Magellanic Cloud Eclipsing Binaries: Primary Distance Indicators

1999 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 563-566
Author(s):  
J. D. Pritchard ◽  
W. Tobin ◽  
J. V. Clausen ◽  
E. F. Guinan ◽  
E. L. Fitzpatrick ◽  
...  

Our collaboration involves groups in Denmark, the U.S.A. Spain and of course New Zealand. Combining ground-based and satellite (IUEandHST) observations we aim to determine accurate and precise stellar fundamental parameters for the components of Magellanic Cloud Eclipsing Binaries as well as the distances to these systems and hence the parent galaxies themselves. This poster presents our latest progress.

1999 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 563-566
Author(s):  
J. D. Pritchard ◽  
W. Tobin ◽  
J. V. Clausen ◽  
E. F. Guinan ◽  
E. L. Fitzpatrick ◽  
...  

Our collaboration involves groups in Denmark, the U.S.A. Spain and of course New Zealand. Combining ground-based and satellite (IUE and HST) observations we aim to determine accurate and precise stellar fundamental parameters for the components of Magellanic Cloud Eclipsing Binaries as well as the distances to these systems and hence the parent galaxies themselves. This poster presents our latest progress.


1991 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
pp. 381-381
Author(s):  
William Tobin ◽  
A. C. Gilmore ◽  
Alan Wadsworth ◽  
S.R.D. West

Late in 1988 the Mt John University Observatory acquired a cryogenic CCD system from Photometrics Ltd (Tucson). The chip is a Thomson CSF TH7882 CDA comprising 384 × 576 pixels. As part of the evaluation process, we have begun two differential photometry programs of the Magellanic Clouds using the Mt John 0.6m Boller & Chivens telescope. On this telescope each CCD pixel corresponds to 0.6 arcsec. Mt John's southerly latitude (44°S) permits year-round observations of the Clouds.The first program concerns B, V and I photometry of five blue eclipsing binaries selected, on the basis of Gaposchkin's (1970, 1977) photographic light curves, to have roughly equal components with minimal interaction. HV 12634 has also been observed for comparison with the CCD light curves published by Jensen et al. (1988). Fig. 1 shows the B observations so far obtained for HV 1761, but the reduction is preliminary, being based on aperture-integrated magnitudes. The field is populous, and a final reduction will require use of a crowded-field reduction package such as ROMAFOT.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S240) ◽  
pp. 79-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alceste Z. Bonanos

AbstractIn the last decade, over 7000 eclipsing binaries have been discovered in the Local Group through various variability surveys. Measuring fundamental parameters of these eclipsing binaries has become feasible with 8 meter class telescopes, making it possible to use eclipsing binaries as distance indicators. Distances with eclipsing binaries provide an independent method for calibrating the extragalactic distance scale and thus determining the Hubble constant. This method has been used for determining distances to eclipsing binaries in the Magellanic Clouds and the Andromeda Galaxy and most recently to a detached eclipsing binary in the Triangulum Galaxy by the DIRECT Project. The increasing number of eclipsing binaries found by microlensing and variability surveys also provide a rich database for advancing our understanding of star formation and evolution.


1995 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 419-422
Author(s):  
J. Andersen

Stellar models are the means by which we describe and understand the distribution of stars in the HR diagram. A stellar model is, in principle, completely specified by the three fundamental parameters mass, chemical composition, and age. Comparing the properties of models and real stars with the same parameters will tell us if our recipe for constructing stellar models is realistic. Unfortunately, the only star for which all three are known independently of stellar models is the Sun. For stars of other masses and ages we must devise observational tests in which at least one fundamental parameter is unknown. Two such popular test objects are double-lined eclipsing binaries and star clusters.In suitable eclipsing binaries we can determine both masses and chemical composition; the absolute age is unknown, but the same for both stars. Since evolution depends most sensitively on the mass, eclipsing binaries provide a very direct test of the models, but only for two points on a single isochrone. In star clusters, neither ages nor individual masses are known, but the detailed shape and population of a well-observed cluster sequence in the HR diagram provide a number of additional probes into the models.


2019 ◽  
Vol 490 (3) ◽  
pp. 4254-4270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jillian R Neeley ◽  
Massimo Marengo ◽  
Wendy L Freedman ◽  
Barry F Madore ◽  
Rachael L Beaton ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT RR Lyrae stars have long been popular standard candles, but significant advances in methodology and technology have been made in recent years to increase their precision as distance indicators. We present multiwavelength (optical UBVRcIc and Gaia G, BP, RP; near-infrared JHKs; mid-infrared [3.6], [4.5]) period–luminosity–metallicity (PLZ), period–Wesenheit–metallicity (PWZ) relations, calibrated using photometry obtained from the Carnegie RR Lyrae Program and parallaxes from the Gaia second data release for 55 Galactic field RR Lyrae stars. The metallicity slope, which has long been predicted by theoretical relations, can now be measured in all passbands. The scatter in the PLZ relations is on the order of 0.2 mag, and is still dominated by uncertainties in the parallaxes. As a consistency check of our PLZ relations, we also measure the distance modulus to the globular cluster M4, the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud, and our results are in excellent agreement with estimates from previous studies.


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