Keeping with the title...

I was looking through some old papers and came across these plots of a star I worked on doing Differential Photometry on eclipsing binary stars. This is part of the data set I collected over the '93 observing season.


A classic light curve of the eclipse.. I used a 6 filter collector and did a sequence of 8 second observation on each filter, then a set on a check star, then on a dark spot of sky to use as a reference.


To get the data it takes a precise sequence and you want to work as fast as possible to get the most data. We called it monkey work though, very repetitive.


Of course today this can all be done with a computer and automate the process. Gone are the days  of freezing all night, now you just program the computer and it can do it all..


Each clump is a data set for one nights work. The two stars orbit about once every 13 days so it take months to collect the data to fill in the plot.

You see one large eclipse then a smaller one, this is the primary being eclipsed then the secondary being eclipsed. The six filters show light at different wave lengths and the plots are different because of that.

Mass from one star is being pulled off and is sucked up by the other. This forms a disk of gas that obscures one star some what. The effect also causes the 'shoulder' after the main eclipse not to be a smooth curve.

The mass of the stars and their class can be derived from the information in these plots. The period of rotation, mass, type, and age are all gained by doing this study.