Trumpeting the Success of the Abbey Ridge Observatory: Stellar Discoveries from Nova Scotia

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Trumpeting the Success of the Abbey Ridge
Observatory Stellar Discoveries from Nova Scotia!
By David Turner, Dave Lane, and Daniel Majaess.
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Mentors

• Former Editor of the JRASC.
• Professor at Saint Marys University.
• Extensive library!
• David Turner

• VP of the RASC.
• Creator of ECU.
• The backbone of the computational network at
  Saint Marys University.
• Dave Lane

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Abbey Ridge Observatory (ARO)

• Photometric observations began in in September of
  2006. Moral and financial support made graciously
  available by David Turner. (BV filter set,
  books, software, etc.)
• By December of 2006, a fully automated pipeline
  was in place automated observing,
  post-processing, and even photometry. Thanks to
  the genius of Dave Lane.

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Cepheids

• Fostering New Light-Curves.

2001, Baranov using Photographic Plates (Moscow).
2004, Sallman
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Cepheids

• LC Morphology, an Indicator of the Pulsation Mode

Zabolotskikh, Sachkov, Berdnikov, Rastorguev,
Egorov (2004)
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Cepheids

• Examining Long Period Cepheids.

S Vul p68d, V1496 Aql p65d, SV Vul p45d
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Cepheids

• Long Period Cepheids pgt65d. Their Evolution!

1862, Painter Gustav Klimt is born. 1891,
Painter Georges Seurat died!
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Cepheids

• Period Evolution!

1902, Photographer Ansel Adams is born!
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The AAVSO archive, a great resource!

• X Cyg had nearly 20000 rows of data!
• Fortran program created to help tackle the
  problem. Go directly from the archive to an O-C
  plot!
• PROGRAM CREATED BY David Turner, Michelle
  Chouinard, Dave Lane (advice), and me.

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Cepheids

• Raison Dêtre
• Observations to buttress the theory that you may
  be able to constrain the Cepheids location in
  the instability strip ( crossing mode) by using
  the rate of period change in conjunction with the
  light amplitude .

Turner, Sabbour, Berdnikov 2006, PASP
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Part ii of the talk Discoveries!

• Accidental, by chance, impromptu, incidental,
  serendipitous, unintentional, unplanned,
  unpremeditated, fortuitously discovered stars!

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Fortuitous Discoveries!

• Period Search using the AAVSOs time series
  analysis program, and a great routine by Bob
  Nelson.

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Fortuitous Discoveries!

• The stars spectrum taken from the DAO reveals
  the star to be a B3V. Spectra reduced using Bob
  Nelsons RaVereC.

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Fortuitous Discoveries!

• Interesting a variable B3V with a period of
  1.85d, could this be the largest amplitude SPB
  (slowly pulsating B-star) discovered to date?
• Maybe something else?

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Fortuitous Discoveries!

• Yet another interesting object!

• If youre David Turner, or Bill Bidelman,
• youll recognize that the line ratios of
• Fe 4143/ H\delta and
• Sr II 4077/Fe 4064 constrain this to a G2V.
• A SOLAR VARIABLE!
• ROSAT noted an X-ray marker within an
• arcminute. White-dwarf, BH, accretion
• scenario!

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Cluster Parameters Variables
Pre-ms Isochrones Joel Tanner Prof. David
Guenther (Saint Marys University) (MOST Team)
Berkeley 59, d700 E(B-V)1, Age lt 5 Myr
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All-sky photometry from the ARO!
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MOST, asteroseismology!
A take on Jaymies talk title Two little
telescopes, two starving graduate students
begging for time!
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Elaborations on Recent Discoveries!

• Discovered by the ASAS survey!

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Cepheids near clusters
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Cepheids Near Clusters, To 5

• Distance to Tombaugh 5, d1560 pc, E(B-V)0.77.
• Reddening to GSC 3729-1127, E(B-V)1.05, from
  2Mass field reddening.
• 1100-2000 pc, using Turner P-L or Feast
  Catchpole.

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Thanks

• The wonderful staff at the DAO (Dmitri Monin, Les
  Saddelmeyer, and Clyde Donnely.)
• To my most patient guide and supervisor, David
  Turner. Thanks for exposing me to the astronomy
  culture by sending me to conferences and
  observatories.
• the Genius Dave Lane.
• Gary Billings, for facilitating my attendance at
  the conference and ensuring everything was ok!
• Bob Nelson for his make-life-easier software.
• The AAVSO and their wonderful archive of freely
  available data!