Improving Variable Star Light Curves from a Campus Observatory
Abstract
Observers working at major observatories can generally depend upon consistent, or at least slowly changing, conditions during a given night. This isn't necessarily the case at a campus observatory where a variety of influences can affect the seeing conditions and often cause significant changes from one frame to the next. During 'post-photing' reductions we have found that our campus data can be improved by taking into account the FWHM of each stellar image. However, it is a cumbersome process to implement when one is working with 100s of frames per night and as many as 40 stars on a frame. Therefore, we will present a new code, designed to work within IRAF, which will take the FWHM into account during the 'photing' process. This package also allows the user to pick a multiplier of the FWHM as their aperture for each star. Results will be presented for a number of δ Scuti stars to show the improvements in their light curves. We will also present an ensemble photometry package, VARSTAR5.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003AAS...203.0806R