ARCSAT ID NUMBER: AS01

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE: Time Domain Studies of Transients and Variable Stars

PI: Guy Stringfellow

OBSERVER(S): Guy Stringfellow, 
CU undergrads: Brandon Bell, Eliot Nelson, Amanda Koziol, Michael Hinton, Owen Hart, TBD
CU recent graduates: (may continue involvement) Tina Mazur, Maura McKay

UNCERTIFIED/UNTRAINED OBSERVERS: TBD
(all names identified specifically above have been fully checked out using ARCSAT)

COLLABORATORS: Ron Probst (NOAO)
 
CONTACT INFORMATION:  Guy.Stringfellow at colorado.edu   303-506-3160 cell

NUMBER OF WEEKS REQUESTED:  3

TIME REQUESTED: 3 1-week blocks
Requires Dark time and time cadence at least monthly

Jan 11-17 [This is the first week of classes and students are more available to observe] 
Feb 8-14 
Mar 7-13 [Several students will be at APO on the 3.5m CU01 the week of Mar 16-20]
  ССССССССС
Alternate dates: Jan 18-24


INSTRUMENT: SurveyCam

FILTERS:  BVRI Ha

COMMENTS:  


BRIEF SCIENCE JUSTIFICATION: 
Several types of eruptive or variable stars are being studied. These include accretion 
driven outbursts from young stellar objects (YSOs), more modest accretion variability 
of YSOs, novae, Luminous Blue Variable stars and the related supernovae impostors. The 
discovery and light curves of recent novae in M31 have been followed in previous ARCSAT 
runs (e.g., see AstroTel #6324 where we confirm M31 Nova 2014-07a and report pre-discovery 
photometry extending over a 5 day period), and M31 remains a priority target. During the 
Summer we discovered a new nova in M31 - AstroTel #8048 (2015-9a). M31 is a 1st half of 
the night target in 2016Q1. Star forming regions are also being monitored for variable 
and eruptive stars and priorities for the Fall include: Pelican/North American region, 
Barnard-1, Orion, NGC 2264, and select others. As we are pushing ARCSAT down to below 
18 mag, dark time (or when the Moon is at low declination away from our targets) is 
required, and the dates selected (mostly) reflect this constraint. We are currently 
following ~8 eruptive young stars. These stars are mostly setting and visible only the
first half of the night in January, and the first hour or two in March. We have a number
of other targets in our broad program to fill in any time gaps between priority targets.
This science program is being used to introduce select CU undergrads to observational 
research methods and practices, including observing, data reduction, and aspects of 
analysis. Students are supported in part by the CU Undergraduate Research Opportunities 
Program.