High precision CCD observations of six totally eclipsing contact binaries were presented and analyzed. It is found that only one target is an A-type contact binary (V429 Cam), while the others are W-type contact ones. By analyzing the times of light minima, we discovered that two of them exhibit secular period increase while three manifest long-term period decrease. For V1033 Her, a cyclic variation superimposed on the long-term increase was discovered. By comparing the Gaia distances with those calculated by the absolute parameters of 173 contact binaries, we found that the Gaia distance can be applied to estimate the absolute parameters for most contact binaries. The absolute parameters of our six targets were estimated using their Gaia distances. The evolutionary status of contact binaries was studied, and we found that the A- and W-subtype contact binaries may have different formation channels. The relationship between the spectroscopic and photometric mass ratios for 101 contact binaries was presented. It was discovered that the photometric mass ratios are in good agreement with the spectroscopic ones for almost all of the totally eclipsing systems, which is corresponding to the results derived by Pribulla et al. and Terrell & Wilson.

Hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe-I) have been predominantly found in low-metallicity, star-forming dwarf galaxies. Here we identify Gaia17biu/SN 2017egm as an SLSN-I occurring in a “normal” spiral galaxy (NGC 3191) in terms of stellar mass (several times 10¹⁰ M _⊙) and metallicity (roughly solar). At redshift z = 0.031, Gaia17biu is also the lowest-redshift SLSN-I to date, and the absence of a larger population of SLSNe-I in dwarf galaxies of similar redshift suggests that metallicity is likely less important to the production of SLSNe-I than previously believed. With the smallest distance and highest apparent brightness for an SLSN-I, we are able to study Gaia17biu in unprecedented detail. Its pre-peak near-ultraviolet to optical color is similar to that of Gaia16apd and among the bluest observed for an SLSN-I, while its peak luminosity (M _g = −21 mag) is substantially lower than that of Gaia16apd. Thanks to the high signal-to-noise ratios of our spectra, we identify several new spectroscopic features that may help to probe the properties of these enigmatic explosions. We detect polarization at the ∼0.5% level that is not strongly dependent on wavelength, suggesting a modest, global departure from spherical symmetry. In addition, we put the tightest upper limit yet on the radio luminosity of an SLSN-I with <5.4 × 10²⁶ erg s⁻¹ Hz⁻¹ at 10 GHz, which is almost a factor of 40 better than previous upper limits and one of the few measured at an early stage in the evolution of an SLSN-I. This limit largely rules out an association of this SLSN-I with known populations of gamma-ray-burst-like central engines.

The cutoff mass ratio is under debate for contact binaries. In this paper, we present the investigation of two contact binaries with mass ratios close to the low mass ratio limit. It is found that the mass ratios of VSX J082700.8+462850 (hereafter J082700) and 1SWASP J132829.37+555246.1 (hereafter J132829) are both less than 0.1 (q ∼ 0.055 for J082700 and q ∼ 0.089 for J132829). J082700 is a shallow contact binary with a contact degree of ∼19%, and J132829 is a deep contact system with a fill-out factor of ∼70%. The O − C diagram analysis indicated that the two systems manifested long-term period decreases. In addition, J082700 exhibits a cyclic modulation which is more likely resulting from the Applegate mechanism. In order to explore the properties of extremely low mass ratio contact binaries (ELMRCBs), we carried out a statistical analysis on contact binaries with mass ratios of q ≲ 0.1 and discovered that the values of J _spin/J _orb of three systems are greater than 1/3. Two possible explanations can interpret this phenomenon. One explanation is that some physical processes, unknown to date, are not considered when Hut presented the dynamic stability criterion. The other explanation is that the dimensionless gyration radius (k) should be smaller than the value we used (k ² = 0.06). We also found that the formation of ELMRCBs possibly has two channels. The study of evolutionary states of ELMRCBs reveals that their evolutionary states are similar with those of normal W UMa contact binaries.

In order to investigate the physical process of blazar variability, S5 0716+714 was monitored quasi-simultaneously in V, R and I band from 2009 February to 2014 February. 6176 photometric observations on 42 nights were obtained and analysed. The F-test and analysis of variance test methods were used to detect variability for 83 intranight light curves, and a variability duty cycle of 83.9 per cent was derived. The variability amplitude in V band was slightly larger than that in R band, and a mild trend of having larger variability amplitude when source is getting fainter was shown for the intranight variations in both V and R bands. We found that the brightening phase of intranight variability was faster than fading process for both V and R band by analysing the distribution of the variability change rates calculated by linear fitting. A Kolmogorov–Smirnov test of change rates showed that the variability was time asymmetric. Quasi-simultaneous multicolour observations enabled us to obtain 2303 V − R colour indices. A strong bluer-when-brighter trend on intranight time-scales and a mild bluer-when-brighter colour variation on internight time-scales were derived by correlation analysis. The variability characteristics support the intrinsic shock-in-jet models and geometric effects, which indicates that the Doppler factor changes due to the change in the viewing angel of the relativistic jet.

The CNIa0.02 project aims to collect a complete, nearby sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) light curves, and the SNe are volume-limited with host-galaxy redshifts z _host < 0.02. The main scientific goal is to infer the distributions of key properties (e.g., the luminosity function) of local SNe Ia in a complete and unbiased fashion in order to study SN explosion physics. We spectroscopically classify any SN candidate detected by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) that reaches a peak brightness <16.5 mag. Since ASAS-SN scans the full sky and does not target specific galaxies, our target selection is effectively unbiased by host-galaxy properties. We perform multiband photometric observations starting from the time of discovery. In the first data release (DR1), we present the optical light curves obtained for 247 SNe from our project (including 148 SNe in the complete sample), and we derive parameters such as the peak fluxes, Δm ₁₅, and s _BV .