Dave McDonald discovers new variable star!

In what is proving a very fruitful month for Irish astronomy, Dave McDonald has discovered a new variable star. Message from the AAVSO VSX:

Dear David J McDonald,

Congratulations! Your submission to VSX of the new variable star 'VSX J012426.9+084154' has been reviewed by a moderator and APPROVED. The data from this submission is now available from the public database. In addition, an AAVSO Unique Identifier (AUID) of 000-BJX-116 has been assigned to the star, and may be used when submitting observations. Your assistance in making VSX a better tool is much appreciated.

www.aavso.org/vsx/index.php?view=detail.top&oid=249715

Fantastic achievement Dave. Many congrats from everyone on the IFAS boards!

Michael.

Great stuff Dave. Well done. I had kind of lost the interest in astronomy and only in the last few weeks has it rekindled, and it couldn't have happened at a better time.

Irish astronomy has come a long long way in the last while

Congrats to all concerned
Trevor

Wow!

Another Forum member discovery!!

Well done....another...Dave

I'm probably doomed to obscurity unless I change my name....

Peter

October is now proving to be one of the most productive months for Irish astronomy ever. Dave's discovery is in pisces at (RA=01 24 26.94 DEC=+08 41 54.. Dave discovered an almost 1/2 magnitude drop in the magnitude of star UCAC3 198-004365 while carrying out a photometric analysis of some asteroids. Following a lot of analysis and hard work by Dave and a lot of correspondence with AAVSO. Dave received confirmation posted by Michael this morning that this variable has now been given the formal designation 000-BJX-116.

There is still alot of work to do to figure out exactly what type of variable star this is. AAVSO have tentatively indicated that it looks a lot like an EA type eclipsing binary.

EA Algol (Beta Persei)-type eclipsing systems are binary stars with spherical or slightly ellipsoidal components. It is possible to determine from their light curves the moments of the beginning and end of the eclipses. Between eclipses the light remains almost constant or varies insignificantly because of reflection effects, slight ellipsoidality of components, or physical variations. Secondary minima may be absent. An extremely wide range of periods is observed, from 0.2 to >= 10000 days. Light amplitudes are also quite different and may reach several magnitudes. In Dave's case he noted a variation of almost half a magnitude.

I'm sure Dave will fill you all in on the gorey details a little later. Dave my heartiest congrats to you on yet another irish discovery. I'm absolutely thrilled for you on this richly deserved discovery. I'm sure Holly is thrilled that her superior canine intellect has reaped further rewards.

well done Dave, its a great "side effect" of asteroid hunting.

Well done Dave! Thats fantastic!

Looking forward to hearing more on this variable star.

Eamonn

www.kingslandobservatory.com