The VESPA Survey: 100 New Variable Stars Discovered in Two Years

Volume 45 number 1 (2017)

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Ulisse Quadri

(IAU station 565) Bassano Bresciano Astronomical Observatory; AAVSO – American Association of Variable Star Observers; UAI – Unione Astrofili Italiani; ISSP (Italian Supernovae Search Project); Via S.Michele,4 – Bassano Bresciano (Italy); info@ulisse.bs.it

Luca Strabla

(IAU station 565) Bassano Bresciano Astronomical Observatory; ISSP (Italian Supernovae Search Project); Via Paolo VI - Palazzolo Sull'Oglio (Italy); lucapietro.strabla@fastwebnet.it

Roberto Girelli

(IAU station 565) Bassano Bresciano Astronomical Observatory; ISSP (Italian Supernovae Search Project); Via G.Migliorati – Bassano Bresciano (Italy); ro.girelli@tiscali.it

Abstract

We describe the VESPA project made at IAU station 565, Astronomical Observatory in Bassano Bresciano (BS), Italy. It is one photometric survey of the northern hemisphere which has the aim of discovering and investigating new variable stars. In the first two years of activity we have discovered 100 new variable stars in the course of observations carried out from August 2014 to September 2016. The newly discovered stars comprise 80 eclipsing binary stars (66 of them classified as W Ursae Majoris, 11 as beta Lyrae, and 3 beta Persei), one rotating (ROT), one ellipsoidal variable (ELL), and 18 pulsating variables (5 of them classified as RRAB, 7 RRC, 3 HADS, 2 delta Scuti and one Cepheid). Variability classification is based on the properties of the optical light curves that we obtained using our 255 mm F/4.7 Newton robotic telescope.