Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Wed, 05/20/2020 - 22:37
In 2008 an observing campaign was launched to observe 9 High-Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXB) in support of research being carried out by Dr. Gordon Sarty. Part of the campaign was a request for long term monitoring - that request is still active. Please see AAVSO Alert Notice 377 for details and observing instructions. This forum thread is being created now to allow for discussion, etc. (the campaign predated the existence of our forums).
Many thanks, and Good observing,
Elizabeth O. Waagen, AAVSO HQ
Posted by Elizabeth Waagen on behalf of Principal Investigator Dr. Gordon Sarty:
"Elizabeth recently drew my attention to the fantastic database the AAVSO now has for the HMXBs. Many stars have dense 10 year long light curves now and it is very easy to see what they are doing. Thank you observers for keeping on these stars for so long! I will be digging through the data to see what astrophysics they support and I will publish what I find. It's a very rich resource! There are other ongoing projects you can work on but it will definitely not be a waste of time to keep these HMXBs on your observing list. A 20 year long dense light curve will be even more enlightening than a 10 year light curve!"
Dr. Sarty (and Elizabeth, for passing it on):
Thank you very much for the feedback on observing HMXBs. It's information like this that helps us observers decide what to observe. No less important, it motivates us to keep collecting data in general, knowing that what we do is valuable.
Shawn (DKS)