Starting in 2013, Gaia will deliver highly accurate astrometric data, which eventually will supersede most other stellar catalogues in accuracy and completeness. It is, however, limited to observations from magnitude 6 to 20 and will therefore not include the brightest stars. Nano-JASMINE, an ultrasmall Japanese astrometry satellite, will observe these bright stars, but with much lower accuracy. Hence, the Hipparcos catalogue from 1997 will likely remain the main source of accurate distances to bright nearby stars. We are investigating how this might be improved by optimally combining data from all three missions through a joint astrometric solution. This would take advantage of the unique features of each mission: the historic bright-star measurements of Hipparcos, the updated bright-star observations of Nano-JASMINE, and the very accurate reference frame of Gaia. The long temporal baseline between the missions provides additional benefits for the determination of proper motions and binary detection, which indirectly improve the parallax determination further. We present a quantitative analysis of the expected gains based on simulated data for all three missions.

We carried out astrometric observations with VERA of H2O masers in ON1 and ON2N. The measured distances to ON1 and ON2N are 2.47 ± 0.11 and 3.83 ± 0.13 kpc, respectively. We found that ON1 and ON2N are located near the tangent point and the Solar circle, respectively. We derive an angular velocity of the Galactic rotation at the Sun's position (i.e. the ratio of the Galactic constants) of 28 ± 2 km s−1 kpc−1 using the measured distances and three-dimensional velocity components of the two sources. This value is consistent with recent estimates obtained using Very Long Baseline Interferometry but different from the IAU-recommended value of 25.9 km s−1 kpc−1.

We selected red horizontal-branch stars along the streams of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Sgr) from sdss DR7 spectroscopic data using a theoretical model. We investigate the metallicity distribution of stars in the Sgr streams. The metallicity gradient is (−1.8 ± 0.3) × 10⊃3 dex deg−1 in the first wrap of the trailing arm and (−1.5 ± 0.4) × 10−3 dex deg−1 in the first wrap of the leading arm.

We test two contemporary low-mass atmospheric models using three L dwarfs with distances and published spectra. We find that the two models do not predict the same trends for temperature, gravity and metallicity in absorption lines. We find that one model appears to better reflect the temperature, but this sample is too small to investigate the other parameters in depth.

Nano-JASMINE is an ultrasmall Japanese satellite (with a weight of 35 kg), designed to carry out an astrometric mission. The target accuracy is 3 milliarcseconds (mas) for stars brighter than magnitude 7.5 at zw-band wavelengths of 0.6–1.0 μm. The observational strategy is the same as that of Gaia and Hipparcos. The time span of 20 years since the Hipparcos mission will enable us to update the proper motion data obtained at that time. With the help of these updated measurements, we expect that some stars will be resolved into multiple stars. In addition, taking advantage of the small primary mirror (with a diameter of 5 cm), we can measure bright stars which cannot be observed with Gaia because of saturation limits. The core data reduction for the Nano-JASMINE mission will use Gaia's Astrometric Global Iterative Solution (agis). A collaboration between the Gaiaagis and Nano-JASMINE teams was initiated in 2007.

Small-JASMINE is a small Japanese astrometric satellite, developed mainly at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. The target launch date of Small-JASMINE is around 2017. The satellite will be equipped with a telescope with an aperture size of 30 cm and a focal length of approximately 3.9 m. The operational wavelength will be centered on the infrared Hw band, between 1.1 and 1.7 μm, using a HgCdTe detector with 4k × 4k pixels. This will enable us to observe the central regions of our Galaxy and clarify the dynamical structure of the bulge region. A restricted region of the Galactic bulge will be observed using a frame-linking method, which is different from the approach taken by both Hipparcos and Gaia, both developed at ESA. The target accuracy of the annual parallax and proper motion is approximately 10 μas and 10 μas yr−1, respectively, in the central region of the survey area of 0.3 × 0.3 deg2. The target accuracy of the annual parallax, ~ 50 μas, and that of the proper motion, ~ 50 μas yr−1, will be obtained within a region of 2 × 2 deg2. The observing region covers a field of approximately 3 × 3 deg2. The mission is required to continue for around three years to obtain reliable measurements. In the winter season, the angular distance between the Sun and the Galactic bulge region is small. Accordingly, we may have the chance to observe different regions which contain scientifically interesting targets, such as Cygnus X-1. If we are successful in observing the object over the course of a few weeks, the orbital elements of the star accompanying Cygnus X-1 can be resolved by Small-JASMINE.

Enormous progress is being made in developing observational facilities. As a result, there are new opportunities to observe structures at sub-mas resolution. To explore gravitationally lensed systems, we simulate radio-lobe images distorted by microlensing. We show that the positions of ‘holes’ in lensed images may indicate the positions of microlens groups or overdensities.

Red-clump (RC) giants are intermediate-age, core-helium-burning stars. The RC can be used as a standard candle. In particular, the small variance of the RC's K-band intrinsic luminosity and its weak dependence on chemical composition and age make it an extremely useful distance indicator. In this paper, we use 2mass data to search for RC stars in a sample of 60 Galactic open clusters with known reddening, ages, and distances, and obtain an average value for the RC's absolute Ks-band magnitude, MKs = −1.72 ± 0.17 mag.

Based on radial velocity data and Hipparcos proper motions, we present a new determination of the Galactocentric distance based on a purely kinematic model. We have selected three subgroups of Galactic thin-disk components (O–B5 stars, classical Cepheids and Galactic open clusters) to trace the local structure and kinematics of the Galactic disk. Adopting the approximation of axisymmetric circular rotation, we have derived the Sun's distance to the Galactic Center, R0 = 8.25 ± 0.79 kpc based on O–B5 stars, R0 = 7.98 ± 0.79 kpc based on Galactic Cepheids and R0 = 8.03 ± 0.70 kpc using open clusters, all of which are in excellent agreement with the current-best estimate of the Galactocentric distance.