Stardial: A DriftScan Camera at UIUC

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Stardial A Drift-Scan Camera at UIUC

• Jim Bedient
• TOPS 2003
• June 25, 2003

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High-tech gear
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How Drift-Scanning Works
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What You Get
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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

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Caveat Emptor

• Not presently operational, archive mode only
• Not true R-band
• Limiting Magnitude mR12
• Not flat background is modeled, and a
  polynomial fit is subtracted from each image

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V838 Mon Images from HST
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V838 Mon Images from HST
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V838 Mon Images from HST
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V838 Mon Images from HST
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V838 Mon A Peculiar VarStar

• A totally new addition to the astronomical zoo
• Transformed itself from a small under-luminous
  star a little hotter than the Sun, to a
  highly-luminous, cool supergiant star undergoing
  rapid and complex brightness changes

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Getting Data

• Web or FTP
• Instructions on the site http//www.astro.uiuc.ed
  u/stardial/

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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!

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Example
Chad Nishizukas Science Fair Discovery 2002
Windward District Winner A Hawaii representative
to the 2002 International Science and Engineering
Fair in Louisville, KY Advisor Clyde Kobashigawa