TAOS Project: Searching for Variable Stars in the Selected TAOS Fields and Optical Followup Observations

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

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Scientific paper

The Taiwan-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) project is aimed to find Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO) and measure their size distribution using the occultation technique. The TAOS project employed four 20-inch wide-field (F/1.9, 3 degree-squared FOV) telescopes, equipped with a 2K x 2K CCD, to simultaneously monitor the same patch of the sky. All four TAOS telescopes, which can be operated automatically, were located at the Lulin Observatory in central Taiwan. The TAOS project has been continuously taking data since 2005. In addition of finding KBO, the dense sampling strategy employed in TAOS can also be used to find variable stars. We report the search of variable stars from selected TAOS fields at this Meeting. For example, we found about 50 candidate variables (out of 2600 stars) in TAOS 60 Field (RA: 04h48m00s, DEC: +20d46m20s, with limiting magnitudes about15 mag. at S/N=10), including three previously known variables, using sigma deviation and Stetson's J-index methods. The available data in this field spanned about 150 days in time. However, TAOS observations were conducted using a customized filter. We therefore initiated a followup program to observe and construct the light curves of these candidate variables in the BVRI bands, using the Lulin's One-Meter telescope, Lulin's SLT telescope (16-inch aperture) and 32-inch telescope from the Tenagra II Observatory. The multi-band optical followup observation will help in improving the classification of these candidates, estimate their BVRI mean magnitudes, colors as well as extinction. This will enable a wide range of research in astrophysics for these variables. We also present our preliminary results based on the first season of the followup observations.
CCN acknowledges the support from NSC 98-2112-M-008-013-MY3.

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