular Telescope and the PISCES Camera. The excellent instrument performance (Strehl ratios up to 80% in H band) enabled the detection of the innermost planet, HR 8799e ,a tH band for the first time. The H and KS magnitudes of HR 8799e are similar to those of planets c and d, with planet e being slightly brighter. Therefore, HR 8799e is likely slightly more massive than c and d .W e also explored possible orbital configurations and their orbital stability. We confirm that the orbits of planets b, c and e are consistent with being circular and coplanar; planet d should have either an orbital eccentricity of about 0.1 or be non-coplanar with respect to b and c. Planet e can not be in circular and coplanar orbit in a 4:2:1 mean motion resonances with c and d, while coplanar and circular orbits are allowed for a 5:2 resonance. The analysis of dynamical stability shows that the system is highly unstable or chaotic when planetary masses of about 5 MJ for b and 7 MJ for the other planets are adopted. Significant regions of dynamical stability for timescales of tens of Myr are found when adopting planetary masses of about 3.5, 5, 5, and 5 MJ for HR 8799b, c, d ,a nde respectively. These masses are below the current estimates based on the stellar age (30 Myr) and theoretical models of substellar objects.

Context. The formation of OB-type stars up to (at least) 140 M-circle dot can be explained via disk-mediated accretion and in fact growing observational evidence of disk-jet systems is found in high-mass star-forming regions.Aims. With the present observations we wish to investigate at sub-arcsecond resolution the jet structure close to the well studied high-mass protostar IRAS 20126+4104, which is known to be surrounded by a Keplerian disk.Methods. Adaptive optics imaging of the 2.2 mu m continuum and H-2 and Br gamma line emission have been performed with the Large Binocular Telescope, attaining an angular resolution of similar to 90 mas and an astrometric precision of similar to 100 mas.Results. While our results are consistent with previous K-band images by other authors, the improved (by a factor similar to 3) resolution allows us to identify a number of previously unseen features, such as bow shocks spread all over the jet structure. Also, we confirm the existence of a bipolar nebulosity within 1 '' from the protostar, prove that the emission from the brightest, SE lobe is mostly due to the H2 line, and resolve its structure.Conclusions. Comparison with other tracers such as masers, thermal molecular line emission, and free-free continuum emission proves that the bipolar nebulosity is indeed tracing the root of the bipolar jet powered by the deeply embedded protostar at the center of the Keplerian disk.

All transiting planet observations are at risk of contamination from nearby, unresolved stars. Blends dilute the transit signal, causing the planet to appear smaller than it really is, or producing a false positive detection when the target star is blended with an eclipsing binary. High spatial resolution adaptive optics images are an effective way of resolving most blends. Here we present visual companions and detection limits for 12 Kepler planet candidate host stars, of which 4 have companions within 4 ''. One system (KOI 1537) consists of two similar-magnitude stars separated by 0 ''.1, while KOI 174 has a companion at 0 ''.5. In addition, observations were made of 15 transiting planets that were previously discovered by other surveys. The only companion found within 1 '' of a known planet is the previously identified companion to WASP-2b. An additional four systems have companions between 1 '' and 4 '': HAT-P-30b (3 ''.7, Delta Ks = 2.9), HAT-P-32b (2 ''.9, Delta Ks = 3.4), TrES-1b (2 ''.3, Delta Ks = 7.7), and WASP-P-33b (1 ''.9, Delta Ks = 5.5), some of which have not been reported previously. Depending on the spatial resolution of the transit photometry for these systems, these companion stars may require a reassessment of the planetary parameters derived from transit light curves. For all systems observed, we report the limiting magnitudes beyond which additional fainter objects located 0 ''.1-4 '' from the target may still exist.

E. R. Adams1, D. R. Ciardi2, A. K. Dupree1, T. N. Gautier III3, C. Kulesa4, and D. McCarthy4 1 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA 2 NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, 770 South Wilson Ave., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 3 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109, USA 4 Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA Received 2013 June 17; published 2013 August 14

We have performed H and KS band observations of the planetary system around HR 8799 using the new AO system at the Large Binocular Telescope and the PISCES Camera. The excellent instrument performance (Strehl ratios up to 80% in H band) enabled the detection of the innermost planet, HR 8799e, at H band for the first time. The H and KS magnitudes of HR 8799e are similar to those of planets c and d, with planet e being slightly brighter. Therefore, HR 8799e is likely slightly more massive than c and d. We also explored possible orbital configurations and their orbital stability. We confirm that the orbits of planets b, c and e are consistent with being circular and coplanar; planet d should have either an orbital eccentricity of about 0.1 or be non-coplanar with respect to b and c. Planet e can not be in circular and coplanar orbit in a 4:2:1 mean motion resonances with c and d, while coplanar and circular orbits are allowed for a 5:2 resonance. The analysis of dynamical stability shows that the system is highly unstable or chaotic when planetary masses of about 5 MJ for b and 7 MJ for the other planets are adopted. Significant regions of dynamical stability for timescales of tens of Myr are found when adopting planetary masses of about 3.5, 5, 5, and 5 MJ for HR 8799b, c, d, and e respectively. These masses are below the current estimates based on the stellar age (30 Myr) and theoretical models of substellar objects.

Star formation in their sights The massive young star clusters near the centre of our Galaxy are prime targets for the study of star formation. There are currently no space-based infrared telescopes with the combination of high resolution and wide field of view needed for the purpose, but in theory, a ground-based telescope fitted with sophisticated ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO) should be up to the task. Now, researchers working at the MMT Observatory on Mount Hopkins in Arizona have demonstrated that with recent upgrades, including the use of multiple laser guide stars, they have such a system. In observations of the core of the globular cluster M3, they obtained wide-field resolution more than double that obtained previously. Entire stellar clusters may be examined in a single pointing. Installation of this newly developed GLAO package on more, and larger, telescopes should provide a new flow of data on the mechanisms of star formation.

We present two epochs of observations of TW Hya from the high-dispersion near-IR spectrograph ARIES at the Multiple Mirror Telescope. We detect strong emission from the Br gamma transition of hydrogen, indicating an accretion rate substantially larger than previously estimated, using hydrogen line emission. The Br gamma line strength varies across our two observed epochs. We also measure circumstellar-to-stellar flux ratios (i.e., veilings) that appear close to zero in both epochs. These findings suggest that TW Hya experiences episodes of enhanced accretion while the inner disk remains largely devoid of dust. We discuss several physical mechanisms that may explain these observations.

Recent results indicate the stellar initial mass function is not a strong function of star-forming environment or ``initial conditions'' (e.g. Meyer et al. 2000). Some studies suggest that a universal IMF may extend to sub-stellar masses (see however Briceno et al. 2002). Yet most of this work is confined to star-forming environments within 1 kpc of the Sun. In order to probe the universality of the IMF over a wider range of parameter space (metalicity, ambient pressure, magnetic field strength) new techniques are required. We begin by summarizing our approach to deriving the sub-stellar IMF down to the opacity-limit for fragmentation using NGC 1333 as an example. Next, we describe results from simulations using the observed point-spread function of the new 6.5m MMT adaptive optics system and examine the confusion-limited sensitivity to low mass stars in rich star-forming clusters out to 0.5 Mpc. We also present preliminary results from observations with this system of the W51 star-forming complex. Finally, we outline a new technique to estimate the ratio of high to low mass stars in unresolved stellar populations, such as the massive star clusters observed in interacting galaxies (e.g. Mengel et al. 2002). While evidence for variations in the IMF remains inconclusive, new studies are required to rule them out and determine whether or not the IMF is universal over the range of parameter space relevant to star-forming galaxies over cosmic time.

We discuss the instrumental and data reduction techniques used to suppress speckle noise with the Simultaneous Differential Imager (SDI) implemented at the VLT and the MMT. SDI uses a double Wollaston prism and a quad filter to take 4 identical images simultaneously at 3 wavelengths surrounding the 1.62 um methane bandhead found in the spectrum of cool brown dwarfs and gas giants. By performing a difference of images in these filters, speckle noise from the primary can be significantly attenuated, resulting in photon noise limited data past 0.5”. Non-trivial data reduction tools are necessary to pipeline the simultaneous differential imaging. Here we discuss a custom algorithm implemented in IDL to perform this reduction. The script performs basic data reduction tasks but also precisely aligns images taken in each of the filters using a custom shift and subtract routine. In our survey of nearby young stars at the VLT and MMT (see Biller et al., this conference), we achieved H band contrasts >25000 (5 sigma Delta F1(1.575 um) > 10.0 mag, Delta H > 11.5 mag for a T6 spectral type object) at a separation of 0.5" from the primary star. We believe that our SDI images are among the highest contrast astronomical images ever made from ground or space for methane rich companions.

The science program for the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) relies heavily on a high performance nearinfrared imager. A design which supports the observations outlined in the Design Reference Mission (DRM) and which also supports enhanced searches for "first light" objects and planets has been developed. Key features of the design include use of refractive optics to minimize the volume and mass required, tunable filters for spectroscopic imaging, and redundant imagers for fail-safe wavefront sensing.

A key technology in NASA's plans for a Terrestrial Planet Finder is nulling interferometry in the thermal infrared. This technique suppresses the overwhelming light from a star in order to study its immediate surroundings. To further develop nulling interferometry we have built the BracewelL Infrared Nulling Cryostat (BLINC). The instrument is designed to achieve high precision cancellation of an artificial source in the lab and of starlight on the telescope. Our goal is to achieve suppression of > 10,000 both with a laser source and a broadband source over a 20% bandwidth. This is sufficient for ground-based observations with even short baseline interferometers since the finite diameter of the star does not allow suppression greater than that for most nearby sources. BLINC uses two parts of the MMT pupil to create an interferometer of 2.7 m diameter elements separated by 4 m. Active compensation for phase variations between the two apertures will be used to maintain the cancellation of the starlight in the presence of atmospheric turbulence. When combined with the adaptive secondary of the MMT to remove high order aberrations, BLINC will be able to achieve suppression of 10,000. This will allow detection of zodiacal dust around nearby stars as faint as 10 times the solar level and detection of companions large than 10 Jupiter masses for systems less than one billion years old. BLINC serves as a prototype for nulling with the Large Binocular Telescope which will be able to see zodiacal dust as faint as solar level and Jupiter mass or larger companions. Thus both in technological and scientific background BLINC will help begin the search for Earth-like planets.

present the first published infrared observations of the nearby, highly obscured galaxy Dwingeloo 1 (Dw 1), including deep II-band imaging covering a total of 4.' 9 x 4.' 9, together with J and K-s, imaging of the central 2.' 5 x 2.' 5. We used the small dispersion of the intrinsic infrared colors of spiral galaxies to determine an infrared II-band extinction of A(H) = 0.47 +/- 0.11 mag toward Dw 1. Using infrared colors reduces the uncertainties in the reddening and distance by a factor of 3. The II-band magnitude, corrected for extinction, and the infrared Tully-Fisher relation are then used to estimate a distance modulus of (m - M)(0) = 28.62 +/- 0.27 and, thus, a distance of d = 5.3(-0.6)(+0.7) Mpc, which places Dw 1 at the far end of the IC 342/Maffei 1-2 group of galaxies. Our result is largely independent of the nature of the reddening law because we estimated both the reddening and the distance at the same wavelength range.

The new 6-8 m class ground based telescopes equiped with very high-resolution adaptive optics have the potential to detect Jupiter-like planets around nearby stars. Direct detection will allow discoveries of planets, beyond the angular radius where Doppler spectroscopy achieves maximum sensitivity. In addition, direct imaging (and spectroscopy) will allow confirmation for those indirect detections which lie within 0.3–2 arcseconds in orbital radius. However, the technical requirements for direct imaging using high order adaptive optics are at the theoretical limits of performance and hence very challenging. Here we review the limiting performance of such systems. We give the exposure time required to detect such companions, and we point out the improvements required in order to accomplish exo-planets detection.