Variable Star Project James Sinclair

Junior Science Research Project (JSRP) In Year 10 at my school, Shore, students completed a Junior Science Research Project (JSRP) as part of the curriculum. The project involved students conducting a scientific investigation on a topic of their choosing, to produce results confirming or denying their hypotheses.

JSRP My project: Brightness changes in a suspected variable star In completing the project a suitable variable star had to be chosen. A nearby companion non- variable star also needed to be chosen as a control, so that the brightness changes in the variable star could be accurately determined. The variable star I studied is named “NSV05596”.

CSU Remote Telescope The telescope was constructed by Associate Professor David McKinnon. Connection to the telescope was made possible from my home computer via a Remote Desktop Connection (RDP)

The Software The Sky – Used to control the telescope and locate the star in the night sky. Prime Focus Camera – Used to take the images needed for the project. Star MX-5 – This program allowed us to process the images so we could determine the magnitude difference between the stars. Notebook – Allowed Prof. McKinnon and myself to discuss all aspects of the project in real-time over the internet.

The Images 27 images were taken over the period of 40 days. After the images were collected the task of processing each image and then finding the magnitude of each star was undertaken to determine a set of results.

Results/Data To the right is a graph of the magnitudes of the star with its companion. Star NSV05596 is clearly a variable star however the brightness changes are not periodic and it is difficult to determine conclusively what type of variable star.

Some Personal Notes Over the course of the project I found it very appealing to be conducting my own research and completing my own project, that would contribute to science. In particular it was very helpful to do the majority of the work for my project from the convenience of my home computer in Sydney, i.e connecting to and operating the CSU Remote Telescope. And of course, the help of my mentor and good friend Professor David McKinnon made the project so much more meaningful and achievable.

To be continued… Professor McKinnon and I have continued our research into NSV05596 this year. We have only just begun but we have taken a further series of images and are now collating that data. We plan also to use the more powerful Anglo-Australian telescope at Coonabarabran to further investigate the star. This will continue until we have sufficient data, hopefully, to make a definitive statement on the type of variable star that we have been observing.