We present the combination of optical data from the Science Verification phase of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) with near infrared data from the ESO VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS). The deep optical detections from DES are used to extract fluxes and associated errors from the shallower VHS data. Joint 7-band (grizY JK) photometric catalogues are produced in a single 3 sq-deg DECam field centred at 02h26m−04d36m where the availability of ancillary multi-wavelength photometry and spectroscopy allows us to test the data quality. Dual photometry increases the number of DES galaxies with measured VHS fluxes by a factor of ∼4.5 relative to a simple catalogue level matching and results in a ∼1.5 mag increase in the 80% completeness limit of the NIR data. Almost 70% of DES sources have useful NIR flux measurements in this initial catalogue. Photometric redshifts are estimated for a subset of galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts and initial results, although currently limited by small number statistics, indicate that the VHS data can help reduce the photometric redshift scatter at both z < 0.5 and z > 1. We present example DES+VHS colour selection criteria for high redshift Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) at z ∼ 0.7 as well as luminous quasars. Using spectroscopic observations in this field we show that the additional VHS fluxes enable a cleaner selection of both populations with <10% contamination from galactic stars in the case of spectroscopically confirmed quasars and < 0.5% contamination from galactic stars in the case of spectroscopically confirmed LRGs. The combined DES+VHS dataset, which will eventually cover almost 5000 sq-deg, will therefore enable a range of new science and be ideally suited for target selection for future wide-field spectroscopic surveys.

2019) Variación de la diversidad de Staphylinidae, Silphidae y Trogidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) en un gradiente urbano-agrícola en una región semiárida del Estado de México, México. Acta Zoológica Mexicana (nueva serie), 35, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.21829/azm.2019.3502152RESUMEN. Se estudió el efecto del uso de suelo sobre la diversidad de coleópteros necrófilos y epigeos en una zona semiárida del Estado de México, poniendo a prueba la siguiente hipótesis: las áreas dedicadas a la producción agrícola representan un refugio para las especies de Staphylinidae, Trogidae y Silphidae. Para lo cual se realizaron muestreos mensuales durante un año con trampas de caída y trampas tipo NTP-80 cebadas con carroña. Ambas trampas fueron distribuidas en tres localidades con diferente uso de suelo (zona agrícola, zona suburbana y zona urbana). En la zona agrícola la abundancia y riqueza fueron mayores, y la diversidad fue significativamente menor que lo registrado en la zona suburbana y urbana, debido a que en la zona agrícola dos especies (Nicrophorus mexicanus Mattews, 1888 y Belonuchus sp.) concentraron el 70% de la abundancia, mientras que en las otras dos zonas las especies tuvieron mayor equidad. El recambio espacial de especies y el anidamiento contribuyeron de manera similar en la variación de la composición del ensamble de especies entre los sitios, la zona agrícola albergó el 70.6% de las especies que estuvieron presentes tanto en la zona urbana como en la zona suburbana o en alguna de éstas, así como un mayor número de especies con afinidad alta por este sitio, lo que sugiere que la zona agrícola funciona como refugio de las especies de coleópteros necrófilos y epigeos que se distribuyen en esta región semiárida, cuyas poblaciones se vieron favorecidas durante todo el año, debido al aporte constante de materia orgánica y humedad. Finalmente, en cuanto al inventario de especies, se registró a Belonuchus erichsoni Bernhauer, 1917 por primera vez para el Estado de México. Palabras clave: coleópteros; necrófilos; epigeos; matorral xerófilo; Teotihuacan; NTP-80; trampa de caída Jiménez-Sánchez et al.: Variación de coleópteros en un gradiente urbano-agrícola 2 Jiménez-Sánchez, E., Quezada-García, R., Padilla-Ramírez, J. R., Moreno, M. L., Angel, M. A. (2019) Variation of the diversity of Staphylinidae, Silphidae and Trogidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) in a urbanagricultural gradient in a semiarid region of Estado de México, Mexico. Acta Zoológica Mexicana (nueva serie), 35, 1-16. https://doi.ABSTRACT. The effect of land use on the diversity of necrophilous and epigeal beetles in a semi-arid zone of the Estado de México was studied, we tested the following hypothesis: areas dedicated to agricultural production represent a refuge for species of Staphylinidae, Trogidae and Silphidae. Monthly sampling was carried out during one year with pitfall and carrion traps. Traps were distributed in three locations with different land use (agricultural, suburban and urban area). In the agricultural zone the abundance and richness were greater,...

We present a new occultation event simulator for the Trans-Neptunian Automated Occultation Survey (TAOS II). We have developed a method to compute occultation shadows by small objects with non-circular apparent shapes (as may result from an intrinsic morphology or from the projection of a contact binary). The new simulator calculates diffraction features in the occultation shadows, as well as resulting light curves as would be measured by the TAOSII survey system. We include effects such as the spectral type and finite angular size of the occulted star. We find that occultation events, especially by Trans-Neptunian Objects with diameters ∼3 km may be misidentified or mischaracterized when not taking non-spherical shapes into account.

The Transneptunian Automated Occultation Survey (TAOS II) is a blind occultation survey with the aim of measuring the size distribution of Trans-Neptunian Objects with diameters in the range of 0.3 ≲ D ≲ 30 km. TAOS II will observe as many as 10,000 stars at a cadence of 20 Hz with all three telescopes simultaneously. This will produce up to ∼20 billion photometric measurements per night, and as many as ∼6 trillion measurements per year, corresponding to over 70 million individual light curves. A very fast analysis pipeline for event detection and characterization is needed to handle this massive data set. The pipeline should be capable of real-time detection of events (within 24 hours of observations) for follow-up observations of any occultations by larger TNOs. In addition, the pipeline should be fast and scalable for large simulations where simulated events are added to the observed light curves to measure detection efficiency and biases in event characterization. Finally, the pipeline should provide estimates of the size of and distance to any occulting objects, including those with non-spherical shapes. This paper describes a new data analysis pipeline for the detection and characterization of occultation events.

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