Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000aas...19510619b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 195th AAS Meeting, #106.19; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.876
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
As part of the sophomore-junior level "Astronomical Techniques" course at Colgate University, students learn just how much science they can do with simple tools: a pair of binoculars, a clock, and pencil and paper. The students study the Algol type visual eclipsing binary star system RZ Cassiopeiae: observing and making a light curve for the primary minimum, determining the time of minimum using several techniques, calculating the binary star system's orbital period, and determining changes in the system's period over a thirty year interval by constructing an O-C curve. Through a series of preparatory exercises, the students learn how to read star maps and use the unaided eye, binoculars and telescopes to locate star fields and make visual magnitude measurements. By making multiple measurements of stars in the field of RZ Cas on several nights, the students determine the accuracy they can achieve in estimating the visual magnitude of a star -- typically 0.2 magnitude. (Some students even accidentally discover that one of the stars in the field is a variable star!) With this experience, the students use binoculars to observe the four hour primary eclipse of RZ Cas (magnitude 6.2 - 7.7), making magnitude measurements every five minutes. A light curve is then plotted. Several methods are used to determine the time of minimum, which is then converted to heliocentric Julian day. Using times of minima determined by former students (and the instructor) in previous years dating from 1968 to the present, the students determine the average period to a tenth of a second second. By constructing an O-C curve from the class's data and that obtained by the AAVSO, changes in the period of RZ Cas are noticeable -- possibly due to mass transfer in the system. It will be interesting for future classes to build on this knowledge using the primitive tools of our not so distant past.
Balonek Thomas J.
Davis Stacey M.
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