Update on Professor and Student Survey of NSV RR Lyrae Variable Stars (Abstract)

Volume 48 number 1 (2020)

Melanie Crowson

P.O. Box 7327, Wesley Chapel, FL 33545; scopegal617@gmail.com

David Syndergaard

address correspondence to Melanie Crowson, P.O. Box 7327, Wesley Chapel, FL 33545; scopegal617@gmail.com

Abstract

(Abstract only) RR Lyrae variable stars are dynamic and important because they provide insight into how stars form and evolve. These variables are considered especially significant to many studies due to their short periods and high brightness contrasts. The purpose of this project was to add to the body of knowledge on potential RR Lyrae-type variable stars by providing a general survey of magnitude fluctuations over the course of one year for four possible RR Lyrae stars, thus adding further measurements to the known database. Surveying the distribution of some of these bodies supplies evidence as to the contributing elements that may impact their life cycles; in particular, their galactic coordinates were back-dropped to their light curves in this examination. Also, there is a minor absence of magnitude information on many variables in the photometric blue filter, so the project was conducted using primarily the Johnson B filter with supplemental V filter data as well. It is with this compilation of data on RR Lyraes that astronomers can better understand them, and so the following paper discusses the authors’ photometric observations of four suspected RR Lyrae stars and whether they should remain in this category.