Archive Catalogue Research Articles

ASTRODEEP-JWST: NIRCam-HST multi-band photometry and redshifts for half a million sources in six extragalactic deep fields

Aims. We present a set of photometric catalogues primarily aimed at providing the community with a comprehensive database for the study of galaxy populations in the high-redshift Universe. The set gathers data from eight JWST NIRCam observational programs, targeting the Abell 2744 (GLASS-JWST, UNCOVER, DDT2756, and GO3990), EGS (CEERS), COSMOS and UDS (PRIMER), and the GOODS North and South (JADES and NGDEEP) deep fields. This dataset covers a total area of ≃0.2 sq. degrees. Methods. We obtained photometric estimates by means of well-established techniques, including tailored improvements designed to enhance the performance on the specific dataset. We also included new measurements from HST archival data, spanning 16 bands from 0.44 to 4.44 µm. Results. A grand total of ~530 thousand sources were detected on stacks of NIRCam 3.56 and 4.44 µm mosaics. We assessed the photometric accuracy by comparing fluxes and colours against archival catalogues. We also provide photometric redshift estimates, statistically validated against a large set of robust spectroscopic data. Conclusions. The catalogues are publicly available on the ASTRODEEP website.

Databases of visual sources in the Internet: problems of heuristics (based on the example of studying the history of the Southern coast of Crimea in the early XX century)

The article analyzes the experience gained by the author in the course of working with three online databases of visual historical sources in the context of studying the transformation of the Southern Coast of Crimea in the late XIX - early XX centuries. They are: the electronic State Catalog of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation, as well as two crowdsourcing platforms - Pastview and Retromap.ru . The author examines the origin, format, structure of these aggregators of visual historical sources, the information potential of the content, advantages and disadvantages of usage, examples of how visual information found using these databases contributed to solving specific historical and source problems. Different aspects of working with online databases of visual sources are considered in the context of historiographical discussions about the "digital turn" in humanitarian knowledge, the "visual turn" in the structure of the source base of historical research, disputes about the multimodality of the content of historical knowledge. It is suggested that soon online databases of visual sources will become as familiar an information search tool for a historian as electronic catalogues of libraries and archives. The emphasis is placed on the methodology of a systematic approach, methods of complex source studies that allow reconstructing historical reality by analyzing and comparing information extracted from sources of different types (written, pictorial and material) and types.

Из истории архива Государственного совета Российской империи. 1810-2021 гг.

The article is to highlight the history of the Archive of the State Council. In its composition and content of its materials, this archive was one of the most important in the system of departmental archives of the Russian Empire. At present, the archival fonds of the State Council are a valuable part of the Archival Fond of the Russian Federation. The history of the Archive of the State Council has not been sufficiently studied. Until now, it has not been the subject of special research. The article is to showcase the history of archival theory and archiving in pre-revolutionary Russia in a case-study of the history of the Archive of the State Council and to trace the fate of one of the most important documents collections on the history of the Russian Empire. The article is based on unpublished archival documents, as well as on available research on the history of archiving in Russia and on the history of the formation of the State Council’s reference apparatus. The Archive of the State Council was created simultaneously with the State Council itself as a structural part of the State Chancellery. The archive received current documents on the activities of the State Council, its structural parts, as well as its various temporary committees, commissions, and meetings. The archive also stored documents of higher institutions — predecessors of the State Council. Despite the State Council’s eminence in the system of institutions of the Russian Empire, its archival staff remained insufficient, state of reference apparatus unsatisfactory. The latter was due to the peculiarities of the State Chancellery office work. However (in contrast to other departmental archives), the files that entered the archive were, as a rule, preserved. The second half of the 19th century saw an improvement in the archive’s reference apparatus. The archive proceeded from alphabetical indexes in the form of books to alphabetical index cards. The card index of the State Council Archive became one of the largest and most efficient. It was a prototype of the future archival catalogues. In 1908–14, there were published 17 volumes of the State Council Archive’s series. The archive was available to historians. On June 1, 1918, the archive became a part of the Unified State Archival Fond of the RSFSR. It was preserved from destruction and inappropriate re-systematization.

Soviet Cultural Diplomacy with Scandinavians after the Great Terror: VOKS and Visitors from Denmark and Norway in 1939

Soviet Cultural Diplomacy with Scandinavians after the Great TerrorVOKS and Visitors from Denmark and Norway in 1939 Ville Soimetsä (bio) This article analyzes Soviet cultural diplomacy in Scandinavia shortly before the outbreak of World War II. The focus is on exchanges between the key Soviet organization for cultural diplomacy, the All-Union Society for Cultural Ties Abroad (Vsesoiuznoe obshchestvo kul´turnoi sviazi s zagranitsei, VOKS) and select Danish and Norwegian journalists and writers.1 While utilizing sources from Russian and Scandinavian archival collections to examine four such exchanges in detail, the article discusses continuities and changes in how [End Page 29] VOKS worked to transnationally develop and disseminate a positive and controlled image of Soviet society by hosting foreign intellectuals after the purges of the Great Terror of 1937–38 and before June 1941. By expanding on previous research and highlighting the perspectives of the hosts and their guests, the analysis contributes to our broader understanding of the elements in Soviet cultural diplomacy that continued to function through the purges and were reciprocal even if asymmetrical. The article also focuses on the underexplored "period of relative calm" for VOKS, as characterized by Michael David-Fox in Showcasing the Great Experiment, the most comprehensive published study of Soviet cultural diplomacy before World War II.2 Throughout the interwar period, VOKS and other important agents of Soviet cultural diplomacy, such as the Foreign Commission of the Union of Soviet Writers (Soiuz pisatelei SSSR, established in 1936), mainly focused on West and Central European countries.3 Therefore, the Scandinavian dimension has received limited attention in research. Additionally, the period of 1939–41, when the Great Terror had seriously hindered VOKS operations and diminished its significance (and when most European countries were engulfed in war and occupied by German forces), barely has a place in the main narrative.4 The main reason for this neglect is archival silence: there are no general VOKS policy documents available from 1939–41, and the files [End Page 30] related to operations that actually took place in 1939 or later are included in inventories mostly listed as ending in 1937. However, a close reading of the VOKS archival catalogue reveals that even during the first half of 1939, and before the German-Soviet pact in August 1939 and the outbreak of war the next month, VOKS operations had an unprecedentedly strong Scandinavian focus in proportion to the whole. Of the 160 files in the inventories (opisi) of the Anglo-American and First Western Divisions from the 1939–41 period, 60 refer to the Nordic countries.5 The earlier years of Scandinavian-Soviet cultural relations have been more widely researched, especially concerning specific Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish organizations that played a role in that field. However, the studies usually concentrate on only one of the countries and are mostly published only in the Scandinavian languages.6 Perhaps the most illuminating comparative study in English, by Ole Martin Rønning, focuses on the first level of cultural diplomacy, which took place in the framework of the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Cultural Fronts, intellectual-driven leftist organizations of the mid-1930s popular front period. They had some success and societal visibility, especially in Denmark, where support for the Communist Party was at the highest among the Nordic countries, but they were all suppressed and dissolved with the end of the popular front era, the Great Terror, and the isolation of Communists from other elements of the workers' movement and [End Page 31] liberal sympathizers.7 The second level of the framework for cultural diplomacy was the organizations linked to the Communist International (Comintern), VOKS, or both. These organizations included two kinds of entities: the essentially communist friendship organizations were technically nation-specific branches of the Comintern-affiliated International Association of Friends of the Soviet Union, established in Moscow in November 1927. In all three Scandinavian countries, there were also organizations for the advancement of cultural and economic relations. As these organizations were not affiliated with the Comintern or the Communist Party, they were more inclusive, at least in principle.8 The friendship and cultural/economic organizations are discussed in this article, because they effectively served as the foreign nodes and...

Quality Inspection of Digital Archives of Application and Installation in Power Business Expanding based on Artificial Intelligence Technology

The existing quality detection methods of business expansion digital archives have the problem of fuzzy evaluation standard, which leads to low classification accuracy. This paper designs a quality detection method of business expansion Digital Archives based on artificial intelligence technology. The business characteristics of business development are extracted, the minimum business data unit is described, the digital archive catalogue database is established, the digital archive evaluation standard is defined, the text similarity is calculated, the user model is established, and the quality inspection mode is established by using artificial intelligence technology. Experimental results: the average classification accuracy of the designed method based on artificial intelligence technology and the other two quality detection methods is 55.763, 43.560 and 42.605, which proves that the quality detection method based on artificial intelligence technology has higher use value.

Historical seismic catalogue updates and site effects considerations for southern Piedmont (Northwest Italy)

In Northwest Italy, the definition of the seismic districts is a debated topic, with relatively scarce literature to pursue the goal of assessing the relative seismic potential. In particular, the southern Piedmont, despite being part of the lowest categories in the Italian seismic zonation map, has been affected by four relevant earthquakes between 5.5 and 6.5 Mw in the last six centuries.Starting from the Italian Historical Macroseismic Archive catalogue, a consultation of ten historical archives (in parishes, municipalities, and administrations of Alessandria, Asti, Cuneo, and Turin Provinces) improved the historical seismicity information reported in the Italian Macroseismic Database, verifying the presence of unknown Macroseismic Data Point (MDPs). An analysis of the density of instrumental seismicity epicentres of the last 35 years provides consistency with MDPs density, qualitatively finding spatial correlation between them. In addition, a deepening of earthquake- induced landslide issue has been performed in a georeferenced environment with the purpose to assess eventual local amplification effects through a geostatistical analysis.

Making ‘slave ownership’ visible in the archival catalogue: findings from a pilot project

ABSTRACT This article outlines a pilot project aimed at making ‘slave ownership’ more visible in archival catalogues. The project began with the premise that it is incumbent upon academic communities and record-keepers to make known Britain’s slaving past and the ongoing legacies of that past as part of a drive to dismantle systemic (and often invisible) racism across the sector. Specifically, it explored different ways of cross-referencing the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs//) with the Special Collections catalogue at the University of St Andrews with a view to updating the information provided in the latter. Six methods of identifying matches were trialled, each of which is presented and reflected upon here. Although some methods produced more matches than others, the collective results point towards the need for a multifaceted approach. Our findings also raise important questions about types of involvement in enslavement (direct/indirect), how different levels of certainty regarding the identity of certain individuals might be indicated in the record, and how collection-level and item-level descriptions might be updated. The project also highlights how our own assumptions about who is — and is not — likely to have ‘owned’ enslaved people can influence our very methods for uncovering those people.

Do Archive Catalogues Make History?: Exploring Interactions between Historians and Archives.

Archival research is foundational to the writing of most works of academic history and is a central part of the professional identity of historians. Despite this, we know very little about what historians do in archives, and how it shapes the process of writing history. This article uses quantitative data from The National Archives of the UK to analyse one part of this puzzle, namely how historians choose what to look at in an archive. It explores the nature of archive catalogues, and their relationship to the collections they describe. It goes on to assess how catalogues shape what historians choose to view when they visit an archive, and concludes by looking more widely at historians' information seeking practices. Through this analysis the article will argue that external factors have a far greater impact on archival research, and through it the writing of history, than is traditionally acknowledged, and as such historians need to pay considerably more attention to the ways in which their access to archives is shaped by these factors.

Racialized Marketing in the Athletic Apparel Industry: The Convergence of Sneaker Promotion and Black Culture in the United States

As the United States economy shifted to post-Fordist production models in the late twentieth century, the athletic apparel industry (specifically the brands Nike, Adidas, and Reebok) modified its promotional strategies. Whereas the industry traditionally touted the materiality and functionality of its products, the 1980s saw a substantial increase in marketing that aimed to inculcate products with symbolic characteristics and popular cultural associations. In particular, the industry deployed Black culture, and competed to associate their products with Black athletes, styles, and cultural signifiers. While this modification in promotional tactics yielded unprecedented growth for the industry, the images and messages communicated in this marketing served to exploit Black communities and reinforce the rampant biological and cultural racisms of the Reagan era. Engaging primary accounts from newspapers, magazines, interviews, advertisements, archival catalogues, and oral histories, this paper traces the historical shift towards racialized marketing through the athletic apparel industry’s quintessential commodity: the athletic sneaker. Overall, I argue that scholarly analyses of technology must critically engage how goods are promoted and distributed in order to holistically comprehend the social, cultural, and political implications of sporting technology.

Institutional Metadata and the Problem of Context

Abstract The traditional archive catalogue constitutes a form of structural and descriptive metadata that long precedes the internet; and the cataloguing of photographs is just one part of a process of archival administration. The application of keywords to images contrasts with archival prose description, which is based on the visual content of the image and is predominantly context-free; a remediation of the image itself. At the heart of this lies the notion that the single photograph is itself devoid of context; it is a discrete embodiment of shutter time and there is nothing certain either side of that. Thus, one can only speculate at its context, and institutional description techniques actively avoid such speculation. Yet context in the archive is ever-present and key to the function of images as objects of information and evidence. It is built through static relationships, through the situating of photographs in accordance with the concept of original order, and it is replicated through storage systems and hierarchical catalogue entries. Such orders, hierarchies and relationships are absent within sets of images that are brought together by keyword search, including through the websites of archival institutions that struggle to reconcile archival principles and identity with network culture. Images are transported to places where contextual information is at best difficult to access, especially for those unfamiliar with archival interfaces. In contrast to the controlled stasis of archival storage and interconnected recordkeeping systems, network storage is messy, unstable and poorly described. However, we must accept that context is not a prerequisite for many users, and for them the networking of archival images denotes a freedom; a democratisation of the archive. But in a media-driven society that is becoming more and more indifferent to the evidential value of documents of any kind, the context-free image is left predisposed to exploitation.

COOPERATION OF BOADINGT SCHOOLS WITH CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS OF TRANSCARPATHIA OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE XX CENTURY

The activities of boarding schools in Transcarpathia in the first half of the XX-th century were organized and carried out with the direct participation of the state, but the active support of such institutions was carried out by various charitable organizations. The purpose of the article is to study the areas of cooperation of boarding schools in Transcarpathia in the first half of the XX-th century with charitable organizations. Methods applied: search and bibliographic method exists for the study of archival and library catalogs, collections and descriptions; content analysis of archival materials in order to identify the retro features of the organization and the content of cooperation of boarding schools of Transcarpathia with charitable organizations; interpretation and generalization − in order to update and identify ways to implement constructive historical experience in the modern practice of institutional care, formulation of conclusions, recommendations. The formation and development of boarding schools in Transcarpathia in the first half of the twentieth century depended primarily on the educational and social policy of the states to which the Transcarpathian lands belonged. Also, the activities of boarding schools of the first half of the XX-th century were accompanied by the active support of charitable public organizations that operated during the stay of the Transcarpathian lands as part of both Austria-Hungary and Czechoslovakia, including: League for the Protection of Children (creation of boarding schools at craft schools; holding charity events; supporting families in difficult life circumstances; organization of children's rehabilitation campaigns); the union «Shkolskaia pomoch» /»School help»/ (cooperation in the field of education of pupils of boarding schools, actively carries out student actions); union «Nadiya»/»Hope»/ (guardianship of war veterans' children); union of church teachers (guardianship of orphans of parish and state teachers, assistance in teaching in pedagogical education institutions); union «Patronage» (care for single mothers); counseling center «To our children»(care for the health of vulnerable children); Masaryk League against tuberculosis (children's recovery). Coordination of the actions of this unions, charitable foundations, public organizations was established on April 31, 1923 in the town Mukachevo. This work was carried out by the regional branch of the State Committee for Youth Guardianship, which was opened in the town Mukachevo in 1923.

Case of Fyodor Rokotov: A Dialogue between Experts and Art Historians

This article deals with the relevant issue of interaction between an art historian and an expert in the context of stylistic and technological studies of the work of eighteenth-century artist Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov. The reason for turning to the issue is a new attribution of two ceremonial portraits of Catherine the Great (1763, State Tretyakov Gallery, Pavlovsk State Museum) proposed by specialists of the Tretyakov Gallery — I. E. Lomize, a technologist expert, and N. G. Presnova, an art historian, in 2016. As a result of an in-depth comprehensive study, the portraits which were previously considered undisputed works created by Rokotov were attributed to the artist’s studio. The results of the research were unexpected, sensational, and broke stereotypes in the perception of the artist’s creative path. In this regard, there was a need to re-evaluate and reconsider the established traditional ideas about the artist and his works. Based on disparate material, i.e. published archival data, art research, and catalogues of monographic exhibitions (1923, 1925, 1960, 2016, 2020), the author analyses the main stages and approaches in the study of portraits of Catherine the Great. Taking into account the latest data of the comprehensive study, the author identifies issues of scholarly interest. Attention is focused on the study of the relationship between the artist and his studio, distinguishing originals from copies, considering different versions of the commissioners of the ceremonial portraits. Also, the author reveals the significance and role of an art critic and an expert in the study of works of art. The article concludes that there is a need to continue the productive dialogue between critics and experts and comprehensively study the artist’s oeuvre to shape a more objective history of the Russian painting of the second half of the eighteenth century.

Grauzone Privatarchiv

Abstract As Frédéric Döhl recently noted in his article „Potential und Risiken des Archival Turns in den Digital Humanities für die Musikwissenschaft“ (in: „Archiv für Musikwissenschaft“ 75,4 [2018], pp. 301–320), the hierarchy of accessibility among sources shifts perceptibly during digitalization, and musicology and archives ultimately become something like a dual form of music historiography. This paper tries to argue that the limited accessibility of private archives can be regarded as a parallel phenomenon to the digital multiplication of already known sources, while non-digitized sources increasingly disappear from focus. To avoid unintended consequences that hinder research attempting to open up new sources, it is necessary to find feasible paths to a fruitful handling of such archives at the intersection of the public and private interest. The limitations of temporary research projects in particular complicate the options for exploitation, as the grey area of private archives offers the services of public archives only to a very limited extent. Here, the researcher is often not a user but a supplicant. Considering some of the main problems regarding persisting inaccessibility, reduced opening hours and dealing with archive catalogues (when they exist), this article attempts to determine the potential for a restricted, though fruitful, use of undiscovered sources during ongoing research in which the exploitation of a private archive with an abundance of material is just part of a research project and not its main focus. The discussion is enriched with personal experiences, with two examples from Venice and Florence. These empirical insights were obtained during research on the production mechanisms of Italian opera in the first half of the 18th Century, but could be extended to other interdisciplinary projects that tackle an extensive corpus of heterogeneous sources.

“MEDENİLEŞTİRME”ARACI OLARAK OSMANLI’NIN İSKÂN POLİTİKASI: CAF AŞİRETİ ÖRNEĞİ

İskân politikası, 19. yüzyıl Osmanlı modernleşme paradigmasının önemi araçlarından biriydi. Bu bağlamda devlet otoritesini medeniyetle özdeşleştiren Osmanlı merkeziyetçi devlet aklının hedefinden “vahşilik”, “barbarlık” ve “otorite tanımazlık”la eşdeğer gördüğü göçebe Müslüman kitleler vardı. Dolayısıyla Osmanlı’nın göçebe gruplara yönelik iskân politikası bir açıdan devlet otoritesinin tesisiyken diğer yönüyle bir medenileştirme hamlesi olarak nitelendirildi. Bu çerçevede Osmanlı-İran sınır bölgesinde yaşan büyük göçebe nüfusa sahip olan Caf aşireti, bu politikanın muhataplarından biriydi. Sınır bölgesinin kendine ait sosyo-politik yapısı, devletin iskân politikasındaki önceliklerini etkiliyordu. Özellikle İran’nın bölgedeki aşiretler üzerindeki nüfuzu ve Ermenilerin politik faaliyetleri, iskanı önceleyen mevzular arasındaydı. Ancak devletin iskân politikasını sonuçlandıracak alt yapı eksikliği, Caf aşiret beylerinin nüfuzlarını korumak adına iskana dair baltalayıcı tutumları ve yerleşik yaşamın göçebeler nazarındaki negatif imajı gibi durumlar, süreci daha girift hale getiriyordu. Bu makalede, Caf aşireti özelinde, Osmanlı Devleti’nin İran sınırında medenileştirme ile özdeşleştirilen iskân politikasında inşa ettiği söylem, uygulamalar ve çelişkilerin yanı sıra aşiretin bu politikaya verdiği karşılığın nedenleri ve ortaya çıkardığı sonuçlar analiz edilmeye çalışılacaktır. Bu bağlamda makalede araştırma eserlerinin yanı sıra Osmanlı arşiv kataloğundan birçok yazışma, mektup ve raporlardan istifade edilmektedir.

Expanding the Singaporean discourse: Exploring artist materials from the 1950s to 1970s

Understanding the conditions of Singapore’s vast cultural record is crucial in building knowledge on the artistic practices of mid-twentieth century artists. These narratives are familiarly anchored by historical junctures of Western colonisation, Japanese occupation, the country’s independence and more broadly, post-war. This paper expands on the discourse through material data generated from a technical examination of two Singaporean artists, Georgette Chen (1906–1993) and Cheong Soo Pieng (1917–1983), and their techniques and material availability of the 1950s–1970s. Primary data from archival exhibition catalogues and recent art historical literature indicate that the Chinese diaspora community played a vital role in developing a modern art scene, including the sale of artist supplies through Chinese bookshops. Findings on canvas support and its preparation from a broad technical study of 67 Cheong Soo Pieng and Georgette Chen paintings are discussed. The presence of canvas stamps by Japanese canvas manufacturer, Holbein, was found on 50% of paintings produced in the 1960s. Additionally, trends in cotton and bast fibres are observed through the decades. Through the production of new empirical data located in a relevant knowledge eco-system, future technical art research in Singapore and the broader context of Southeast Asia are considered and examined.

Archives Africa: towards a universal archive catalogue for Africa

During 2018, the Finding Africa Project at King’s College London piloted a lightweight online archival catalogue for Madagascar, called “Archives Africa”, testing a prototype that might be adopted ...

Star–Gas Surface Density Correlations in 12 Nearby Molecular Clouds. I. Data Collection and Star-sampled Analysis

Abstract We explore the relation between the stellar mass surface density and the mass surface density of molecular hydrogen gas in 12 nearby molecular clouds that are located at <1.5 kpc distance. The sample clouds span an order-of-magnitude range in mass, size, and star formation rates. We use thermal dust emission from Herschel maps to probe the gas surface density and the young stellar objects from the most recent Spitzer Extended Solar Neighborhood Archive catalog to probe the stellar surface density. Using a star-sampled nearest neighbor technique to probe the star–gas surface density correlations at the scale of a few parsecs, we find that the stellar mass surface density varies as a power law of the gas mass surface density, with a power-law index of ∼2 in all the clouds. The consistent power-law index implies that star formation efficiency is directly correlated with gas column density, and no gas column density threshold for star formation is observed. We compare the observed correlations with the predictions from an analytical model of thermal fragmentation and with the synthetic observations of a recent hydrodynamic simulation of a turbulent star-forming molecular cloud. We find that the observed correlations are consistent for some clouds with the thermal fragmentation model and can be reproduced using the hydrodynamic simulations.

A contextual thematic analysis of the accessory nerve in Scottish historical medical collections of the Royal Colleges of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The classification of the accessory nerve (CN XI) remains a source of debate; its exact function has not been fully elucidated having also an atypical morphology for a cranial nerve. A better insight into its anatomical and physiological features is of clinical relevance. The aim was to conduct a review of 18th and 19th century books from the Royal Medical/Surgical Colleges in Scotland, United Kingdom. A contextual historical analysis of the depictions and descriptions of the accessory nerve could provide insight into the disparity in the current descriptions. Online archive catalogues were systematically searched and, during site visits, resources were formally and contextually analyzed, with the information then thematically analyzed. The themes were discussed against a widely known reference textbook of the era. Based on the thematic analysis, the resources were categorized either as practical anatomy books or field-specific anatomy books including neuroanatomy atlases. This intended use, along with the target audience, influenced the scope and detail of information, typically with general anatomy for students in the practical resources, and specialist information in the field-specific resources. The authors' professional background also influenced the way the accessory nerve was described and/or depicted, with surgeons/physicians placing emphasis on the clinical aspects. Content variations could also be attributed to communication restrictions of the era, and associated purchasing costs. Although scientific advances are nowadays disseminated at a faster pace, actively bridging the gap between anatomical sciences and clinical research is still needed when considering the accessory nerve to further elucidate the mysteries of this structure.

Census of the Young Stellar Population in the Galactic H ii Region Sh2-242

Abstract We present here identification and characterization of the young stellar population associated with an active star-forming site Sh2-242. We used our own new optical imaging and spectroscopic observational data, as well as several archival catalogs, e.g., Pan-STARRS 1, Gaia DR2, IPHAS, Wide-field InfraRed Camera, 2MASS, and Spitzer. Slit spectroscopic results confirm the classification of the main ionizing source BD+26 980 as an early-type star of spectral type B0.5 V. The spectrophotometric distance of the star is estimated as 2.08 ± 0.24 kpc, which confirms the source as a member of the cluster. An extinction map covering a large area (diameter ∼50′) is generated with H and K photometry toward the region. From the map, three distinct locations of peak extinction complexes (A V ≃ 7–17 mag) are identified for the very first time. Using the infrared color excess, a total of 33 Class I and 137 Class II young objects are classified within the region. The IPHAS photometry reveals classification of 36 Hα emitting sources, which might be class II objects. Among 36 Hα emitting sources, 5 are already identified using infrared excess emission. In total, 201 young objects are classified toward S242 from this study. The membership status of the young sources is further windowed with the inclusion of parallax from the Gaia DR2 catalog. Using the optical and infrared color–magnitude diagrams, the young stellar objects are characterized with an average age of ∼1 Myr and masses in the range 0.1–3.0 M ☉. The census of the stellar content within the region is discussed using combined photometric and spectroscopic data.

Optical follow-up observation of Fast Radio Burst 151230

Abstract The origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs), bright millisecond radio transients, is still somewhat of a mystery. Several theoretical models expect that the FRB accompanies an optical afterglow (e.g., Totani et al., 2013, PASJ, 65, L12; Kashiyama 2013, ApJ, 776, L39). In order to investigate the origin of FRBs, we perform gri-band follow-up observations of FRB 151230 (estimated $z$ ≲ 0.8) with Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam at 8, 11, and 14 days after discovery. The follow-up observation reaches a 50% completeness magnitude of 26.5 mag for point sources, which is the deepest optical follow-up of FRBs to-date. We find 13 counterpart candidates with variabilities during the observation. We investigate their properties with multi-color and multi-wavelength observations and archival catalogs. Two candidates are excluded by the non-detection of FRB 151230 in the other radio feed horns that operated simultaneously to the detection, as well as the inconsistency between the photometric redshift and that derived from the dispersion measure of FRB 151230. Eight further candidates are consistent with optical variability seen in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Two more candidates are well fitted with transient templates (Type IIn supernovae), and the final candidate is poorly fitted with all of our transient templates and is located off-center of an extended source. It can only be reproduced with rapid transients with a faint peak and rapid decline, and the probability of chance coincidence is ∼3.6%. We also find that none of our candidates are consistent with Type Ia supernovae, which rules out the association of Type Ia supernovae to FRB 151230 at $z$ ≤ 0.6 and limits the dispersion measure of the host galaxy to ≲300 pc cm−3 in a Type Ia supernova scenario.