This poster presented results from the Large Magellanic Cloud Near-Infrared Synoptic Survey (LMCNISS) for classical and Type II Cepheid variables that were identified in the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE-III) catalogue. Multi-wavelength time-series data for classical Cepheid variables are used to study light-curve structures as a function of period and wavelength. We exploited a sample of ∼1400 classical and ∼80 Type II Cepheid variables to derive Period–Wesenheit relations that combine both optical and near-infrared data. The new Period–Luminosity and Wesenheit relations were used to estimate distances to several Local-Group galaxies (using classical Cepheids) and to Galactic globular clusters (using Type II Cepheids). By appealing to a statistical framework, we found that fundamental-mode classical Cepheid Period–Luminosity relations are non-linear around 10–18 days at optical and near-IR wavelengths. We also suggested that a non-linear relation provides a better constraint on the Cepheid Period–Luminosity relation in Type Ia Supernovæ host galaxies, though it has a negligible effect on the systematic uncertainties affecting the local measurement of the Hubble constant.

LSST will uncover a few million time-domain alerts per night with a latency of a minute. This will provide a huge discovery space, where previously undiscovered rare phenomena may be revealed. The early detection of such previously unknown events from a minimal set of measurements is critical for discovery and follow-up. Analysis methods to recognise such events are being investigated and developed. A discussion of those approaches was presented.

Time-domain astronomy is a key theme on research roadmaps worldwide, as was amply demonstrated by the energy which the participants (coming from 33 different countries) brought to this Symposium, as they shared their experience and expertise through various time-domain projects and discussed the challenges and strategies for the road ahead. This short summary is simply a personal view of the many key topics that were discussed.

We explore the properties of sound and human sound recognition as a means to enhance and accelerate visual-only data analysis methods. The aim of this work is to enable and improve the analysis of large data sets, data requiring rapid analysis, multi-dimensional data, and signal detection in data with low signal-to-noise ratio. We present a prototype tool, StarSound, to sonify data such as astronomical transient light curves, spectra, and power spectra. Stereophonic sound is used to ‘visualise’ and localise the data under examination, and 3-D sound is discussed in conjunction with virtual reality technology, as a means to enhance analysis efficiency and efficacy, including rapid data assessment and training machine learning software. In addition, we explore the use of higher-order harmonics as a means to examine simultaneously multi-dimensional data sets. Such an approach can allow the data to be interpreted in a holistic manner and facilitates the discovery of previously unseen connections and relationships. Furthermore, we exploit the capability of the human brain for selective or focused hearing that enables the identification of desired signals in noisy data, or amidst similar or more significant signals. Finally, we provide research examples that benefit directly from data sonification. The work presented here aims to help tackle the challenges of the upcoming era of Big Data and help optimise, speed up and expand aspects of data analysis requiring human interaction.

This talk discussed the basics of gravito-inertial asteroseismology as recently developed for stars born with a convective core. Photometric space missions originally built for exoplanet hunting, notably Kepler, have opened up the low-frequency regime of stellar oscillations and revealed a larger diversity in variability than anticipated prior to the era of high-precision space photometry. The talk explained the basics of forward seismic modelling based on gravito-inertial modes, which probe the deep stellar interior. It described how a hierarchical fitting approach allows us to derive the near-core rotation period, the amount and shape of convective core overshooting, and the level of chemical mixing in the radiative envelope for stars born with a convective core and burning hydrogen in their core. A summary of the current status, covering the mass range 1.4 ≲ M ≲ 5 M⊙, is provided here through references to numerous recent papers.

The X-ray sky is dominated by luminous galactic sources, variable on time-scales from milliseconds to years. Their eruptive behaviour is now under continuous monitoring by MAXI, Swift, INTEGRAL and other high-energy missions, and representing a superb exemplar of time-domain astronomy. Understanding the astrophysics of such variability requires multi-wavelength follow-up studies from a suite of ground- and space-based facilities. As SALT is a 100% Q-scheduled telescope, one of its key scientific capabilities is related to Target-of-Opportunity (ToO) programmes, and there has been a dedicated SALT Large Programme on Transients in place since 2016, a significant fraction of which has been devoted to the follow-up of X-ray binary transients. This Workshop addressed questions of how such programmes should evolve once the era of MeerKAT and MeerLICHT begins in ∼2018-9 (as well as other huge surveys at optical wavelengths), identifying the range of facilities that would be needed, and the key science topics. There is a clear and growing need for responses to transients to be faster (within minutes if possible), and to be multi-wavelength (particularly in radio and X-ray). Furthermore, extended ongoing coverage of such events (days to weeks for the next ‘V404 Cyg’-type outburst) will be needed for maximum astrophysical return. That would require careful management and coordination of a wide range of ground- and space-based facilities, and optimising coverage against logistical constraints that are often conflicting.

eROSITA (the extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) onboard the Spectrum Roentgen Gamma mission will perform a deep all-sky X-ray survey. During the first four years of operation the satellite will scan the entire sky every once every half year, visiting any position between 8 and 500 times. The eROSITA scanning strategy will test a wide range of times-scales, from seconds to years, and thus provide a powerful window into the X-ray transient and variable sky. This contribution summarised the key science opportunities for time-domain studies with eROSITA, and presented strategies for finding transients in the all-sky survey data.

Multi-wave astronomy provides a means for researchers to see and ‘hear’ the sky. But that is only part of their perception of the cosmos. The hot handshake of the Universe in the form of a meteor substance burning in the Earth’s atmosphere, sometimes with the precipitation of meteorites threatening the environment, occurs every second. A major present challenge for meteor research is organizing observations and processing existing and new data in order to obtain information in the time domain of meteor astronomy for solving special problems. This poster discusses the concept of the meteor sky, and some approaches for constructing models of it. The database of meteors of Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics was used.

Detailed analyses of observations by the Kepler satellite may reveal unknown facts about objects that were previously regarded as eclipsing binaries. We present results of our analysis of such an object, KIC 3832716. We show that the system actually contains two eclipsing binaries (EB1 and EB2), with orbital periods of 1.14 and 2.17 days, orbiting around their common centre of mass with period of at least 1400 days and with an estimated mass ratio of 0.7 ± 0.3. Analyses of the (O–C) diagrams of both eclipsing pairs show three different types of variation: (i) long-term changes probably due to light-time effects, (ii) spikes caused by the superposition of the eclipses of both binaries, and (iii) semi-regular variations in EB1 with a period of 57 days, presumably caused by the presence of spots on its secondary component.

This paper presented the discovery of an energetic nuclear transient from near-infrared monitoring of nearby starburst and luminous infrared galaxies. The transient radiated at least 1.5E+52 erg in the infrared but remained elusive at optical and X-ray wavelengths. We interpret its properties as arising from a stellar tidal disruption event (TDE) close to a supermassive black hole. Much of its emission must have been reprocessed by dense gas and re-radiated at infrared wavelengths by dust, suggesting a way for reducing the tension between theoretical luminosity predictions and observations of TDEs. Such events are not detectable by optical, UV or soft X-ray observations, and might represent just the tip of the iceberg of a missed TDE population in the local Universe. That population could be more numerous at higher redshifts where luminous infrared galaxies are more common.

Evolved low- and intermediate-mass stars that have reached the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) phase tend to show pronounced long-period variability due to large-amplitude pulsations. Those pulsations are considered to play a key role in triggering mass loss through massive dusty winds. The winds enrich the surrounding interstellar medium with newly-produced chemical elements and dust grains, providing building blocks for new generations of stars and planets. Considerable efforts are being made to understand the physics of AGB stars, and to develop quantitative models. This talk gave a brief summary of recent developments, with references to the literature.

The radio sky is full of transients, their time-scales ranging from nanoseconds to decades. Recent developments in technology sensitivity and computing capabilities have opened up the short end of that range, and are revealing a plethora of new phenomenologies. Studies of radio transients were previously restricted to analyses of archived data, but are now including real-time analyses. We focus here on Fast Radio Bursts, discuss and compare the properties of the population, and describe what is to date the only known repeating Fast Radio Burst and its host galaxy. We also review what will be possible with the new instrumentation coming online.

HR 6902 was the first target of a systematic study by Griffin (1986, JApA, 7, 195) of binaries showing composite spectra. It is also a well-studied member of the ζ Aur class. ζ Aur systems are long-period eclipsing binaries that are comprised of an evolved giant primary and a hot dwarf companion. Although those component stars have very different effective temperatures they have similar luminosities in the blue and near-UV regions, and hence display a composite spectrum at those wavelengths. In principle the ζ Aur systems are excellent tests of evolutionary and structural stellar models. In recent years the somewhat fragmentary eclipse photometry of HR 6902 has been out-classed by the high-precision continuous monitoring by the space mission CoRoT. HR 6902 was selected as a primary target of its seismology field, because the possible detection of solar-like pulsations in a giant component of a double-lined eclipsing binary could help to calibrate the scaling relation of giant pulsators. Our poster reported the results of a new analysis based on the CoRoT observations and follow-up spectroscopy with HARPS at the ESO 3.6-m telescope at La Silla.

The unprecedented accuracy of the CoRoT photometry enabled us to:

• improve drastically the accuracy of the binary orbit and stellar parameters (by a factor ~10 for the radii)

• extend the test of validity/calibration of the scaling relations to high stellar mass and radius, and put constraints on the evolutionary state (particularly since this binary is certainly free from tidal effects).

49 posters were displayed at IAU S339. The display space was adequate to allow all to be on show throughout the conference.

Poster presenters were given the option of condensing the message(s) of their posters into written summaries and/or depositing a pdf of the original poster for inclusion in the on-line version of the Proceedings. Half of the poster authors responded; 12 chose to send written summaries, 9 submitted just their original pdfs, and 4 elected to send both. Workshop 1 also converted some catalogue material into an on-line poster. This Section contains the contributions that were submitted as written summaries, arranged in alphabetical order of lead author.

Near-Infrared Observations of OGLE Classical and Type II Cepheid Variables in the LMC ………. 283

A. Bhardwaj, L. M. Macri, S. M. Kanbur, C-C. Ngeow and H. P. Singh

Multiwavelength Light-Curve Analysis of Cepheid Variables ………. 287

A. Bhardwaj, S. M. Kanbur, M. Marconi, H. P. Singh, M. Rejkuba and C-C. Ngeow

Symbiotic Stars in the Local Group of Galaxies: POINT-AGAPE Catalogue Revisited ………. 291

K. Drozd, J. Mikołajewska, M. Darnley, K. Iłkiewicz, N. Caldwell and M. Shara

Detection of Sectoral Modes in the Eclipsing Binary KIC 4851217………. 295

M. Fedurco, Š. Parimucha & P. Gajdoš

Kepler-410Ab and Transit Timing Variations ………. 299

P. Gajdoš, Š. Parimucha and M. Fedurco

Sparse Spatio-Temporal Imaging of Radio Transients ………. 303

J. Girard, M. Jiang, J-L. Starck and S. Corbel

Testing the SALT High-Resolution Spectrograph for Pulsation Studies of roAp Stars ………. 307

D. Holdsworth and D. Kurtz

Probing Convective Mixing in Stellar Interiors with α Centauri A and B………. 308

M. Joyce and B. Chaboyer

Highly Luminous SNe Associated with GRBs………. 309

D. Kann

Searching for Pulsating Stars Using Clustering Algorithms………. 310

R. Kgoadi, I. B. Whittingham and C. A. Engelbrecht

Phase-resolved Spectroscopy and Photometry of the Eclipsing Polar UZ Fornacis 314

Z. N. Khangale, S. B. Potter and P. A. Woudt

Meteor Sky in Time-Domain Astronomy………. 318

S. V. Kolomiyets

First Results from Project SUNBIRD: Supernovæ UNmasked By Infra-Red Detection………. 322

E. C. Kool, S. D. Ryder, E. Kankare, T. Reynolds, S. Mattila, M. Pérez-Torres and R. McDermid

The X-Ray Spectrum of the X-Ray Binary 4U 1728-34, observed with Suzaku ………. 323

Y. Lei, H. Zhang, H. Yuan and Y. Zhang

Statistical Research into Correlation between Solar Filaments and Flare Activities………. 327

G. Lin

A CoRoT view of the ζ Aur binary HR 6902………. 329

C. Maceroni, J. Montalbán, R. Da Silva, T. Semaan, B. Mosser, M. Rainer, E. Poretti and E. Griffin

Searching for Long-Period Binary Central Stars of Planetary Nebulæ with SALT HRS………. 330

B. Miszalski, R. Manick, J. Mikołajewska, K. Iłkiewicz, D. Kamath and H. Van Winckel

Companion(s) of the Eclipsing Binary KIC 3832716………. 331

Š. Parimucha, M. Fedurco and P. Gajdoš

Evaluating the Fraction of Obscured Supernovæ in Luminous Infrared Galaxies with Adaptive Optics Surveys………. 335

T. Reynolds, S. Mattila, E. Kool, E. Kankare, S. Ryder and M. A. Pérez-Torres

Detecting AGB stars in LG Dwarf Galaxies for Understanding Galaxy Formation and Evolution………. 336

E. Saremi, A. Javadi, J. van Loon, H. Khosroshahi and M. Torki

Accurate Photometry with Digitized Photographic Plates of the Moscow Collection………. 340

K. V. Sokolovsky D. M. Kolesnikova, N. N. Samus, S. V. Antipin and A.A. Belinski

The All-Sky Automated Search for Supernovæ Going Global………. 344

M. Stritzinger and the ASAS-SN Team

Stellar Parameterisation using KPCA and SVM………. 345

H. Yuan, Y. Zhang, Y., Yiqiao Dong, Z. Bai, G. Li, W. Zhang, H. Zhang and Y. Zhao

Δa Photometric Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud………. 349

M. Zejda, E. Paunzen and Z. Mikulášek

Design, Build and Test of the VOEvent Network for the SVOM Chinese Ground Segment………. 353

M. Zhang, M. Huang and C. Wu

MAXI (Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image) is an astronomical mission onboard the International Space Station. It started observations in August 2009. The Gas Slit Camera of MAXI is sensitive to X-rays in the energy range 2–30 keV. Most of the sky is scanned every 90 min with the orbital revolution of the ISS. With this unbiased monitoring, MAXI has detected numerous outbursts from known and unknown X-ray sources. MAXI discovered 18 X-ray novæ in seven years, including seven neutron star binaries, six black hole binaries (+candidates) and four unidentified sources. Other results include detections of superluminous stellar flares, a super-Eddington luminous flare from a white dwarf+Be Star binary near the SMC, and monitoring of recurrent outbursts from Be neutron-star binaries. Variations in X-ray-bright AGNs such as Cen A and Mrk 421 have been also monitored. This talk presented the highlights of the MAXI observations of variable sources, including the search for X-ray counterparts of gravitational-wave events.

The All-Sky Automated-Survey for SuperNovæ (ASAS-SN) is a fully automated transient search programme that is currently observing the entire night sky every second night to a depth of about 18th magnitude. Since becoming on-line in mid-2014, ASAS-SN has discovered over half of all bright supernovæ, and along the way has also discovered numerous tidal disruption events, cataclysmic variables, stellar flares and even a comet! ASAS-SN currently has two units deployed between Chile and Hawaii, and an additional three units were slated to come on-line by the end of 2017 at observatories in South Africa, Chile and Texas. The poster provided a brief summary of ASAS-SNs accomplishments, and discussed future prospects based on its global expansion.

As photometric standards, A-Type stars have proved to be extremely useful; this is particularly true of Vega, the fundamental photometric standard. However, the identification of at least some main-sequence A-type stars as small-amplitude variables, while of interest as an issue of fundamental astrophysics, needs to be understood if they are to continue to be used as photometric standards. Flaring and Rossby waves are proposed in the literature as possible explanations, as was discussed during a well-attended Workshop debate. This report summarises the discussion, and suggests future investigations.

About 30,000 astronomical photographic plates were digitised between 2012–2017 with a special digitising machine that has high precision in both astrometry and photometry. All the images from the plates, together with plate information and measured coordinates of all the objects on the plates, have been stored in the Chinese Virtual Observatory.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is an MIT-led NASA mission that will spend two years searching for transiting exoplanets via an all-sky survey that starts in the Southern Hemisphere. Launched in 2018 April, TESS is expected to discover thousands of Earth- to Neptune-sized planets, and over ten thousand giant planets, around the closest, brightest, stars. These planets will become our best targets for learning more about planet formation and evolution, planet composition, and atmospheric make-up. More detailed information about TESS, and instructions on how to access and work with the data once they are available, was given in Workshop 3, Getting ready for TESS, held earlier during the Symposium (p. 224).