Martin J. F. Fowler

Les Rocquettes Observatory and Exoplanet Factory

The online AARGnews archive represents a a valuable resource on Aerial Archaeology that spans over 30 years. Here we look back at what was topical in AARGnews 10, 20, and 30 years ago.

We present an updated ephemeris, and physical parameters, for the exoplanet WASP-77 A b. In this effort, we combine 64 ground- and space-based transit observations, 6 space-based eclipse observations, and 32 radial velocity observations to produce this target's most precise orbital solution to date aiding in the planning of James Webb Space Telesco...

We present an updated ephemeris and physical parameters for the exoplanet WASP-77 A b. In this effort, we combine 64 ground- and space-based transit observations, 6 space-based eclipse observations, and 32 radial velocity observations to produce the most precise orbital solution to date for this target, aiding in the planning of James Webb Space Te...

In April 2022, the AARG Committee called on members to take part in a survey to help shape the future of AARGnews. Here is a summary of what you said and how we are planning to use your ideas.

The Editor muses on an aerial archaeology artefact in a museum, the Danebury meteorite and serendipity in archaeology, and how AARGnews can 'prepare the mind' to interpret aerial images.

The online AARGnews archive represents a a valuable resource on Aerial Archaeology that spans over 30 years. Here we look back at what was topical in AARGnews 10, 20, and 30 years ago.

Archival aerial and ground photographs have been used to locate the former wartime Wonston Stores. Masquerading in plain sight, it was one of at least seven locations used to store finished parts for the manufacture of Spitfire aircraft during the Second World War by workshops dispersed across Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Berkshire.

Ground-based high-resolution and space-based low-resolution spectroscopy are the two main avenues through which transiting exoplanet atmospheres are studied. Both methods provide unique strengths and shortcomings, and combining the two can be a powerful probe into an exoplanet’s atmosphere. Within a joint atmospheric retrieval framework, we combine...

NASA Citizen Scientists have used Exoplanet Transit Interpretation Code (exotic) to reduce 40 sets of time-series images of WASP-12 taken by privately owned telescopes and a 6-inch telescope operated by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian MicroObservatory (MOBs). Of these sets, 24 result in clean transit light curves of WASP-12 b wh...

This article presents the results of an acoustic survey of bat activity around the Hampshire village of South Wonston in 2022, and complements earlier ad hoc observations of bat activity that have been reported to the iNaturalist citizen science platform with a more systematic study.

After a hiatus of three years, the first in-person Aerial Archaeology Reserach Group conference of the decade took place in Zagreb, Croatia, in September 2023. Highlights of the two days of presentations and the field trip to the Krapina Neanderthal museum are reported here.

This paper introduces, firstly, the motivation behind the project ‘Hira settlement research with declassified HEXAGON Imagery’ that has been funded by AARG. Next, an overview, is given of the technical aspects of the Keyhole (KH)-9 HEXAGON missions, the challenge of choosing suitable images for the site of al-Hira, and the technical solution that w...

Editorial for AARGnews 67 (October 2023). Introduces the new Editorial Team and editorial policy. Provides a summary of the contents of the issue.

In the article, methods and use of open-source images to undertake an archaeological landscape survey of part of Ukraine are described. A selection of results — feature types and their placement in the landscape — from the first year of our survey is outlined and discussed. Our results can be assessed and manipulated using an interactive ArcGIS web...

NASA Citizen Scientists have used EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code (EXOTIC) to reduce 42 sets of time-series images of WASP-12 taken by privately owned telescopes and the 6-inch telescope operated by the Center of Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian MicroObservatory (MOBs). Of these sets, 24 result in clean transit light curves of WASP-12 b w...

NASA citizen scientists from all over the world have used EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code (EXOTIC) to reduce 71 sets of time-series images of WASP-12 taken by the 6-inch telescope operated by the Centre of Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian MicroObservatory. Of these sets, 24 result in clean Transit light curves of the WASP-12b which are up...

Multiple photometry measurements in the clear, V, B, R and I bands of supernova SN 20023ixf using MicroObservatory

In January 2023, an unusual ice formation was captured on a series of photographs taken by a trail camera set up to observe wildlife in a garden in the village of South Wonston, Hampshire, UK. The feature had formed spontaneously on the surface of a frozen water bowl and appears to have formed by atmospheric icing rather than by freezing drip water...

Presentation to the South Wonston Sustainability Group describing a passive acoustic survey of bat activity around the village conducted in 2022.

Marks showing in fields of oats on Worthy Down from crop that is darker, slightly taller and in places subjectively more luxuriant than the surrounding crops were observed and photographed from ground level using ‘pole cam’ during the spring and summer of 2022. Most of the marks were observed early in the growing season and as such can be considere...

The ExoClock project has been created to increase the efficiency of the Ariel mission. It will achieve this by continuously monitoring and updating the ephemerides of Ariel candidates, in order to produce a consistent catalog of reliable and precise ephemerides. This work presents a homogenous catalog of updated ephemerides for 450 planets, generat...

EXOTIC (EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code) analyzes photometric data of transiting exoplanets into lightcurves and retrieves transit epochs and planetary radii. The software reduces images of a transiting exoplanet into a lightcurve, and fits a model to the data to extract planetary information crucial to increasing the efficiency of larger obs...

Presentation to the Exoplanet Watch catch-up meeting on 2022 Nov 02 describing some of the lessons learned from analysing MicroObservatory observations transiting exoplanets over the past 6 years.

We used radial velocity measurements spanning 22yr for the data analysis (Naef+, 2001, J/A+A/375/L27; Wittenmyer+ 2007AJ....134.1276W and 2009, J/ApJS/182/97; Rosenthal+, 2021ApJS..255....8R). Archival radial velocities of HD 80606 : J/AJ/164/178 https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/164/178

Based on the light an exoplanet blocks from its host star as it passes in front of it during a transit, the mid-transit time can be determined. Periodic variations in mid-transit times can indicate another planet's gravitational influence. We investigate 83 transits of TrES-1 b as observed from 6-inch telescopes in the MicroObservatory robotic tele...

The transiting planet HD 80606 b undergoes a 1000 fold increase in insolation during its 111 days orbit due to it being highly eccentric ( e = 0.93). The planet’s effective temperature increases from 400 to over 1400 K in a few hours as it makes a rapid passage to within 0.03 au of its host star during periapsis. Spectroscopic observations during t...

As described in an earlier article (Palmer, 2022), the aim of the AARG Ukraine project is to make a rapid survey of archaeological features within a 110x120km area, later reduced to 60 x 110 km because of resource constraints, covering parts of the Kyiv and Cherkasy oblasts of Ukraine. The survey is being conducted by around 8 members of the AARG U...

The AARG Ukraine project aims to make a rapid survey of archaeological features within a 110 x120km area of Ukraine, later reduced to 60 x 110 km because of resource constraints, using readily available satellite imagery provided by Google Earth Pro. One limitation of the GE imagery is the temporal coverage which varies across the study area and is...

The ExoClock project has been created with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the Ariel mission. It will achieve this by continuously monitoring and updating the ephemerides of Ariel candidates over an extended period, in order to produce a consistent catalogue of reliable and precise ephemerides. This work presents a homogenous catalogue of u...

The transiting planet HD80606b undergoes a 1000-fold increase in insolation during its 111-day orbit due to it being highly eccentric (e=0.93). The planet's effective temperature increases from 400K to over 1400K in a few hours as it makes a rapid passage to within 0.03AU of its host star during periapsis. Spectroscopic observations during the ecli...

Based on the light an exoplanet blocks from its host star as it passes in front of it during a transit, the mid-transit time can be determined. Periodic variations in mid-transit times can indicate another planet's gravitational influence. We investigate 83 transits of TrES-1 b as observed from 6-inch telescopes in the MicroObservatory robotic tele...

Follow-up photometric observations are reported for the Type Ia SN 2021hiz in IC 3322A and show the temporal evolution of the unfiltered light curve over 114 days following discovery. Despite some contamination of the photometry by the host galaxy, the similar shapes of the unfiltered light curves of SN 2021hiz and the well-characterised normal SN...

The Ariel mission will observe spectroscopically around 1000 exoplanets to further characterise their atmospheres. For the mission to be as efficient as possible, a good knowledge of the planets’ ephemerides is needed before its launch in 2028. While ephemerides for some planets are being refined on a per-case basis, an organised effort to collecti...

In an earlier article, I described how HEXAGON satellite photographs have the potential to show both upstanding and plough-levelled archaeological features in the landscape of Southern England. Since CORONA has been found to be highly successful for the study of landscapes in the Middle East, in this article I extend the study to provide further ex...

The ExoClock project is an inclusive, integrated, and interactive platform that was developed to monitor the ephemerides of the Ariel targets to increase the mission efficiency. The project makes the best use of all available resources, i.e., observations from ground telescopes, midtime values from the literature, and finally, observations from spa...

Observations of 43 complete transits of the hot Jupiter exoplanet HAT-P-32b using the MicroObservatory 0.15m robotic telescope network, covering a period of seven years, are presented. Compared with the most recent ephemeris for the system, the precision of the mid-transit times yields a root-mean-square value from the predicted model of 3.0min. Th...

Corrects the mis-identification of a parasitic wasp of the superfamily Ichneumonoidea (Order: Hymenoptera) in an assemblage of fossil insects from the Eocene Green River Formation.

Examples of declassified KH-9 HEXAGON photographs of archaeological features from Southern England illustrate the quality and potential of the photographs for archaeology.

The ExoClock project is an inclusive, integrated, and interactive platform that was developed to monitor the ephemerides of the Ariel targets to increase the mission efficiency. The project makes the best use of all available resources, i.e., observations from ground telescopes, mid-time values from the literature and finally, observations from spa...

Four moth cases from middle Eocene Baltic amber, one of which has a larva in situ, are described and shown to have the characteristic shapes of cases made by bagworm moths (Psychidae) of the subfamily Typhoniinae. other fossil inclusions present in the amber pieces include arthropod groups that are common in Baltic amber and epidermal trichomes der...

The fortuitous find of a fossil snakefly, †Agulla protomaculata, 'hiding' amongst an assemblage of crane flies from the Green River Formation is descibed along with a brief summary of the evolution of the Raphidioptera.

The Ariel mission will observe spectroscopically around 1000 exoplanets to further characterise their atmospheres. For the mission to be as efficient as possible, a good knowledge of the planets' ephemerides is needed before its launch in 2028. While ephemerides for some planets are being refined on a per-case basis, an organised effort to collecti...

Serendipitous observations are reported of UCAC4 686-012519 (= ZTF J020549.65+470041.0 = ASASSN-V J020549.64+470040.9) that were made whilst observing transits of the exoplanet HAT-P-32 b using the MicroObservatory. The observations demonstrate the value of MicroObservatory for observing a known transiting exoplanet for ephemeris maintenance whilst...

Observations of 43 complete transits of the hot Jupiter exoplanet HAT-P-32b using the MicroObservatory 0.15-m robotic telescope network covering a period of 7 years are presented. Compared with the most recent ephemeris for the system, the precision of the mid-transit times yielded a root-mean-square value from the predicted model of 3.0 min. The e...

Due to the efforts by numerous ground-based surveys and NASA's Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of transiting exoplanets ideal for atmospheric characterization via spectroscopy with large platforms such as James Webb Space Telescope and ARIEL. However their next predicted mid-transit...

Due to the efforts by numerous ground-based surveys and NASA's Kepler and TESS, there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of transiting exoplanets ideal for atmospheric characterization via spectroscopy with large platforms such as JWST and ARIEL. However their next predicted mid-transit time could become so increasingly uncertain over time that si...

Presentation given to the Asteroids and Remote Planets Section of the British Astronomical Association on the observation of transiting exoplanets using the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, MicroObservatory Network.

Using a relatively inexpensive stereomicroscope that includes a built-in digital camera, together with the freeware ImageJ image processing package, reasonable quality digital images can be produced of miniscule fossil insects found in Baltic amber dating from the middle Eocene epoch.

This article describes the use of images obtained by the MicroObservatory, a robotic telescope network developed by the Science Education Department at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, to observe transiting 'hot Jupiter' exoplanets. An off-line reduction and analysis pipeline is briefly described along with representative lightc...

This article describes the use of images obtained by the MicroObservatory, a robotic telescope network developed by the Science Education Department at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, to observe transiting 'hot Jupiter' exoplanets. An off-line reduction and analysis pipeline is briefly described along with representative lightc...

This white paper advocates for the creation of a community-wide program to maintain precise mid-transit times of exoplanets that would likely be targeted by future platforms. Given the sheer number of targets that will require careful monitoring between now and the launch of the next generation of exoplanet characterization missions, this network w...

This white paper advocates for the creation of a community-wide program to maintain precise mid-transit times of exoplanets that would likely be targeted by future platforms. Given the sheer number of targets that will require careful monitoring between now and the launch of the next generation of exoplanet characterization missions, this network w...

This white paper advocates for the creation of a community-wide program to maintain precise mid-transit times of exoplanets that would likely be targeted by future platforms. Given the sheer number of targets that will require careful monitoring between now and the launch of the next generation of exoplanet characterization missions, this network w...

A micro-moth fossil from a specimen of Mid-Eocene Baltic amber is described and tentatively identified as a leaf blotch miner from the Lepidopteran family Gracillariidae Stainton, 1854 and belonging to the genus Gracillariites Kozlov, 1987. The good quality of the fossil, including the preservation of wing scales, graphically illustrates the abilit...

The interpretation of photographs taken from an airborne platform, also known as aerial archaeology, represents one of the most important advances in archaeology in the twentieth century. In addition to contributing to the discovery of new sites, aerial photography has an important role to play in their recording and the monitoring of changes over...

An introduction is provided to a developing collection of fossil insects and other arthropods from Baltic amber that once formed part of a forest ecosystem around 45 million years ago.

An introduction is provided to a developing collection of fossil insects and other arthropods from Baltic amber which once formed part of a prehistoric forest ecosystem.

A micro-moth fossil from a specimen of Mid-Eocene Baltic amber is described and tentatively identified as a leaf blotch miner from the Lepidopteran family Gracillariidae Stainton, 1854 and belonging to the genus Gracillariites Kozlov, 1987.

BVRI and unfiltered MicroObservatory CCD observations of SN 2012aw covering up to 124 days following the explosion of the supernova are reported together with observations submitted to the BAA VSS Online Database. The photometry shows a plateau in the R and I passbands lasting ~100 days and gradual declines in brightness in the B, V and clear passb...

Unfiltered CCD observations acquired using the 6-inch [155mm] robotic telescopes of the NASA/Harvard Smithsonian MicroObservatory e-learning project covering the first 163 days following the discovery of the Type IIb supernova 2011dh in Messier 51 are presented. The lightcurve shows two peaks, the first, a transient ‘spike’ with an observed magnitu...

BVRI and unfiltered MicroObservatory CCD observations of SN 2012fr covering the first 100 days following its discovery are reported. The time of first light following the explosion of the SN progenitor is estimated to have been around 2012 October 24.6 (JD 2456225.1), giving a rise time to maximum light of ~19.27 days in the unfiltered passband. Li...

Recently declassified HEXAGON KH-9 panoramic camera satellite photographs have a quality comparable to that of GAMBIT photographs, and a global coverage similar to that of CORONA. By analogy with the use that has been made of CORONA photographs, they can be expected to have great archaeological potential. Unfortunately, access to the photograph arc...

Observations using the MicroObservatory robotic telescope network show the unfiltered lightcurve of supernova 2016bau to have two peaks in its lightcurve.

This note describes the observation of landscape features to the west of the River Volga on a declassified KH-9 satellite photograph including an example of 'landscape graffiti' in the form vegetation planted to spell out the name 'LENIN' beside a road junction near Gornyy Balykley.

Pre- and post-discovery CCD images of M82 acquired by one of the telescopes of the MicroObservatory robotic telescope network are used to construct the early unfiltered lightcurve of the Type Ia Supernova 2014J. Maximum light is estimated to have occurred at a peak apparent magnitude of 10.59 on 2014 February 02.81 UT (JD 2456691.31). At a distance...

This article summarises the findings of a study that investigated the optimum periodicity of Helicopter Underwater Escape Training as a means of mitigating the risk associated with helicopter ditchings.

Unfiltered CCD observations acquired remotely using the MicroObservatory Robotic Telescope Network, covering the first 200 days following the explosion of the Type Ia SN 2011fe, are presented. The date of the explosion is estimated to have been UT 2011 August 23 19:55 (JD 2455797.33) giving a rise time to maximum light of 19.01 ±0.96 days. With a p...

Observations of nearby supernovae using the 6” (152 mm) robotic telescopes of the MicroObservatory operated by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CFA): * Thermonuclear Type Ia (SN 2011fe in M101 and SN 2012fr in NGC 1365). * Core collapse Type IIb (SN 2011dh in M51). * Core collapse Type II-P (SN 2012aw in M95).M101 and SN 2012fr in N...

Observations of N Aql 2012 and N Cep 2013 made using the 6” (152 mm) robotic telescopes of the MicroObservatory operated by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CFA).

Observations made of the Wolf-Rayet eclipsing binary CQ Cep, the eclipsing binary OA Cep, the classical cepheid Z Lac and the eclipsing binary OT Lac using the 6" (152 mm) robotic telescopes of the MicroObservatory operated by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

The declassification at the end of the last century of over 900,000 photographs acquired by the corona, argon, lanyard, gambit and hexagon US photo reconnaissance satellite programmes between 1960 and 1980 has resulted in an archive of declassified intelligence satellite photographs (DISP) that is both global in scale and easily accessible. As a so...

In contrast to modern satellite images, information regarding the time of acquisition of declassified CORONA satellites is not readily available and requires access to hard-copy frame ephemeris data held by the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). In this article, the accuracy of a method described previously (Fowler 200614. Fowl...

The past decade has seen a significant increase in the application of satellite imagery to archaeological studies to the point that satellite remote sensed products are now an integral component of the aerial archaeologist's toolkit. Whilst the recent history of satellite archaeology is well documented (Fowler 2010), this article looks back to the...

Forty years after they were originally acquired for intelligence purpose, declassified US photographs from the KH-7 GAMBIT photo reconnaissance satellite programme, together with contemporary declassified intelligence reports, are being used to shed light on Cold War sited in the former Soviet Union. The method should have a great future for unders...

Introduction The date and time of acquisition of aerial photographs are of fundamental interest to the aerial archaeologist since the azimuth and elevation of the sun, together with the viewing angle of the camera, can have a significant impact on the appearance of archaeological features on the photographs (Wilson, 2000). Since their declassificat...

Recently declassified intelligence satellite photographs acquired in the 1960s and early 1970s by the CORONA programme have been found to be an important source of low-cost, relatively high resolution, overhead photography that can be used in the prospection for archaeological features. Hitherto, the material has been used primarily to detect archa...

Recently declassified US intelligence satellite photographs dating from the Cold War have been found to be a valuable source of historical overhead imagery for use in archaeological and other studies. Such civilian uses of material that was originally acquired for intelligence purposes represent salient examples of the 'serendipity effect' of aeria...

The abilities of three satellite remote sensed image products (low spatial resolution LANDSAT Thematic Mapper (TM);