Dome A on the Antarctic plateau is likely one of the best observing sites on Earth thanks to the excellent atmospheric conditions present at the site during the long polar winter night. We present high-cadence time-series aperture photometry of 10,000 stars with i < 14.5 mag located in a 23 deg 2 region centered on the south celestial pole. The photometry was obtained with one of the CSTAR telescopes during 128 days of the 2008 Antarctic winter. We used this photometric data set to derive site statistics for Dome A and to search for variable stars. Thanks to the nearly uninterrupted synoptic coverage, we found six times as many variables as previous surveys with similar magnitude limits. We detected 157 variable stars, of which 55% were unclassified, 27% were likely binaries, and 17% were likely pulsating stars. The latter category includes δ Scuti, γ Doradus, and RR Lyrae variables. One variable may be a transiting exoplanet.

Supernova (SN) 2018oh (ASASSN-18bt) is the first spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) observed in the Kepler field. The Kepler data revealed an excess emission in its early light curve, allowing us to place interesting constraints on its progenitor system. Here we present extensive optical, ultraviolet, and nearinfrared photometry, as well as dense sampling of optical spectra, for this object. SN 2018oh is relatively normal in its photometric evolution, with a rise time of 18.3±0.3 days and Δm 15 (B)=0.96±0.03 mag, but it seems to have bluer B−V colors. We construct the "UVOIR" bolometric light curve having a peak luminosity of 1.49×10 43 erg s −1 , from which we derive a nickel mass as 0.55±0.04 M e by fitting radiation diffusion models powered by centrally located 56 Ni. Note that the moment when nickel-powered luminosity starts to emerge is +3.85 days after the first light in the Kepler data, suggesting other origins of the early-time emission, e.g., mixing of 56 Ni to outer layers of the ejecta or interaction between the ejecta and nearby circumstellar material or a nondegenerate companion star. The spectral evolution of SN 2018oh is similar to that of a normal SN Ia but is characterized by prominent and persistent carbon absorption features. The CII features can be detected from the early phases to about 3 weeks after the maximum light, representing the latest detection of carbon ever recorded in an SN Ia. This indicates that a considerable amount of unburned carbon exists in the ejecta of SN 2018oh and may mix into deeper layers.

Corresponding author: E. Y. Hsiao ehsiao@fsu.edu * This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5-m Magellan telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. Hsiao et al.Shifting the focus of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) cosmology to the near-infrared (NIR) is a promising way to significantly reduce the systematic errors, as the strategy minimizes our reliance on the empirical width-luminosity relation and uncertain dust laws. Observations in the NIR are also crucial for our understanding of the origins and evolution of these events, further improving their cosmological utility. Any future experiments in the rest-frame NIR will require knowledge of the SN Ia NIR spectroscopic diversity, which is currently based on a small sample of observed spectra. Along with the accompanying paper, Phillips et al. (2018), we introduce the Carnegie Supernova Project-II (CSP-II), to follow up nearby SNe Ia in both the optical and the NIR. In particular, this paper focuses on the CSP-II NIR spectroscopy program, describing the survey strategy, instrumental setups, data reduction, sample characteristics, and future analyses on the data set. In collaboration with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) Supernova Group, we obtained 661 NIR spectra of 157 SNe Ia. Within this sample, 451 NIR spectra of 90 SNe Ia have corresponding CSP-II follow-up light curves. Such a sample will allow detailed studies of the NIR spectroscopic properties of SNe Ia, providing a different perspective on the properties of the unburned material, radioactive and stable nickel produced, progenitor magnetic fields, and searches for possible signatures of companion stars.

We have monitored the BL Lac object S5 0716+714 in five intermediate optical wavebands from 2004 September to 2011 April. Here we present the data that include 8661 measurements. It represents one of the largest databases obtained for an object at optical domain. A simple analysis of the data indicates that the object was active in most time, and intraday variability was frequently observed. In total, the object varied by 2.614 magnitudes in the i band. Strong bluer-when-brighter chromatism was observed on long, intermediate, and short timescales.

We present results from a season of observations with the Chinese Small Telescope ARray (CSTAR), obtained over 183 days of the 2010 Antarctic winter. We carried out high-cadence time-series aperture photometry of 9,125 stars with i 15.3 mag located in a 23 square-degree region centered on the south celestial pole.We identified 188 variable stars, including 67 new objects relative to our 2008 observations, thanks to broader synoptic coverage, a deeper magnitude limit and a larger field of view.We used the photometric data set to derive site statistics from Dome A. Based on two years of observations, we find that extinction due to clouds at this site is less than 0.1 and 0.4 mag during 45% and 75% of the dark time, respectively.

A rare class of supernovae (SNe) is characterized by strong interaction between the ejecta and several solar masses of circumstellar matter (CSM) as evidenced by strong Balmer-line emission. Within the first few weeks after the explosion, they may display spectral features similar to overluminous Type Ia SNe, while at later phase their observation properties exhibit remarkable similarities with some extreme case of Type IIn SNe that show strong Balmer lines years after the explosion. We present polarimetric observations of SN 2018evt obtained by the ESO Very Large Telescope from 172 to 219 days after the estimated time of peak luminosity to study the geometry of the CSM. The nonzero continuum polarization decreases over time, suggesting that the mass loss of the progenitor star is aspherical. The prominent Hα emission can be decomposed into a broad, time-evolving component and an intermediate-width, static component. The former shows polarized signals, and it is likely to arise from a cold dense shell (CDS) within the region between the forward and reverse shocks. The latter is significantly unpolarized, and it is likely to arise from shocked, fragmented gas clouds in the H-rich CSM. We infer that SN 2018evt exploded inside a massive and aspherical circumstellar cloud. The symmetry axes of the CSM and the SN appear to be similar. SN 2018evt shows observational properties common to events that display strong interaction between the ejecta and CSM, implying that they share similar circumstellar configurations. Our preliminary estimate also suggests that the circumstellar environment of SN 2018evt has been significantly enriched at a rate of ∼0.1 M⊙ yr−1 over a period of &gt;100 yr.

The Chinese Small Telescope ARray (CSTAR) is the first telescope facility built at Dome A, Antarctica. During the 2008 observing season, the installation provided long-baseline and high-cadence photometric observations in the i-band for 18,145 targets within 20 deg 2 CSTAR field around the South Celestial Pole for the purpose of monitoring the astronomical observing quality of Dome A and detecting various types of photometric variability. Using sensitive and robust detection methods, we discover 274 potential variables from this data set, 83 of which are new discoveries. We characterize most of them, providing the periods, amplitudes and classes of variability. The catalog of all these variables is presented along with the discussion of their statistical properties.

Early-time radiative signals from type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) can provide important constraints on the explosion mechanism and the progenitor system. We present observations and analysis of SN 2019np, a nearby SN Ia discovered within 1-2 days after the explosion. Follow-up observations were conducted in optical, ultraviolet, and near-infrared bands, covering the phases from ∼−16.7 days to ∼+367.8 days relative to its B −band peak luminosity. The photometric and spectral evolutions of SN 2019np resembles the average behavior of normal SNe Ia. The absolute B-band peak magnitude and the post-peak decline rate are Mmax(B) =−19.52 ± 0.47 mag and Δm15(B) =1.04 ± 0.04 mag, respectively. No Hydrogen line has been detected in the near-infrared and nebular-phase spectra of SN 2019np. Assuming that the 56Ni powering the light curve is centrally located, we find that the bolometric light curve of SN 2019np shows a flux excess up to 5.0% in the early phase compared to the radiative diffusion model. Such an extra radiation perhaps suggests the presence of an additional energy source beyond the radioactive decay of central nickel. Comparing the observed color evolution with that predicted by different models such as interactions of SN ejecta with circumstellar matter (CSM)/companion star, a double-detonation explosion from a sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarf (WD), and surface 56Ni mixing, the latter one is favored.