We present a CCD survey of variable stars in the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy. This survey, which has the largest areal coverage since the original variable star survey by Baade & Swope (1961AJ.....66..300B), includes photometry for 270 RR Lyrae (RRL) stars, 9 anomalous Cepheids (ACs), 2 eclipsing binaries, and 12 slow, irregular red variables, as well as 30 background QSOs. Twenty-six probable double-mode RRL stars were identified. Observed parameters, including mean V and I magnitudes, V amplitudes, and periods, have been derived.
Dome A on the Antarctic plateau is likely one of the best observing sites on Earth thanks to the excellent atmospheric conditions present at the site during the long polar winter night. We present high-cadence time-series aperture photometry of 10000 stars with i<14.5mag located in a 23deg^2^ region centered on the south celestial pole. The photometry was obtained with one of the CSTAR telescopes during 128 days of the 2008 Antarctic winter. We used this photometric data set to derive site statistics for Dome A and to search for variable stars. Thanks to the nearly uninterrupted synoptic coverage, we found six times as many variables as previous surveys with similar magnitude limits. We detected 157 variable stars, of which 55% were unclassified, 27% were likely binaries, and 17% were likely pulsating stars. The latter category includes {delta} Scuti, {gamma} Doradus, and RR Lyrae variables. One variable may be a transiting exoplanet.
Variability in young stellar objects (YSOs) is one of their primary characteristics. Long-term, multifilter, high-cadence monitoring of large YSO samples is the key to understand the partly unusual light curves that many of these objects show. Here we introduce and present the first results of the HOYS-CAPS citizen science project that aims to perform such monitoring for nearby (d<1kpc) and young (age<10Myr) clusters and star-forming regions, visible from the northern hemisphere, with small telescopes. We have identified and characterized 466 variable (413 confirmed young) stars in eight young, nearby clusters. All sources vary by at least 0.2mag in V, have been observed at least 15 times in V, R, and I in the same night over a period of about 2 yr, and have a Stetson index of larger than 1. This is one of the largest samples of variable YSOs observed over such a time span and cadence in multiple filters. About two-thirds of our sample are classical T-Tauri stars, while the rest are objects with depleted or transition discs. Objects characterized as bursters show by far the highest variability. Dippers and objects whose variability is dominated by occultations from normal interstellar dust or dust with larger grains (or opaque material) have smaller amplitudes. We have established a hierarchical clustering algorithm based on the light-curve properties that allows the identification of the YSOs with the most unusual behaviour and to group sources with similar properties. We discuss in detail the light curves of the unusual objects V2492 Cyg, V350 Cep, and 2MASS J21383981+5708470.
Based on the data obtained from the Spitzer/Galactic Legacy Infrared Midplane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIPMSE) Legacy Program and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) project, we derive the extinction in the four IRAC bands, [3.6], [4.5], [5.8], and [8.0]um, relative to the 2MASS Ks band (at 2.16um) for 131 GLIPMSE fields along the Galactic plane within |l|<=65{deg}, using red giants and red clump giants as tracers. As a whole, the mean extinction in the IRAC bands (normalized to the 2MASS Ks band), A_[3.6]_/A_Ks_~0.63+/-0.01, A_[4.5]_/A_Ks_~0.57+/-0.03, A_[5.8]/A_Ks_~0.49+/-0.03, A_[8.0]_/A_Ks_~0.55+/-0.03, exhibits little variation with wavelength (i.e., the extinction is somewhat flat or gray). As far as individual sightline is concerned, however, the wavelength dependence of the mid-infrared interstellar extinction A_{lambda}_/A_Ks_ varies from one sightline to another, suggesting that there may not exist a "universal" IR extinction law.
We analyze a sample of optical light curves, compiled from the literature, for 100 quasars, 70 of which have black hole mass estimates. Our sample is the largest and broadest used yet for modeling quasar variability. The sources in our sample have z<2.8, 10^42^<~{lambda}L_{lambda}_(5100{AA})<~10^46^, and 10^6^<~M_BH_/M_{sun}_<~10^10^. We model the light curves as a continuous time stochastic process, providing a natural means of estimating the characteristic timescale and amplitude of quasar variations. We employ a Bayesian approach to estimate the characteristic timescale and amplitude of flux variations; our approach is not affected by biases introduced from discrete sampling effects.
We selected a large sample of O-B stars that were considered as (candidate) slowly pulsating B, beta Cep, and Maia stars after the analysis of their Hipparcos data. We analysed both the Hipparcos data and our new seven passband Geneva data collected for these stars during the first three years of scientific operations of the Mercator telescope. We performed a frequency analysis for 28 targets with more than 50 high-quality Mercator observations to improve their variability classification. We searched for frequencies by using two independent frequency analysis methods and we applied a 3.6 S/N-level criterion to locate the significant peaks in the periodograms. In total we detected 60 frequencies, among which 32 new ones. We classified 21 objects as pulsating variables (7 new confirmed pulsating stars, including 2 hybrid beta Cep/SPB stars), 6 as non-pulsating variables (binaries or spotted stars), and 1 as photometrically constant stars. For the 27 confirmed variable stars in our sample, we give the values and the corresponding standard errors of the accepted frequencies, the amplitudes, the phases, the constant terms, and the residual standard deviations as found in the seven filters of the Geneva photometric system and in the Hp filter of the Hipparcos photometric system by fitting the data with a superposition of sinusoidal models with reference epoch HJD=2450000.
The Keck telescope's High Resolution Spectrograph (HIRES) has previously provided evidence for a smaller fine-structure constant, {alpha}, compared to the current laboratory value, in a sample of 143 quasar absorption systems: {Delta}{alpha}/{alpha}=(-0.57+/-0.11)10^-5^. The analysis was based on a variety of metal-ion transitions which, if alpha varies, experience different relative velocity shifts. This result is yet to be robustly contradicted, or confirmed, by measurements on other telescopes and spectrographs; it remains crucial to do so.
Gaia's precision astrometry allows systematic identification of optically selected subkiloparsec dual active galactic nuclei (AGNs), off-nucleus AGNs, and small-scale lensed quasars by "varstrometry"-where variability-induced astrometric jitter, i.e., temporal displacements of photocenter in unresolved sources, can be reasonably well detected or constrained. This approach extends systematic searches for small-scale (>=mas) dual and off-nucleus AGNs to the poorly explored regime between ~10pc and ~1kpc, with Gaia's full sky coverage and depth to G~21. We outline the general principles of this method and calculate the expected astrometric signals from the full time series of photocenter measurements and light curves. We demonstrate the feasibility of varstrometry by using Gaia DR2 data on a sample of variable pre-main-sequence stars with known close companions. We find that extended host galaxies have a significant impact on the accuracy of astrometric and photometric variability in Gaia DR2, a situation to be improved in future Gaia releases. Using spectroscopically confirmed Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasars, we present several examples of candidate subkiloparsec off-nucleus or dual AGNs selected from Gaia DR2. We discuss the merits and limitations of this method and a follow-up strategy for promising candidates. We highlight Gaia's potential of systematically discovering and characterizing the subkiloparsec off-nucleus and dual AGN population in the entire optical sky.
With a combination of adaptive optics imaging and a multi-epoch common proper motion search, we have conducted a large volume-limited (D<=75pc) multiplicity survey of A-type stars, sensitive to companions beyond 30AU. The sample for the Volume-limited A-STar (VAST) survey consists of 435 A-type stars: 363 stars were observed with adaptive optics, 228 stars were searched for wide common proper motion companions and 156 stars were measured with both techniques. The projected separation coverage of the VAST survey extends from 30 to 45000AU. A total of 137 stellar companions were resolved, including 64 new detections from the VAST survey, and the companion star fraction, projected separation distribution and mass ratio distribution were measured. The separation distribution forms a log-normal distribution similar to the solar-type binary distribution, but with a peak shifted to a significantly wider value of 387^+132^_-98_AU. Integrating the fit to the distribution over the 30 to 10000AU observed range, the companion star fraction for A-type stars is estimated as 33.8+/-2.6%. The mass ratio distribution of closer (<125AU) binaries is distinct from that of wider systems, with a flat distribution for close systems and a distribution that tends towards smaller mass ratios for wider binaries. Combining this result with previous spectroscopic surveys of A-type stars gives an estimate of the total companion star fraction of 68.9+/-7.0%. The most complete assessment of higher order multiples was estimated from the 156 star subset of the VAST sample with both adaptive optics and common proper motion measurements, combined with a thorough literature search for companions, yielding a lower limit on the frequency of single, binary, triple, quadruple and quintuple A-type star systems of 56.4_-4.0_^+3.8^, 32.1_-3.5_^+3.9^, 9.0_-1.8_^+2.8^, 1.9_-0.6_^+1.8^ and 0.6_-0.2_^+1.4^ percent, respectively.
The U.S. Naval Observatory is in the process of making new reductions of the Astrographic Catalogue (AC) using a modern reference system, the ACRS, which represents the system of the FK5. The data from the Vatican Zone, whose plates are centered between declinations +55 and +64 degrees (eq. 1900), have been analyzed for scale, rotation, tilt, coma, magnitude equation, radial distortion and distortions introduced by the use of reseaux in the Carte du Ciel program. The result is a positional catalog of over 256,000 stars on eq. J2000.0, epoch of observation. Additionally, all stars have been matched with the Tycho Input Catalog (revised); those numbers have been added for additional identification purposes.
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