The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the future observatory for TeV gamma-ray astronomy. In order to increase the sensitivity and to extend the energy coverage beyond the capabilities of current facilities, its design concept features telescopes of three different size classes. Based on the experience from H. E. S. S. phase II, the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics T " ubingen (IAAT) develops actuators for the mirror control system of the CTA Medium Size Telescopes (MSTs). The goals of this effort are durability, high precision, and mechanical stability under all environmental conditions. Up to now, several revisions were developed and the corresponding prototypes were extensively tested. In this contribution our latest design revision proposed for the CTA MSTs are presented.

We present the current estimate of instrumental and systematic effect uncertainties for the Planck-Low Frequency Instrument relevant to the first release of the Planck cosmological results. We give an overview of the main effects and of the tools and methods applied to assess residuals in maps and power spectra. We also present an overall budget of known systematic effect uncertainties, which are dominated by sidelobe straylight pick-up and imperfect calibration. However, even these two effects are at least two orders of magnitude weaker than the cosmic microwave background fluctuations as measured in terms of the angular temperature power spectrum. A residual signal above the noise level is present in the multipole range < 20, most notably at 30 GHz, and is probably caused by residual Galactic straylight contamination. Current analysis aims to further reduce the level of spurious signals in the data and to improve the systematic effects modelling, in particular with respect to straylight and calibration uncertainties.

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation Cherenkov telescope facility. It will consist of a large number of segmented-mirror telescopes of three different diameters, placed in two locations, one in the northern and one in the southern hemisphere, thus covering the whole sky. The total number of mirror tiles will be on the order of 10,000, corresponding to a reflective area of ~10^4 m^2. The Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in T\"ubingen (IAAT) is currently developing mirror control alignment mechanics, electronics, and software optimized for the medium sized telescopes. In addition, IAAT is participating in the CTA mirror prototype testing. In this paper we present the status of the current developments, the main results of recent tests, and plans for the production phase of the mirror control system. We also briefly present the T\"ubingen facility for mirror testing.

List of contributions from the CTA Consortium presented at the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, 30 July - 6 August 2015, The Hague, The Netherlands.

The European Space Agency's Planck satellite, dedicated to studying the early Universe and its subsequent evolution, was launched 14 May 2009 and has been scanning the microwave and submillimetre sky continuously since 12 August 2009. In March 2013, ESA and the Planck Collaboration released the initial cosmology products based on the first 15.5 months of Planck data, along with a set of scientific and technical papers and a web-based explanatory supplement. This paper gives an overview of the mission and its performance, the processing, analysis, and characteristics of the data, the scientific results, and the science data products and papers in the release. The science products include maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and diffuse extragalactic foregrounds, a catalogue of compact Galactic and extragalactic sources, and a list of sources detected through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. The likelihood code used to assess cosmological models against the Planck data and a lensing likelihood are described. Scientific results include robust support for the standard six-parameter Lambda CDM model of cosmology and improved measurements of its parameters, including a highly significant deviation from scale invariance of the primordial power spectrum. The Planck values for these parameters and others derived from them are significantly different from those previously determined. Several large-scale anomalies in the temperature distribution of the CMB, first detected by WMAP, are confirmed with higher confidence. Planck sets new limits on the number and mass of neutrinos, and has measured gravitational lensing of CMB anisotropies at greater than 25 sigma. Planck finds no evidence for non-Gaussianity in the CMB. Planck's results agree well with results from the measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations. Planck finds a lower Hubble constant than found in some more local measures. Some tension is also present between the amplitude of matter fluctuations (sigma(8)) derived from CMB data and that derived from Sunyaev-Zeldovich data. The Planck and WMAP power spectra are off set from each other by an average level of about 2% around the first acoustic peak. Analysis of Planck polarization data is not yet mature, therefore polarization results are not released, although the robust detection of E-mode polarization around CMB hot and cold spots is shown graphically.

We present the current estimate of instrumental and systematic effect uncertainties for the Planck-Low Frequency Instrument relevant to the first release of the Planck cosmological results. We give an overview of the main effects and of the tools and methods applied to assess residuals in maps and power spectra. We also present an overall budget of known systematic effect uncertainties, which are dominated by sidelobe straylight pick-up and imperfect calibration. However, even these two effects are at least two orders of magnitude weaker than the cosmic microwave background fluctuations as measured in terms of the angular temperature power spectrum. A residual signal above the noise level is present in the multipole range l < 20, most notably at 30GHz, and is probably caused by residual Galactic straylight contamination. Current analysis aims to further reduce the level of spurious signals in the data and to improve the systematic effects modelling, in particular with respect to straylight and calibration uncertainties.

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation very-high energy gamma-ray air-shower Cherenkov observatory. CTA will consist of many segmented-mirror telescopes of three different diameters, placed in two arrays, one in the Northern hemisphere and one in the South, thus covering the whole sky. The total number of mirror tiles will be of the order of 10000, corresponding to a reflective area of ~10^4 m^2. The Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Tübingen is developing procedures to coat glass-substrate-based mirror tiles, is participating to the CTA mirror prototype testing, and is prototyping Active Mirror Control alignment mechanics, electronics and software. We will present the current status of our work and plans for future developments.

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a new observatory for very high-energy (VHE) gamma rays. CTA has ambitions science goals, for which it is necessary to achieve full-sky coverage, to improve the sensitivity by about an order of magnitude, to span about four decades of energy, from a few tens of GeV to above 100TeV with enhanced angular and energy resolutions over existing VHE gamma-ray observatories. An international collaboration has formed with more than 1000 members from 27 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. In 2010 the CTA Consortium completed a Design Study and started a three-year Preparatory Phase which leads to production readiness of CTA in 2014. In this paper we introduce the science goals and the concept of CTA, and provide an overview of the project.

We present the first all-sky sample of galaxy clusters detected blindly by the Planck satellite through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect from its six highest frequencies. This early SZ (ESZ) sample is comprised of 189 candidates, which have a high signal-to-noise ratio ranging from 6 to 29. Its high reliability (purity above 95%) is further ensured by an extensive validation process based on Planck internal quality assessments and by external cross-identification and follow-up observations. Planck provides the first measured SZ signal for about 80% of the 169 previously-known ESZ clusters. Planck furthermore releases 30 new cluster candidates, amongst which 20 meet the ESZ signal-to-noise selection criterion. At the submission date, twelve of the 20 ESZ candidates were confirmed as new clusters, with eleven confirmed using XMM-Newton snapshot observations, most of them with disturbed morphologies and low luminosities. The ESZ clusters are mostly at moderate redshifts (86% with z below 0.3) and span more than a decade in mass, up to the rarest and most massive clusters with masses above 1x10 15 M �?? . (1 data file).

The scientific performance of the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) after one year of in-orbit operation is presented. We describe the main optical parameters and discuss photometric calibration, white noise sensitivity, and noise properties. A preliminary evaluation of the impact of the main systematic effects is presented. For each of the performance parameters, we outline the methods used to obtain them from the flight data and provide a comparison with pre-launch ground assessments, which are essentially confirmed in flight.

We describe the processing of data from the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) used in production of the Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC). In particular, we discuss the steps involved in reducing the data from telemetry packets to cleaned, calibrated, time-ordered data (TOD) and frequency maps. Data are continuously calibrated using the modulation of the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation induced by the motion of the spacecraft. Noise properties are estimated from TOD from which the sky signal has been removed using a generalized least square map-making algorithm. Measured 1/f noise knee-frequencies range from similar to 100 mHz at 30 GHz to a few tens of mHz at 70 GHz. A destriping code (Madam) is employed to combine radiometric data and pointing information into sky maps, minimizing the variance of correlated noise. Noise covariance matrices required to compute statistical uncertainties on LFI and Planck products are also produced. Main beams are estimated down to the approximate to-10 dB level using Jupiter transits, which are also used for geometrical calibration of the focal plane.

The European Space Agency's Planck satellite was launched on 14 May 2009, and has been surveying the sky stably and continuously since 13 August 2009. Its performance is well in line with expectations, and it will continue to gather scientific data until the end of its cryogenic lifetime. We give an overview of the history of Planck in its first year of operations, and describe some of the key performance aspects of the satellite. This paper is part of a package submitted in conjunction with Planck's Early Release Compact Source Catalogue, the first data product based on Planck to be released publicly. The package describes the scientific performance of the Planck payload, and presents results on a variety of astrophysical topics related to the sources included in the Catalogue, as well as selected topics on diffuse emission.

The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite was launched on 14 May 2009, and has been surveying the sky stably and continuously since 13 August 2009. Its performance is well in line with expectations, and it will continue to gather scientific data until the end of its cryogenic lifetime. We give an overview of the history of Planck in its first year of operations, and describe some of the key performance aspects of the satellite. This paper is part of a package submitted in conjunction with Planck’s Early Release Compact Source Catalogue, the first data product based on Planck to be released publicly. The package describes the scientific performance of the Planck payload, and presents results on a variety of astrophysical topics related to the sources included in the Catalogue, as well as selected topics on diffuse emission.

The telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will have segmented mirrors, with mirror facets of ∼1-2.5 m area. In the framework of the CTA mirror work package, the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Tubingen (IAAT) is participating in the developments for procedures to coat glass-substrate based mirror facets, is preparing a mirror facet test facility, and is prototyping Active Mirror Control (AMC) alignment mechanics and electronics. The developments are based upon the experiences the group has gained through its participation in the preparations for the 27 m dish of H.E.S.S. phase II. We will present the current status of our work and plans for future developments. The devices and procedures will be relevant for all classes of telescopes that will finally form CTA.

We describe the data processing pipeline employed by the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) Data Processing Centre (DPC) to create and characterize the frequency maps used by the ERCSC (Early Release Compact Source Catalogue) first product of Planck to become public. In particular, we discuss the various steps involved in reducing the data, starting from telemetry (TM)packets through to the production of cleaned calibrated timelines and calibrated frequency maps. Data are continuously calibrated using the modulation induced on the mean temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation by the proper motion of the spacecraft. The sky signals other than the dipole are removed by an iterative procedure based on simultaneous fitting of calibration parameters and sky maps. Noise properties are estimated from time-ordered data where the sky signal is removed using a Generalized Least Square map-making algorithm. The measured 1/f noise knee-frequencies range from \sim 100 mHz at 30 GHz to a few tens of mHz at 70 GHz. A destriping code (Madam) is employed to combine radiometric data and pointing information into sky maps, minimizing the variance of correlated noise. Noise covariance matrices required to compute statistical uncertainties on LFI and Planck products are also produced. Main beams are estimated down to the \approx -10 dB level using Jupiter transits which are also used for the geometrical calibration of the focal plane.

We analyze the 3 yr Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) temperature anisotropy data seeking to confirm the power spectrum and likelihoods published by the WMAP team. We apply five independent implementations of four algorithms to the power spectrum estimation and two implementations to the parameter estimation. Our single most important result is that we broadly confirm the WMAP power spectrum and analysis. Still, we do find two small but potentially important discrepancies. On large angular scales there is a small power excess in the WMAP spectrum (5%-10% at ℓ ≲ 30) primarily due to likelihood approximation issues between 13 ≤ ℓ ≲ 30. On small angular scales there is a systematic difference between the V- and W-band spectra (few percent at ℓ ≳ 300). Recently, the latter discrepancy was explained by Huffenberger et al. (2006) in terms of oversubtraction of unresolved point sources. As far as the low-ℓ bias is concerned, most parameters are affected by a few tenths of a σ. The most important effect is seen in ns. For the combination of WMAP, ACBAR, and BOOMERANG, the significance of ns ≠ 1 drops from ~2.7 σ to ~2.3 σ when correcting for this bias. We propose a few simple improvements to the low-ℓ WMAP likelihood code, and introduce two important extensions to the Gibbs sampling method that allows for proper sampling of the low signal-to-noise ratio regime. Finally, we make the products from the Gibbs sampling analysis publicly available, thereby providing a fast and simple route to the exact likelihood without the need of expensive matrix inversions.