Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20916209r&link_type=abstract
2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #162.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The Global Network of Astronomical Telescopes (GNAT) has discovered some 25,000 new variable star candidates along an equatorial strip of the sky with a non-moving (drift scan) telescope. With three closely spaced observations of any given star being made on the order of 100 nights spread over three years, GNAT could not determine the types of variability and periods of the short period, aliased light curve stars in their MG-1 Variable Star Catalog. Such determinations typically require, for each star, hundreds of closely spaced observations over a number of nights with a modest-aperture tracking telescope equipped for CCD photometry. Many college and amateur observatories are capable of making such observation. At Cuesta College we have initiated a GNAT follow-up pilot program to determine how students at small observatories could efficiently make such determinations in a single-semester research course. We used a 10” Meade LX-200 telescope equipped with a SBIG ST-8XE camera to observe nine GNAT candidates, looking for short-term variability. We found two of the nine to be very short-term variables. We obtained 1397 one-minute integrations on the GNAT star GM1-15036 (GSC 13:95) over seven nights. We determined its period to be about 0.16 days. Its sinusoidal waveform has a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.2 magnitudes. This star is most likely an RR Lyrae pulsating variable. The second short-term variable star is now being repeatedly observed and, in parallel, we are examining a second batch of nine candidates for short-term variability. At the end of the fall 2006 semester, we will summarize what have learned about one-semester GNAT student follow-up observations. We are pleased to acknowledge the assistance of Eric Craine from GNAT, Russell Genet from Cuesta College and Orion Observatory, and Thomas Smith from Dark Ridge Observatory.
Jaggi N.
Milne C.
Roberts Noll S.
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