β Cas: Simultaneous Stromgren Photometry

The observations were carried out in August, 1983 using the 75 cm telescope at Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain. This telescope is equipped with a six-channel uvbyβ photometer for simultaneous measurements in uvby and the narrow and wide Hβ channels, respectively. The observations were collected during four nights in the four uvby filters and one more night was devoted to measuring β Cas in the n and w bands of the Hβ Crawford system. In all cases, a calibrated neutral filter was used for β Cas. The comparison star was Cl=HR 9085 (V=5.m55, F0III).The analysis of frequencies was carried out using the Discrete Fourier Transform method, as described in López de Coca et al. (1984), to the observational uvby points collected. The periodograms showed a principal peak at v=9.91 cd−l. After prewhitening for this frequency, the resulting periodograms did not show any trace of another peak, suggesting the monoperiodic nature of this star, in agreement with Antonello et al. (1986). Under the assumption of monoperiodicity of β Cas, the classical O-C method can easily be applied. Nine times of maxima were obtained for the four nights by using the method described in Rodriguez et al. (1990), where each light maximum has been derived as an average over the four uvby bands. When the O-C method was applied, the least squares fit converged to a linear ephemeris with the following elements: To=2445568.d5097 (±0.d0007) and Po=0.d10091 (±0.d00002). This linear ephemeris satisfactorily reproduces our data of β Cas.