Undergraduate Research Experiences at BGSU Presented by Katie Guldenschuh & Andy Layden BRAVO BG! Orlando Florida February 2005

 BGSU Office of Undergraduate Research  Undergraduate Research in Astronomy  Katie’s Research… Overview

Office of Undergraduate Research Helps students: Select topic & faculty mentor Proposal writing & financial support Communicate results

Astronomy Research  20-inch telescope & electronic camera  Monitor brightness of pulsating variable stars  how bright is the star?  how fast does it pulsate?  calculate distance … measure the universe!

Undergraduate Involvement Since 1999:  9 students  15 summer jobs  2 papers  7 conference posters & talks

Myself Senior Graduating in May 2005 Math Major with Astronomy Minor AFROTC student going into the Air Force after graduation as an Analytical Scientist

Searching for Variable Stars in the Globular Cluster NGC 6496  Took 48 pictures of the globular cluster over a period of two months  Measured the brightness of each star on every image  Looked for stars that varied in brightness over time

Motivation Behind Research   Variable stars are very useful in astronomy   Determine distances   Clues to how stars work and change   Overall give us insight into our universe

Observations and Reductions Images taken with direct CCD camera on 0.9-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter- American Observatory. We used several computer programs to process images and measure star brightness.

Variable Star Detection To determine which stars were variable, we plotted brightness versus time.

Variable Star Detection (cont.) Some stars showed much more rapid variation, completing a full cycle in less than one day. Contact Binary Star System

Conclusions  We discovered at least six variable stars near NGC 6496  none previously known.  This study helped improve our understanding of variable stars in globular clusters.

How this influenced my BGSU experience Apply classroom knowledge to a real life problem Present findings to professional astronomers in GA Developed skills to take with me into Air Force.

If you have any questions, please chat with Andy or me after the presentations

References Clement et al. 2001, AJ, 82, 2587 Fourcade & Laborde 1963, BAAA, 6, 111 Harris 1996, AJ, 112, 148 Layden, Ritter, Welch & Webb, 1999, AJ, 117, 1313 Pritzl et al. 2003, AJ, 126, 1381 Stetson 1987, 1994, PASP, 99, 191, 106, 250