Epsilon Aurigae Programme during IYA 2009

Hi,

For those new to Variable Star Observing please practise before hand on some eclipsing variables.

See: homepage.eircom.net/~irishas/vsog/types.htm

for a finding chart and ephemeris for U Sge. This is an easy star.

A comparison is available at the link "AAVSO Charts for this star". Actually they are the old charts, which should be good enough for practising. The AAVSO now uses a new system of comparison charts using the "Variable Star Plotter" where you can customise your own chart.
Be sure to enter the Name as: "u sge" without the quotes.

good observing
John
Director, VSOG

Hey all, has anybody got a look at this fella yet?

To answer your question John, I will easily be able to do DSLR, but I have no software for determining it's magnitude. Do you have any?

Thanks,

Keith..

Hi,

I will have a AAVSO / VSOG stand to kick off the Epsilon Aurigae Programme at the Galway Astrofest this weekend.

I hope this exciting star drums up interest and get people into observing variable stars.

I made Eps Aur to be mag 3.1 recently. It was a visual observation. I plan to do PEP Photometry as well.

John
Director, VSOG

John,

I look forward to talking to you about this at the GSP specifically with regard to spectroscopic analysis of this star.

Hi,

For observers who have never done any variable star estimates there are a number of resources to get you started.

1. AAVSO Ten Star Tutorial.
See www.aavso.org/aavso/10startutorial.pdf

This features 10 easy-to-observe variable stars. This is the same as the handout that I had at the Epsilon Aurigae AAVSO/VSOG Stand at the Galway Astrofest.

2. AAVSO Variable Star Astronomy.
See www.aavso.org/education/vsa/

This is more advanced. It is an educational package that introduces the science of astronomy and variable stars. It was formerly called Hands-On Astrophysics.

3. AAVSO Variable Star Manual
See www.aavso.org/publications/manual/

This has many tips about correct procedures to follow to maximise variable star estimates accuracy.

All of the above are free downloads.

See also AAVSO Variable Star of the Season that featured Epsilon Aurigae: www.aavso.org/vstar/vsots/eps_aur.shtml

It is important to estimate Epsilon Aurigae when it is high in the sky, at least higher than 30 degrees altitude.

For those with Photometers or CCDs please see Jeff Hopkins page
www.hposoft.com/Astro/PEP/EpsilonAurigae.html . He also has notes there on spectroscopy.


Please send any observations for archiving to AAVSO or BAA. Also I would like to receive copies to record what Irish Observers did during IYA 2009, so they can be published as a permanent record.

Good luck and clear skies

John
Director, VSOG

Hi Keith,

There are a number of image processing packages that do photometry. The ones I have seen are (in no particular order):

Win AIP ver 2. A CD (with a full featured program) is included with the book. See Willmann-Bell publishers.

Astroart 4

Mira from Mirametrics

CCDSoft from Software Bisque

Canopus from Minor Planet Observer

Also MaxIm DL. I think Win AIP 2 is your best bet, as version 2 now supports DSLR imaging (I am not sure about how much DSLR support there is in the other packages).

Also Des Loughney of the BAA VSS (Eclipsing Binary sub-section)
has done DSLR photometry. I heard him talk at the BAA/AAVSO meeting last April and from speaking to him I think the idea is to do lots of raw frames (with dark subtraction) to minimise noise. Also only do when the object is high in the sky. Then extract the green channel as this is the nearest to a V Mag. The highest accuracy with this is 0.05 mag. I have not done this myself (I will be doing PEP).

John