scholarly journals Scientific Goals for a Collaboration Between Amateur and Professional Astronomers in the Study of Variable Stars

1988 ◽  
Vol 98 ◽  
pp. 183-184
Author(s):  
Ennio Poretti

Variable stars are a field where the contribution of amateur astronomers is of great importance. This contribution can be separated in to complementary parts: 1)collaboration with professional institutes that well-equipped amateurs can easily undertake in the field of photoelectric observation;2)visual observation of variable stars, which in many cases can be a preliminary approach to photoelectric photometry.

1989 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 473-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard E. Bond ◽  
Robin Ciardullo

For the past two years, the authors have been carrying out a program of CCD photometry of planetary-nebula nuclei (PNNs), using the 0.9-m telescopes at Kitt Peak National and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatories. The aim of this program is to investigate the variability of PNNs on timescales of minutes to days, in order to search for close binaries and pulsators, as well as unexpected new classes of variable stars.The program represents an extension of the photoelectric photometry of PNNs carried out by Bond and Grauer (1987). Use of the two-dimensional CCD detector allows us to model and subtract the nebulosity surrounding a PNN, in addition to providing exactly simultaneous observations of the PNN and several nearby comparison stars. The latter allow us to compensate for variable atmospheric transparency, permitting accurate differential photometry to be obtained even when the observing conditions are not photometric.


1992 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 581-581
Author(s):  
Kwan-Yu Chen ◽  
Frank Bradshaw Wood

Scientific work at the South Pole during austral winter began in 1957, the International Geophysical Year. Interest in a polar observatory was already expressed in the survey of polar research conducted by the Committee of Polar Research (Gould, 1970). But not until 1986, was photoelectric photometry of variable stars made at the South Pole (Chen et al 1988); and in 1988, stellar observations for atmospheric extinction were made. The optical telescope used for stellar observations at the South Pole is a twin-mirror siderostat with an 8 cm lens (Chen et al 1986; Taylor 1988). The computer-controlled automated telescope made the polar observations possible.


2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-267
Author(s):  
J. H. Peña ◽  
S. B. Juárez ◽  
A. A. Soni ◽  
H. Huepa ◽  
A. Rentería ◽  
...  

We have obtained uvby − β photoelectric photometry with the 0.84 m telescope at the San Pedro Mártir Observatory, México, for the stars HD 115520, HD 220735 and HD 26738. The first two had been previously determined to be variables whereas the last one is being reported here as a new variable. With an extended time basis for the first two, we have determined their period of pulsation, which is found to be stable. Physical parameters are presented for the three stars.


1994 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 61-64
Author(s):  
G. Szécsényi-Nagy

The Galaxy is abundant in red dwarf stars. According to statistical analyses, their majority is unstable. Simultaneously, more than 60% of the variable stars known in the solar vicinity (r < 20 pc) are flare stars and taking into account the number of BY Dra stars too the proportion of red dwarfs amongst local variables is superior to three quarters. Their absolute visual magnitudes range from +6 to +17.5 or even more (Szécsényi-Nagy 1986a). During flare events their brightness may reach a maximum corresponding to an enhancement of 1000–10,000 times. The amplitude of a large flare in the U band may be as high as 8–10 magnitudes. The events take place nonperiodically in unpredictable moments; no unquestionable periodicity has been found in the time distribution of stellar flares. However the activity level of various flare stars is considerably different. Some of them show observable flare ups with a mean frequency of 1 per hour whilst others produce only one event per annum. For the scarcity of the phenomenon, traditional photoelectric photometry of individual stars is not an adequate means to a better understanding of flare stars.


1967 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 207-244
Author(s):  
R. P. Kraft

(Ed. note:Encouraged by the success of the more informal approach in Christy's presentation, we tried an even more extreme experiment in this session, I-D. In essence, Kraft held the floor continuously all morning, and for the hour and a half afternoon session, serving as a combined Summary-Introductory speaker and a marathon-moderator of a running discussion on the line spectrum of cepheids. There was almost continuous interruption of his presentation; and most points raised from the floor were followed through in detail, no matter how digressive to the main presentation. This approach turned out to be much too extreme. It is wearing on the speaker, and the other members of the symposium feel more like an audience and less like participants in a dissective discussion. Because Kraft presented a compendious collection of empirical information, and, based on it, an exceedingly novel series of suggestions on the cepheid problem, these defects were probably aggravated by the first and alleviated by the second. I am much indebted to Kraft for working with me on a preliminary editing, to try to delete the side-excursions and to retain coherence about the main points. As usual, however, all responsibility for defects in final editing is wholly my own.)


1967 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 177-206
Author(s):  
J. B. Oke ◽  
C. A. Whitney

Pecker:The topic to be considered today is the continuous spectrum of certain stars, whose variability we attribute to a pulsation of some part of their structure. Obviously, this continuous spectrum provides a test of the pulsation theory to the extent that the continuum is completely and accurately observed and that we can analyse it to infer the structure of the star producing it. The continuum is one of the two possible spectral observations; the other is the line spectrum. It is obvious that from studies of the continuum alone, we obtain no direct information on the velocity fields in the star. We obtain information only on the thermodynamic structure of the photospheric layers of these stars–the photospheric layers being defined as those from which the observed continuum directly arises. So the problems arising in a study of the continuum are of two general kinds: completeness of observation, and adequacy of diagnostic interpretation. I will make a few comments on these, then turn the meeting over to Oke and Whitney.


1966 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 93-97
Author(s):  
Richard Woolley

It is now possible to determine proper motions of high-velocity objects in such a way as to obtain with some accuracy the velocity vector relevant to the Sun. If a potential field of the Galaxy is assumed, one can compute an actual orbit. A determination of the velocity of the globular clusterωCentauri has recently been completed at Greenwich, and it is found that the orbit is strongly retrograde in the Galaxy. Similar calculations may be made, though with less certainty, in the case of RR Lyrae variable stars.


1999 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 561-562
Author(s):  
G. P. Di Benedetto

An accurate calibration of the surface brightness scaleSVas a function of the near-IR color (V–K) has been recently measured for non-variable Galactic dwarf and giant stars. It can be shown that this correlation can be applied to theSVscale of Galactic Cepheid variable stars, which are of major cosmological interest.


Author(s):  
David H. Levy ◽  
Janet A. Mattei
Keyword(s):  

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