Lost Variables in Sagittarius and Cygnus Recovered on Nantucket Plates

Volume 29 number 2 (2001)

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Nikolai Samus

Institute of Astronomy Russian Academy of Sciences 48 Pyatnitskaya St. Moscow 109017 Russia Sternberg Astronomical Institute 13, University Ave. Moscow 119899 Russia and Maria Mitchell Observatory 3 Vestal St. Nantucket, MA 02554

Courtney Peterson

Georgetown University Department of Physics 506 Reiss Science Building 37th and O Streets, N.W. Washington, DC 20057 and Maria Mitchell Observatory

Shadrian Holmes

College of Charleston Department of Physics and Astronomy 66 George St. Charleston, SC 29424 and Maria Mitchell Observatory

Karyn Singer

Duke University Box 96372 Durham, NC 27708 and Maria Mitchell Observatory

Abstract

Mass discoveries of variable stars by modern automatic sky surveys make it very important to determine accurate coordinates for all previously documented variable stars. For many "old" variable stars, no finding charts were ever published, and only rough coordinates were reported. Existing collections of sky photographs, however, make it possible to recover such "lost" variable stars. Here, we present our results on the recovery of nine "lost" variable stars: NY Cyg, QX Cyg, VW Sgr, GW Sgr, GZ Sgr, HK Sgr, HT Sgr, HU Sgr, and HW Sgr, using plates from the Maria Mitchell Observatory collection in Nantucket, Massachusetts. For the stars recovered, we present finder charts, accurate coordinates, improved classification, and light elements. In the case of HW Sgr, there is an indisputably variable star approximately in the published positon, but the charactrer of its variability is in complete disagreement with earlier data. Either HW Sgr was misclassified by the discoverer, or the discoverer's position for the star is in error and we have acutally discovered a new variable.