Searching for Variable Stars in the SDSS Calibration Fields (Abstract)

Volume 46 number 1 (2018)

J. Allyn Smith, Melissa Butner, Douglas Tucker, Sahar Allam

Austin Peay State University Department of Physics, Engineering, and Astronomy, P. O. Box 4608, Clarksville TN 37044; smithj@apsu.edu

Abstract

(Abstract only) We are searching the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) calibration fields for variable stars. This long neglected data set, taken with a 0.5-m telescope, contains nearly 200,000 stars in more than 100 fields which were observed over the course of 8+ years during the observing portion of the SDSS-I and SDSS-II surveys. During the course of the survey, each field was visited from ~10 to several thousand times, so our initial pass is just to identify potential variable stars. Our initial “quick-look” effort shows several thousand potential candidates and includes at least one nearby supernova. We present our plans for a follow-up observational program for further identification of variable types and period determinations.