Variable Stars

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The Principal Investigator (PI) proposes to continue with her current NSF funded research of variable stars. Her observing plan at the Maria Mitchell Observatory is to 1. photograph variable stars in order to maintain and extend the variable star data base established at the Observatory, 2. analyze the data of selected variables for period changes (a task primarily performed by student assistants), and 3. search for unknown variables. The work takes time, with each star presenting its own problems. Slow, steady period changes caused, for example, by stellar evolution will be studied using the Observatory's photographic archives. Stars with more complicated periodic behavior will be investigated by a remotely-accessed, automatic photometric telescope on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona. The scientific goal of the project is to determine the structure of pulsating variable stars. The educational goals of this proposal are to include students with interest and talent in the natural sciences in all aspects of the proposed research and to provide them with realistic hands-on experience, as the Maria Mitchell Observatory has done for many years. This research is funded in NSF's REU Site Program.