Abstract

Five hundred twelve relative astrometry measures are presented for 253 double stars, including 53 double stars discovered by Hipparcos. In 15 cases, relative astrometry is reported for the first time for newly confirmed pairs. In addition, 20 high-quality nondetections of companions are reported for stars suspected of being nonsingle by Hipparcos. Observations were taken using a fast-readout CCD camera system at the WIYN 3.5 m telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona. In comparing these measures with ephemeris predictions for binary stars with very well known orbits, we find that the measurement precision is better than 3 mas in separation and 1° in position angle per individual observation. Measurement precision and detection capabilities are fully discussed, and confirmed orbital motion is reported in four cases of the Hipparcos double star discoveries

Publication Date

6-2002

Comments

© 2002 The American Astronomical Society

We are grateful to J. Gethyn Timothy for continued use of the speckle optics package, to Terrence Girard for advice on astrometric matters, and to Charles Corson, David Sawyer, Wendy Shook, Gillian Rosenstein, and Eugene McDougall at Kitt Peak for their skilled assistance with the telescope. We also thank Matthew Hoffman, Jeffrey Dank, and Kevin Beaulieu at Rochester Institute of Technology for assistance in organizing some of the observational data presented here, as well as the referee, for a thorough reading of the original manuscript.

This work was funded by NSF grant AST 97-31165, JPL subcontract 1201846, from the Preparatory Science Program for the Space Interferometry Mission, and a Theodore Dunham, Jr. Grant from the Fund for Astrophysical Research. It also made use of the Washington Double Star Catalog, maintained at the US Naval Observatory.

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works in February 2014.

Document Type

Article

Department, Program, or Center

Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science (COS)

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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