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.
Asteroseismology has the capability of precisely determining stellar properties that would otherwise be inaccessible, such as radii, masses, and thus ages of stars. When coupling this information with classical determinations of stellar parameters, such as metallicities, effective temperatures, and angular diameters, powerful new diagnostics for Galactic studies can be obtained. The ongoing Stromgren survey for Asteroseismology and Galactic Archaeology (SAGA) has the goal of transforming the Kepler field into a new benchmark for Galactic studies, similar to the solar neighborhood. Here we present the first results from a stripe centered at a Galactic longitude of 74{deg} and covering latitude from about 8{deg} to 20{deg}, which includes almost 1000 K giants with seismic information and the benchmark open cluster NGC 6819. We describe the coupling of classical and seismic parameters, the accuracy as well as the caveats of the derived effective temperatures, metallicities, distances, surface gravities, masses, and radii. Confidence in the achieved precision is corroborated by the detection of the first and secondary clumps in a population of field stars with a ratio of 2 to 1 and by the negligible scatter in the seismic distances among NGC 6819 member stars. An assessment of the reliability of stellar parameters in the Kepler Input Catalog is also performed, and the impact of our results for population studies in the Milky Way is discussed, along with the importance of an all-sky Stromgren survey.
The Sagittarius dwarf irregular (also known as SagDIG or UKS 1927-177) is a gas-rich, low-metallicity and star-forming galaxy, at the outskirts (D~1.1Mpc) of the Local Group. Projected relatively close to the Galactic center [(l,b)=(21.06,-16.29)] the resolved stellar populations of this galaxy reflects a strong Galactic foreground contamination, attributed to the thin and thick disk and the halo. This has so far hampered the reconstruction of its star formation and chemical enrichment history, and studies of individual stars. We have analyzed two ACS@HST data-sets (GO-9820 and GO-10472) that were collected in August 2003 and June 2005, having a ~1.85 years epoch separation. The data has allowed the derivation of the relative proper-motion for the SagDIG stellar population and reduction of the heavy foreground contamination. This provides a much clearer view of the red stellar populations (young RSG and intermediate-age AGB as well as the old RGB and AGB). The ACS/WFC data was collected in the F475W, F606W and F814W HST filters, and the published table provides a photometric calibration of the ACS/WFC filters that follows Bedin et al. (2003AJ....126..247B). This is based on the Vega spectrum and follows the recipes given by Holtzmann et al. (1995PASP..107..156H) for WFPC2, using the most updated in-flight characterization of the camera (Sirianni et al. 2005PASP..117.1049S). Besides the reported magnitudes and their relative errors, we also provide the pixel-based offset between the two F814W epochs, which is used to separate the SagDIG stellar population from the Galactic foreground (see Sec.3 of the paper for details).
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.
