Publishing

Hello again everyone. Kelly and I have been doing all right, just having fun and working and what-not. The new exciting news for me is that the paper that I am the second author for has been accepted for publication. It is set to be published in the April issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. This is pretty exciting for me since it will be the first astronomy paper that I am an author for that is being published. When it is online I will send out the URL so that you can read it if you want. Along the same lines, I have also picked a project to do for my senior thesis. I am hopefully going to present the intial results of the research at the Spring Research Conference in March, and will hopefully be done with the thesis by the end of April. Also, if everything goes well, I will re-write it and try to get it published in the American Astrophysical Journal sometime this summer. Below I have included the abstract that I submitted for the research conference.

Analysis of the Hα and Hβ Temperature Curves of ∂ Scuti and ∂ Serpentis

In ∂ Scuti type variable stars, the two prominent spectral features are the Hα and Hβ hydrogen Balmer lines. Using a Strömgren color-index centered on one of these lines, an index can be produced that will give the temperature of the star. Both of these lines can be used for this temperature calibration. Using spectral data taken from the 1.2-m telescope at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory on two variables, ∂ Scuti and ∂ Serpentis, we applied the temperature index to each line to make a graph of temperature vs. time. Since these stars are pulsating variables, we expect to see them oscillate over time with the pulsation period of the star. Also, we expect to see the separate temperature calibrations in phase with each other. Here, we will present the preliminary results of this analysis.