We present high-resolution observations of nearby ($z\lesssim0.1$) galaxies that have hosted Type Ia supernovae to measure systemic spectroscopic redshifts using the wide field spectrograph (WiFeS) instrument on the Australian National University 2.3 m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. While most of the galaxies targeted have previous spectroscopic redshifts, we provide demonstrably more accurate and precise redshifts with competitive uncertainties, motivated by potential systematic errors that could bias estimates of the Hubble constant ($H_0$). The WiFeS instrument is remarkably stable; after calibration, the wavelength solution varies by $\lesssim$0.5 Å in red and blue with no evidence of a trend over the course of several years. By virtue of the $25\times 38$ arcsec field of view, we are always able to measure the redshift of the galactic core, or the entire galaxy in the cases where its angular extent is smaller than the field of view, reducing any errors due to galaxy rotation. We observed 185 southern SN Ia host galaxies and measured the redshift of each via at least one spatial region of (a) the core and (b) the average over the full-field/entire galaxy. Overall, we find stochastic differences between historical redshifts and our measured redshifts on the order of $\lesssim10^{-3}$ with a mean offset of 4.3${\times 10^{-5}}$ and normalised median absolute deviation of 1.2${\times 10^{-4}}$. We show that a systematic redshift offset at this level is not enough to bias cosmology, as $H_0$ shifts by $+0.1$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ when we replace Pantheon+ redshifts with our own, but the occasional large differences are interesting to note.

As the scale of cosmological surveys increases, so does the complexity in the analyses. This complexity can often make it difficult to derive the underlying principles, necessitating statistically rigorous testing to ensure the results of an analysis are consistent and reasonable. This is particularly important in multi-probe cosmological analyses like those used in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time, where accurate uncertainties are vital. In this paper, we present a statistically rigorous method to test the consistency of contours produced in these analyses and apply this method to the Pippin cosmological pipeline used for type Ia supernova cosmology with the DES. We make use of the Neyman construction, a frequentist methodology that leverages extensive simulations to calculate confidence intervals, to perform this consistency check. A true Neyman construction is too computationally expensive for supernova cosmology, so we develop a method for approximating a Neyman construction with far fewer simulations. We find that for a simulated dataset, the 68% contour reported by the Pippin pipeline and the 68% confidence region produced by our approximate Neyman construction differ by less than a percent near the input cosmology; however, they show more significant differences far from the input cosmology, with a maximal difference of 0.05 in $\Omega_{M}$ and 0.07 in w. This divergence is most impactful for analyses of cosmological tensions, but its impact is mitigated when combining supernovae with other cross-cutting cosmological probes, such as the cosmic microwave background.

The discovery of the first electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave signal has generated follow-up observations by over 50 facilities world-wide, ushering in the new era of multi-messenger astronomy. In this paper, we present follow-up observations of the gravitational wave event GW170817 and its electromagnetic counterpart SSS17a/DLT17ck (IAU label AT2017gfo) by 14 Australian telescopes and partner observatories as part of Australian-based and Australian-led research programs. We report early- to late-time multi-wavelength observations, including optical imaging and spectroscopy, mid-infrared imaging, radio imaging, and searches for fast radio bursts. Our optical spectra reveal that the transient source emission cooled from approximately 6 400 K to 2 100 K over a 7-d period and produced no significant optical emission lines. The spectral profiles, cooling rate, and photometric light curves are consistent with the expected outburst and subsequent processes of a binary neutron star merger. Star formation in the host galaxy probably ceased at least a Gyr ago, although there is evidence for a galaxy merger. Binary pulsars with short (100 Myr) decay times are therefore unlikely progenitors, but pulsars like PSR B1534+12 with its 2.7 Gyr coalescence time could produce such a merger. The displacement (~2.2 kpc) of the binary star system from the centre of the main galaxy is not unusual for stars in the host galaxy or stars originating in the merging galaxy, and therefore any constraints on the kick velocity imparted to the progenitor are poor.

We present a catalogue containing the redshifts of 3 660 X-ray selected targets in the XXL southern field. The redshifts were obtained with the AAOmega spectrograph and 2dF fibre positioner on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The catalogue contains 1 515 broad line AGN, 528 stars, and redshifts for 41 out of the 49 brightest X-ray selected clusters in the XXL southern field.

We use the wide-field capabilities of the 2 degree field fibre positioner and the AAOmega spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) to obtain redshifts of galaxies that hosted supernovae during the first 3 years of the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS). With exposure times ranging from 10 to 60 ks per galaxy, we were able to obtain redshifts for 400 host galaxies in two SNLS fields, thereby substantially increasing the total number of SNLS supernovae with host galaxy redshifts. The median redshift of the galaxies in our sample that hosted photometrically classified Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) is z ~ 0.77, which is 25% higher than the median redshift of spectroscopically confirmed SNe Ia in the 3-year sample of the SNLS. Our results demonstrate that one can use wide-field fibre-fed multi-object spectrographs on 4-m telescopes to efficiently obtain redshifts for large numbers of supernova host galaxies over the large areas of the sky that will be covered by future high-redshift supernova surveys, such as the Dark Energy Survey.

We present results of a project aimed at establishing a set of 12 spectro-photometric standards over a wide wavelength range from 320 to 2500 nm. Currently no such set of standard stars covering the near-IR is available. Our strategy is to extend the useful range of existing well-established optical flux standards (Oke 1990, Hamuy et al. 1992, 1994) into the near-IR by means of integral field spectroscopy with SINFONI at the VLT combined with state-of-the-art white dwarf stellar atmospheric models (TMAP, Holberg et al. 2008). As a solid reference, we use two primary HST standard white dwarfs GD71 and GD153 and one HST secondary standard BD+17 4708. The data were collected through an ESO “Observatory Programme” over ~40 nights between February 2007 and September 2008.

The serendipitous discovery of a gravitational lens system formedby an elliptical galaxy at z ~ 1 and a post-starburstgalaxy at z ~ 3.8 brings a unique opportunity to study indetail the mass profile of a massive and relaxed object at a lookback time of half the age of the universe. We sketch here a comparisonof different methods to reconstruct the mass of the lens, both parametricallyand non-parametrically, highlighting their advantanges and limitations.

We expand upon the results of Close et al. 2005 regarding the young, low-mass object AB Dor C and its role as a calibration point for theoretical tracks. We argue for a new 70$\pm$30 Myr age estimate and present two additional detections of C with the Simultaneous Differential Imaging (SDI) camera. Our improved analysis (Nielsen et al. 2005) confirms our spectral type of M8 ($\pm$1) and mass of 0.090 $\pm$0.003 M$_{\hbox{\it \scriptsize sun}}$ for AB Dor C. However, Luhman & Potter (2006) argue for a hotter spectral type (M6$\pm$1). Here we adopt the consistent spectral range of M7$\pm$1 in this paper as a final spectral type. Plotting AB Dor C (and all other young (${<}0.12$ Myr), low-mass ($0.3-0.05 M_{\hbox{\it \scriptsize sun}}$) objects with accurate dynamical masses) on the HR diagram suggests a trend where current evolutionary models tend to over-predict the temperature (or under-predict the mass) for young low-mass stars and high-mass brown dwarfs. With our uncertainties, there is a $\sim$90% chance that the mass of AB Dor C is underestimated by the DUSTY tracks in the HR diagram.