Examples of Variable Stars found in the GNAT/MOTESS Variable Star Catalog (Abstract)

Volume 48 number 1 (2020)

Roy A. Tucker

5500 West Nebraska Street, Tucson, AZ 85757; gpobs@mindspring.com

Eric R. Craine

address correspondence to Roy A. Tucker, 5500 West Nebraska Street, Tucson, AZ 85757; gpobs@mindspring.com

Adam L. Kraus

address correspondence to Roy A. Tucker, 5500 West Nebraska Street, Tucson, AZ 85757; gpobs@mindspring.com

Abstract

(Abstract only) Images acquired in the course of asteroid search efforts by the MOTESS instrument (Moving Object and Transient Event Search System) are being processed by a computerized photometric pipeline to reveal new variable star candidates. The initial processing of the first survey, conducted during 2000–2001, revealed approximately 26,000 variable star candidates in the brightness range of tenth to eighteenth magnitude, easily within the range of amateurs with modest-sized telescopes and CCD cameras. We present examples of light curves yielded by later follow-up observations. The MG1-VSC provides a rich source of many different types of variable stars that can keep variable star observers busy for many years.