The T Tauri star RY Tau has increased its brightness from V=10.6mag to V=9.6mag in October-November 1996. By February-March 1997, the star has faded again to V=10.8mag. High-resolution echelle spectra of RY Tau were obtained wit h the SOFIN spectrograph at the Nordic Optical Telescope (La Palma, Spain) at lo w and high brightness levels of the star. No significant changes in the photosph eric lines, which are sensitive to temperature and gravity, were noticed. The spectral type of RY Tau is defined as G1-2IV, which in combination with photomet ric data implies A_V_=1.0-1.3mag. Polarimetric patrol of RY Tau during the fadin g of the star showed an increase of its intrinsic polarization from 0.5-1.0% at high brightness to about 2% at low brightness in the V, R and I bands. The flux radiated in H{alpha} and the IR Ca II emission lines remained about the same, in spite of the one magnitude difference in the continuum flux. These results indicate that variable obscuration of the star by circumstellar dust clo uds was responsible for the brightness change of RY Tau, and that the emission l ine source is mostly outside of the obscured region.
Light curves of the Algol-type binary system, RZ Cassiopeiae, in the near-IR wavelengths J and K are obtained for the first time. The light curves are analyzed using the Wilson-Devinney model. UBV light curves of RZ Cas obtained by Chambliss are also reanalyzed using the same program. In the J and K bands, the bolometric albedo of the secondary of RZ Cas exhibited values above 0.7, whereas the theoretically expected value for such a star is 0.5. Also, the values of the secondary temperature derived from the J and K light curves are found to be less than that derived from our analysis of the optical light curves as well as from the previous studies in the optical photometric bands. We have attempted to model these effects with a dark spot on the secondary of RZ Cas. The J-band light curve gave a better fit with a cool dark spot on the secondary. Another possible reason for the above mentioned effects is a gas stream from the lobe-filling secondary to the primary star. The magnitudes and colors of the individual components are derived from the observed light curves and the light contributions from the stars derived from the light curve analysis. The primary is found to be an A3 V star as observed by previous investigators. The secondary is classified as K0K4 IV from the derived colors. Seven epochs of primary minima and 3 epochs of secondary minima are obtained from the observations. Because of the increased depths of the secondary eclipse in the infrared bands, the moments of minima are calculated with nearly the same accuracy as that of the primary minima. All the secondary minima are found to occur at phase 0.5. None of the observed primary minima are flat as found by many observers before at optical wavelengths. The colors of the system at the minima obtained by us confirm that the system is partially eclipsing.
We present new multicolor photometry for RZ Draconis, observed in 2009 at the Xinglong Station of the National Astronomical Observatories of China. By using the updated version of the Wilson-Devinney Code, the photometric-spectroscopic elements were deduced from new photometric observations and published radial velocity data.
We present a deep optical/near-infrared imaging survey of the Serpens molecular cloud. This survey constitutes the complementary optical data to the Spitzer "Core To Disk" (c2d) Legacy survey in this cloud. The survey was conducted using the Wide Field Camera at the Isaac Newton Telescope. About 0.96 square degrees were imaged in the R and Z filters, covering the entire region where most of the young stellar objects identified by the c2d survey are located. 26524 point-like sources were detected in both R and Z bands down to R=24.5mag and Z=23mag with a signal-to-noise ratio better than 3. The 95% completeness limit of our catalog corresponds to 0.04 solar masses for members of the Serpens star forming region (age 2Myr and distance 260pc) in the absence of extinction. Adopting the typical extinction of the observed area (Av=7mag), we estimate a 95% completeness level down to 0.1 solar masses. The astrometric accuracy of our catalog is 0.4-arcsec with respect to the 2MASS catalog. Our final catalog contains J2000 celestial coordinates, magnitudes in the R and Z bands calibrated to the SDSS photometric system and, where possible, JHK magnitudes from 2MASS for sources in 0.96 square degrees in the direction of Serpens. This data product has been already used within the frame of the c2d Spitzer Legacy Project analysis in Serpens to study the star/disk formation and evolution in this cloud; here we use it to obtain new indications of the disk-less population in Serpens.
We combine variability information from the MAssive Compact Halo Objects survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud with infrared photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution survey to create a data set of ~30000 variable red sources. We photometrically classify these sources as being on the first ascent of the red giant branch, or as being in one of three stages along the asymptotic giant branch (AGB): oxygen-rich, carbon-rich, or highly reddened with indeterminate chemistry ("extreme" AGB candidates). We present linear period-luminosity (P-L) relationships for these sources using eight separate infrared bands (J, H, Ks, 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0, and 24um) as proxies for the luminosity. We find that the wavelength dependence of the slope of the P-L relationship is different for different photometrically determined classes of AGB stars. Stars photometrically classified as O-rich show the least variation of slope with wavelength, while dust enshrouded extreme AGB stars show a pronounced trend toward steeper slopes with increasing wavelength. We find that O-rich AGB stars pulsating in the fundamental mode obey a period-magnitude relation with a slope of -3.41+/-0.04 when magnitude is measured in the 3.6um band, in contrast to C-rich AGB stars, which obey a relation of slope -3.77+/-0.05.
We are performing a uniform and unbiased imaging survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC; ~7{deg}x7{deg}) using the IRAC (3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8um) and MIPS (24, 70, and 160um) instruments on board the Spitzer Space Telescope in the Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution (SAGE) survey, these agents being the interstellar medium (ISM) and stars in the LMC. This paper provides an overview of the SAGE Legacy project, including observing strategy, data processing, and initial results. The observing strategy includes two epochs in 2005, separated by 3 months, that both mitigate instrumental artifacts and constrain source variability. The SAGE data are nonproprietary. The data processing includes IRAC and MIPS pipelines and a database for mining the point-source catalogs, which will be released to the community in support of Spitzer proposal cycles 4 and 5. We present initial results on the epoch 1 data for a region near N79 and N83. The MIPS 70 and 160um images of the diffuse dust emission of the N79/N83 region reveal a similar distribution to the gas emissions, especially the HI 21cm emission.
The SAGE project is a Cycle 2 legacy program on the Spitzer Space Telescope, entitled, "Spitzer Survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud: Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution (SAGE)", with Margaret Meixner (STScI) as the PI. The project overview and initial results are described in a paper by Meixner et al. (2006AJ....132.2268M). The Catalog is a highly reliable list of 6.4 million sources. Faint limits for SAGE are 18.1, 17.5, 15.3, and 14.2 for IRAC 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0 um, respectively. The SAGE-SMC project is a Cycle 4 legacy program on the Spitzer Space Telescope, entitled, "SAGE-SMC: Surveying the Agents of Galaxy Evolution in the Tidally-Disrupted, Low-Metallicity Small Magellanic Cloud", with Karl Gordon (STScI) as the PI. The project overview and initial results are described in a paper by Gordon et al. (2011AJ....142..102G). The Catalog is a highly reliable list of 2.0 million sources. Faint limits for SAGE-SMC are 18.3, 17.7, 15.7, and 14.5 for IRAC 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0 um, respectively. The archive tables are more complete but less reliable than the catalogs. IRAC Single Frame + Mosaic Photometry Catalog: a combination of mosaic photometry source list extracted from the combined Epoch 1 and Epoch 2 12 second frametime mosaics with all-epochs single frame source list, bandmerged with 2MASS or 2MASS6X. Detailed documentations are available from http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/SPITZER/SAGE/doc/ as SAGEDataProductsDescription_Sep09.pdf and from http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/SPITZER/SAGE-SMC/docs/ as sage-smc_delivery_apr11.pdf
The Spitzer Space Telescope Legacy Program SAGE-SMC allows global studies of resolved stellar populations in the SMC in a different environment than our Galaxy. Using the SAGE-SMC IRAC (3.6-8.0{mu}m) and MIPS (24 and 70{mu}m) catalogs and images combined with near-infrared (JHK_s_) and optical (UBVI) data, we identified a population of ~1000 intermediate - to high-mass young stellar objects (YSOs) in the SMC (three times more than previously known). Our method of identifying YSO candidates builds on the method developed for the Large Magellanic Cloud by Whitney et al. (2008, J/AJ/136/18) with improvements based on what we learned from our subsequent studies and techniques described in the literature. We perform (1) color-magnitude cuts based on five color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs), (2) visual inspection of multi-wavelength images, and (3) spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting with YSO models. For each YSO candidate, we use its photometry to calculate a measure of our confidence that the source is not a non-YSO contaminant, but rather a true YSO, based on the source's location in the color-magnitude space with respect to non-YSOs. We use this CMD score and the SED fitting results to define two classes of sources: high-reliability YSO candidates and possible YSO candidates. We found that, due to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission, about half of our sources have [3.6]-[4.5] and [4.5]-[5.8] colors not predicted by previous YSO models. The YSO candidates are spatially correlated with gas tracers.
The photometric UBV observations of V4334 Sgr during 1996-1998 are presented. V4334 Sgr is the nucleus of a planetary nebula during the last helium flash of the shell source and it entered the R CrB phase.
