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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Astrophysics and Astronomy

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University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Theses and Dissertations

Astronomy

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Optimizing Convolutional Neural Networks For Transient Detection In Optical Astronomy With Augmented Datasets, Wendy Mendoza Jul 2023

Optimizing Convolutional Neural Networks For Transient Detection In Optical Astronomy With Augmented Datasets, Wendy Mendoza

Theses and Dissertations

We present a technique for optical transient detection using artificial neural networks, particularly a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), a deep learning algorithm. This method analyzes images of the same area of the sky captured by several telescopes, with one image serving as a reference for a probable transient’s epoch and the other as an image from a previous epoch. We train the CNN on simulated sources and test it on actual image data samples using data from the Dr. Cristina V. Torres Memorial Astronomical Observatory and Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This autonomous detection method replaces the standard procedure, which involves …


Pipeline For Variable Star Detection And Eclipsing Binary Characterization, Moises Castillo Aug 2019

Pipeline For Variable Star Detection And Eclipsing Binary Characterization, Moises Castillo

Theses and Dissertations

Stars have been observed and recorded since ancient times. Practices of documenting brightness led to observations of variability. Optical CCD observations of eclipsing binary stars were made with instruments at UTRGV Dr. Cristina Valeria Torres Memorial Astronomical Observatory. There are two main goals for this project. The first goal is to create a pipeline written in python (lightcurator) that creates a framework for detecting variable stars. The pipeline starts by creating a list of ccd frames written in FITS format of an eclipsing binary star observation. These object frames are expected to be already reduced, but lightcurator provides tools to …