Searching for Eclipsing Binary Stars

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Searching for Eclipsing Binary Stars

• Luisa Fernanda Zambrano
• Universidad Metropolitana(UMET)
• Keivan G Stassun

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INTRODUCTION

• Study the North American Nebula (new stars
  forming)
• Use of photometric imaging
• Prepare the data to calculate changes in
  luminosity.

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BACKGROUND

• Binaries are really two stars that rotate around
  a center of mass.
• With the information in them we can calculate
  fundamental properties of Stars and galactic
  objects.
• Eclipsing binaries are rare.

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Obtaining the data

• Kitt peak
• Mosaic CCD.

• Science means big toys

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DATA

• Raw Data

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DATA cont.

• BIAS
• exposures taken with the shutter closed

• Dome Flat
• perfectly white illuminated screen

• Sky Fats
• Very short exposure of the sunset sky.

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CLEANING THE IMAGES

• The Crosstalk Correction
• Before After

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ZERO CORRECTION

• -

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FLAT FIELDING

• /

DOME FLAT
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SKY FLAT

• /

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AREA CORRECTION

• /

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CLEAN IMAGES

• Before

• After

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CONCLUSIONS

• The images are now ready to be analyzed to
  identify eclipsing binaries (Tommys talk).
• Learned, how to take the data, and work with
  IRAF

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Dr Robert Benjamin
• Dr. Keivan Stassun
• Stephan Jansen
• NSF
• MIE (UMET)
• All of my REU mates!

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ALL QUESTIONS MUST BE FOWARDED TO MY MENTOR!
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• LUISA, I HAVE NEVER MET ANYONE THAT COULD CRASH
  AS MANY COMPUTERS AS YOU!!
• K. STASSUN.