Epsilon Aurigae

Epsilon Aurigae is the eclipsing binary with the longest known period: 27.21 years! In August 2009 another eclipse is due to commence. The links below provide full information.

Epsilon Aurigae is one of the prime scientific targets for International Year of Astronomy 2009. The Eclipse starts in August 2009.

There was a Epsilon Aurigae stand at the Galway Astrofest in January 2009 and at Cosmos in Tullamore (March 2009).

For observers who have never done any variable star estimates there are a number of resources to get you started:

AAVSO Ten Star Tutorial. This features 10 easy-to-observe variable stars. This is the same as the handout that I gave out at the Epsilon Aurigae AAVSO/VSOG Stand at the Galway Astrofest.
AAVSO Variable Star Astronomy This is more advanced. It is an educational package that introduces the science of astronomy and variable stars. It was formerly called Hands-On Astrophysics.
The AAVSO Variable Star Manual has lots of tips on visual Variable Star Observing to follow the correct procedures to maximise the accuracy of estimates.

All of the above are free downloads. See also AAVSO Variable Star of the Season that featured Epsilon Aurigae.

It is important to try to estimate Epsilon Aurigae when it is high in the sky at possible, at least as high as 30 degrees altitude.

For those with Photometers or CCDs please see Jeff Hopkins page. He also has notes there on spectroscopy.

Please send any observations for archiving to AAVSO or BAA. Also I would like to receive copies to record what Irish Observers did during IYA 2009 and following years, so they can be published as a permanent record.

Good luck and clear skies

There are a number of image processing packages that do photometry. The ones I have seen are (in no particular order):
Win AIP ver 2. A CD (with a full featured program) is included with the book. See Willmann-Bell publishers.
Astroart 4.
Mira from Mirametrics.
CCDSoft from Software Bisque.
Canopus from Minor Planet Observer.
MaxIm DL.
I think Win AIP 2 is your best bet, as version 2 now supports DSLR imaging (I am not sure about how much DSLR support there is in the other packages).

Also Des Loughney of the BAA VSS (Eclipsing Binary sub-section) has done DSLR photometry. I heard him talk at the BAA/AAVSO meeting in April 2008 and I gather the idea is to do lots of raw frames (with dark subtraction) to minimise noise. Also only do when the object is high in the sky. Then extract the green channel as this is the nearest to a V Mag. The highest accuracy with this is 0.05 mag. I have not done this myself.

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