Transcript Stardial: A Drift-Scan Camera at UIUC

Stardial: A Drift-Scan
Camera at UIUC
Jim Bedient
TOPS 2003
June 25, 2003
High-tech gear
How Drift-Scanning Works
What You Get
What you can do
Monitor Variable Stars
Discover New Variable Stars
Observe Small Solar System Bodies
Observe Man-made anomalies such as
satellites and airplanes
Make observations of night-time cloud
cover
Caveat Emptor
Not presently operational, archive mode
only
Not true R-band
Limiting Magnitude m”R”=~12
Not “flat” – background is modeled, and a
polynomial fit is subtracted from each
image
V838 Mon
Images
from HST
V838 Mon
Images
from HST
V838 Mon
Images
from HST
V838 Mon
Images
from HST
V838 Mon – A Peculiar VarStar
A totally new addition
to the astronomical
zoo
Transformed itself from
a small underluminous star a little
hotter than the Sun, to
a highly-luminous, cool
supergiant star
undergoing rapid and
complex brightness
changes
Getting Data
Web or FTP
Instructions on the site:
http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/stardial/
Analysis
Blinking and Photometry in Mira
Using SIMBAD, VizieR to identify objects
Plot Light Curves in Excel
Gee, we taught you how to do all that!
Example
Chad Nishizuka’s Science Fair Discovery
2002 Windward District Winner
A Hawai’i representative to the 2002 International
Science and Engineering Fair in Louisville, KY
Advisor: Clyde Kobashigawa