COE Observatory Report
2010
Tennessee State University
Center of Excellence in Information Systems
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
This report covers the interval January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010.
The astrophysics program in the TSU Center of Excellence has concentrated on photometry and spectroscopy of cool giants, chromospherically active stars, solar-type stars, planetary-candidate host stars, binary and multiple stars, and pulsating variables. Most of the data for these programs has been acquired with robotic telescopes and instrumentation developed in coordination with Lou Boyd at Fairborn Observatory in southern Arizona. Astronomy staff at the Center of Excellence in 2010 were Geoffrey S. Burks, Michael R. Busby, Francis C. Fekel, Gregory W. Henry, Matthew W. Muterspaugh, and Michael H. Williamson. Muterspaugh has brought to the Center his interest and expertise in astrometry and interferometry. Joel Eaton retired at the begining of the year. Askari Ghasempour joined the Center in July as a postdoc (Universidade do Porto) to work with Muterspaugh in his a collaboration with the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer (NPOI) at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. Also in July, Samira Rajabi (postdoc from Universidade do Porto) joined the Center part-time as a Research Scientist. Samba Fall, Tshnavia Holland and Julia O'Connell served as student research assistants.
OBSERVING FACILITIES
Center of Excellence astronomers continue to operate several automatic telescopes at Fairborn Observatory in the Patagonia mountains of southern Arizona. Fairborn Observatory is a non-profit Educational Corporation directed by Lou Boyd and dedicated to the design, construction, and operation of automated telescopes. TSU telescopes include the T3 0.40 m automated photometric telescope (APT) for Johnson BV photometry, the T4 0.75 m APT for Stromgren by photometry, the T8, T10, T11, and T12 0.80 m APTs, also for Stromgren by photometry, and the T13 2.0 m automatic spectroscopic telescope (AST) for high-resolution echelle spectroscopy. The table below gives the number of years each telescope has been operational and the current observing program(s).
| Telescope | Type | Years | Primary Observing Program(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| T2 | 0.25 m APT | 19 | Semi-Regular Variables (Decommissioned 2007) |
| T3 | 0.40 m APT | 23 | Chromospherically Active Stars, Planetary Candidate Stars |
| T4 | 0.75 m APT | 18 | Solar-type Stars |
| T8 | 0.80 m APT | 15 | Solar-type Stars |
| T10 | 0.80 m APT | 11 | Solar-type Stars, Planetary Candidate Stars |
| T11 | 0.80 m APT | 11 | Solar-type Stars, Planetary Candidate Stars |
| T12 | 0.80 m APT | 11 | Planetary Candidate Stars |
| T13 | 2.03 m AST | 7 | Binary Stars, MOST Satellite Support, epsilon Aurigae |
2010 PUBLICATIONS
Agol, E., Cowan, N. B., Knutson, H. A., Deming, D., Steffen, J. H., Henry, G. W., and Charbonneau, D., "The Climate of HD 189733b from Fourteen Transits and Eclipses Measured by Spitzer," Astrophysical Journal, 721, 1861, 2010. (paper)
Bowler, B. P., Johnson, J. A., Marcy, G. W., Henry, G. W., Peek, K. M. G., Fischer, D. A., Clubb, K. I., Liu, M. C., Reffert, S., Schwab, C., and Lowe, T. B., "Retired A Stars and Their Companions. III. Comparing the Mass-Period Distribution of Planets Around A-Type Stars and Sun-Like Stars," Astrophysical Journal, 709, 396, 2010. (paper)
Bowler, B. P., Johnson, J. A., Marcy, G. W., Henry, G. W., Peek, K. M. G., Fischer, D. A., Clubb, K., Liu, M. C., Reffert, S., Schwab, C., and Lowe, T., "Comparing the Mass-Period Distributions of Planets Around A-Type Stars and Sun-Like Stars," Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 42, 329, 2010 (paper)
Edelstein, J., Muirhead, P., Wright, J., Covey, K., Erskine, D., Muterspaugh, M., Lloyd, J., Halverson, S., Marckwordt, M., and Mondo, D., "Infrared Radial Velocimetry with TEDI: Performance Development," in Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III., SPIE Vol. 7735, eds. by I. S. McLean, S. K. Ramsay, and H. Takami (SPIE: Bellingham, WA), p. 263, 2010. (paper)
Fekel, F. C., Hinkle, K. H., Joyce, R. R., and Wood, P. R., "Infrared Spectroscopy of Symbiotic Stars. VIII. Orbits for Three S-Type Systems: AE Arae, Y Coronae Australis, and SS 73-147," Astronomical Journal, 139, 1315, 2010. (paper)
Fekel, F. C., Tomkin, J., and Williamson, M. H., "New Precision Orbits of Bright Double-Lined Spectroscopic Binaries. IV. 66 Andromedae, HR 6979, and HR 9059," Astronomical Journal, 139, 1579, 2010. (paper)
Fekel, F. C. and Williamson, M. H., "New Precision Orbits of Bright Double-Lined Spectroscopic Binaries. V. The Am Stars HD 434 and 41 Sextantis," Astronomical Journal, 140, 1381, 2010. (paper)
Ghasempour, A., Leite, A. M. P., Alexandre, D., Reynaud, F., Marques, P. V. S., Garcia, P. J. V., "Hybrid Sol-Gel Technology for Fast Prototyping in Astronomical Interferometry," in Optical and Infrared Interferometry II., SPIE Vol. 7734, eds. W. C. Danchi, F. Delplancke, and J. K. Rajagopal, p. 125, 2010. (paper)
Guinan, E. F., Wasatonic, R., Engle, S., Aerts, C., Morajjevi, E., Eaton, J., Fekel, F., Coughlin, J., and Stewart, H., "MOST Ultra-High Precision Photometry of the Luminous Blue Supergiant Rigel – Probing the Interior of a Future Type II Supernova," Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 42, 423.05, 2010. (paper)
Haghighipour, N., Vogt, S. S., Butler, R. P., Rivera, E. J., Laughlin, G., Meschiari, S., and Henry, G. W., "The Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey: A Saturn-Mass Planet in the Habitable Zone of the Nearby M4V Star HIP 57050," Astrophysical Journal, 715, 271, 2010. (paper)
Halverson, S., Muirhead, P., Muterspaugh, M., and Edelstein, J., "Preliminary Data Reduction Methods for TEDI: The Triplespec Exoplanet Discovery Instrument," Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 42, 287, 2010. (paper)
Helminiak, K., Konacki, M., Kaluzny, J., Rozyczka, M., Zloczewski, K., Ratajczak, M., Muterspaugh, M. W., Reichart, D. E., Ivarsen, K. M., Haislip, J. B., Crain, A., Foster, A. C., Nysewander, M. C., and LaCluyze, A. P., "Spectroscopic Survey of Detached Eclipsing Binaries from the ASAS Catalog," Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 42, 423.03, 2010. (paper)
Hinkle, K. H., Fekel, F. C., and Joyce, R. R., "Symbiotic Stars: Infrared Spectroscopy and Orbits," Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 42, 268, 2010. (paper)
Howard, A. W., Johnson, J. A., Marcy, G. W., Fischer, D. A., Wright, J. T., Bernat, D., Henry, G. W., Peek, K. M. G., Isaacon, H., Apps, K., Endl, M., Cochran, W. D., Valenti, J. A., Anderson, J., and Piskunov, N. E., "The California Planet Survey. I. Four New Giant Exoplanets," Astrophysical Journal, 721, 1467, 2010. (paper)
Johnson, J. A., Bowler, B. P., Howard, A. W., Henry, G. W., et al., "A Hot Jupiter Orbiting the 1.7 Solar Mass Subgiant HD 102956," Astrophysical Journal, 721, L153, 2010. (paper)
Johnson, J. A., Howard, A. W., Bowler, B. P., Henry, G. W., Marcy, G. W., Wright, J. T., Fischer, D. A., and Isaacson, H., "Retired A Stars and their Companions. IV. Seven Jovian Exoplanets from Keck Observatory," Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 122, 701, 2010. (paper)
Johnson, J. A., Howard, A. W., Marcy, G. W., Bowler, B. P., Henry, G. W., Fischer, D. A., Apps, K., Isaacson, H., and Wright, J. T., "The California Planet Survey II. A Saturn-Mass Planet Orbiting the M Dwarf Gl 649," Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 122, 149, 2010. (paper)
Jones, H. R. A., Butler, R. P., Tinney, C. G., O'Toole, S., Wittenmyer, R., Henry, G. W., Meschiari, S., Vogt, S., Rivera, E., Laughlin, G., Carter, B. D., Bailey, J., and Jenkins, J. S., "A Long-Period Planet Orbiting a Nearby Sun-Like Star," Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 403, 1703, 2010. (paper)
Kane, S. T., Ciardi, D., Fischer, D., Henry, G., Howard, A., Laughlin, G., Mahadevan, S. and von Braun, K., "Exploring the Exoplanet Mass/Radius Relationship with the Transit Ephemeris Refinement and Monitoring Survey (TERMS)," Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 42, 425, 2010. (paper)
Kane, S. R., Reffert, S., Henry, G. W., Fischer, D., Schwab, C., Clubb, K. I., and Bergmann, C., "On the Transit Potential of the Planet Orbiting Iota Draconis," Astrophysical Journal, 720, 1644, 2010. (paper)
Konacki, M., Muterspaugh, M. W., Kulkarni, S. R., and Helminiak, K. G., "High Precision Orbital and Physical Parameters of Double-Lined Spectroscopic Binary Stars - HD 78418, HD 123999, HD 160922, HD 200077, and HD 210027," Astrophysical Journal, 719, 1293, 2010. (paper)
Konacki, M., Muterspaugh, M. W., Kulkarni, S. R., and Helminiak, K. G., "The Radial Velocity Tatooine Search for Circumbinary Planets," Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 42, 311.02, 2010. (paper)
Malbet, F., Sozzetti, A., Lazorenko, P., Launhardt, R., Segransan, D., Delplancke, F., Elias, N., Muterspaugh, M., Quirrenbach, A., Reffert, S., and van Belle, G., "Detecting and Characterizing Extrasolar Planetary Systems with Astrometry: Review from the Blue Dots Astrometry Working Group," in Pathways Towards Habitable Planets, ASP Conf. Series 430, eds. V. Foresto, I. Ribas, and D. Gelino (San Francisco: ASP), p. 84, 2010. (paper)
Mikulasek, Z., Krticka, J., Henry, G. W., de Villiers, S. N., Paunzen, E., and Zejda, M., "HR 7355 -- Another Rapidly Braking He-Strong CP Star?" Astronomy and Astrophysics, 511, L7, 2010. (paper)
Muirhead, P. S., Edelstein, J., Wright, J. T., Erskine, D. J., Muterspaugh, M. W., Covey, K. R., Marckwordt, M. R., Halverson, S., Mondo, D., Lloyd, J. P., "Precise Infrared Radial Velocimetry with the Triplespec Exoplanet Discovery Instrument: Current Performance and Results," in Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III., SPIE, Vol. 7735, eds. I. S. McLean, S. K. Ramsay, and H. Takami (SPIE: Bellingham, WA), p. 257, 2010. (paper)
Muterspaugh, M. W., Fekel, F. C., Lane, B. F., Hartkopf, W. I., Kulkarni, S. R., Konacki, M., Burke, B. F., Colavita, M. M., Shao, M. and Williamson, M., "The PHASES Differential Astrometry Data Archive. IV. The Triple Star Systems 63 Gem A and HR 2896," Astronomical Journal, 140, 1646, 2010. (paper)
Muterspaugh, M. W., Hartkopf, W. I., Lane, B. F., O'Connell, J., Williamson, M., Kulkarni, S. R., Konacki, M., Burke, B. F., Colavita, M. M., Shao, M., and Wiktorowicz, S. J., "The PHASES Differential Astrometry Data Archive. II. Updated Binary Star Orbits and a Long Period Eclipsing Binary," Astronomical Journal, 140, 1623, 2010. (paper)
Muterspaugh, M. W., Konacki, M., Lane, B. F., and Pfahl, E., "Observational Techniques for Detecting Planets in Binary Systems," in Planets in Binary Stars Systems, Astrophysics and Space Science Library Vol. 366, (New York: Springer) p. 77, 2010. (paper)
Muterspaugh, M. W., Lane, B. F., Kulkarni, S. R., Konacki, M., Burke, B. F., Colavita, M. M., and Shao, M., "The PHASES Differential Astrometry Data Archive. III. Limits to Tertiary Companions," Astronomical Journal, 140, 1631, 2010. (paper)
Muterspaugh, M. W., Lane, B. F., Kulkarni, S. R., Konacki, M., Burke, B. F., Colavita, M. M., Shao, M., Hartkopf, W. I., Boss, A. P., and Williamson, M., "The PHASES Differential Astrometry Data Archive. V. Candidate Substellar Companions to Binary Systems," Astronomical Journal, 140, 1657, 2010. (press release) (paper)
Muterspaugh, M. W., Lane, B. F., Kulkarni, S. R., Konacki, M., Burke, B. F., Colavita, M. M., Shao, M., Wiktorowicz, S. J., and O'Connell, J., "The PHASES Differential Astrometry Data Archive. I. Measurements and Description," Astronomical Journal, 140, 1579, 2010. (paper)
Ozdarcan, O., Evren, S., Strassmeier, K. G., Granzer, T., and Henry, G. W., "Discovery of Cyclic Spot Activity on the G8 Giant HD 208472," Astronomische Nachrichten, 331, 794, 2010. (paper)
Pal, A., Bakos, G. A., Torres, G., Noyes, R. W., Fischer, D. A., Johnson, J. A., Henry, G. W., Butler, R. P., Marcy, G. W., Howard, A. W., Sipocz, B., Latham, D. W., and Esquerdo, G. A., "Refined Stellar, Orbital, and Planetary Parameters of the Eccentric HAT-P-2 Planetary System," Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 401, 2665, 2010. (paper)
Pillitteri, I., Wolk, S. J., Cohen, O., Kashyap, V., Knutson, H., Lisse, C. M., and Henry, G. W., "XMM-NEWTON Observations of HD 189733 During Planetary Transits," Astrophysical Journal, 722, 1216, 2010. (paper)
Ratajczak, M., Konacki, M., Kulkarni, S. R., Muterspaugh, M. W., "The Keck I / HIRES and TNG/Sarg Radial Velocity Survey of Speckle Binary Stars," Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 42, 429.02, 2010. (paper)
Rivera, E. J., Butler, R. P., Vogt, S. S., Laughlin, G., Henry, G. W., and Meschiari, S., "A Super-Earth Orbiting the Nearby Sun-like Star HD 1461," Astrophysical Journal, 708, 1492, 2010. (press release) (paper)
Simpson, E. K., Baliunas, S. L., Henry, G. W., and Watson, C. A., "Rotation Periods of Exoplanet Host Stars," Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 408, 1666, 2010. (paper)
Tomsick, J. A. and Muterspaugh, M. W., "Masses of Neutron Stars in High-Mass X-Ray Binaries with Optical Astrometry," Astrophysical Journal, 719, 958, 2010. (paper)
Traub, W. A., Beichman, C., Boden, A. F., Boss, A. P., Casertano, S., Catanzarite, J., Fischer, D., Ford, E. F., Gould, A., Halverson, S., Howard, A., Ida, S., Kasdin, N. J., Laughlin, G. P., Levison, H. F., Lin, D., Makarov, V., Marr, J., Muterspaugh, M., Raymond, S. N., Savransky, D., Shao, M., Sozzetti, A., and Zhai, C., "Detectability of Terrestrial Planets in Multi-Planet Systems: Preliminary Report," in Extrasolar Planets in Multi-Body Systems: Theory and Observations, eds. K. Gozdziewski, A. Niedzielski, and J. Schneider, EAS Publication Series, vol. 42, p. 191, 2010. (paper)
Traub, W. A., Lawson, P. R., Unwin, S. C., Muterspaugh, M. W., Soummer, R., Danchi, W. C., Hinz, P., Gaudi, B. S., Torres, G., Deming, D., Lazio, J., Dressler, A, "Exoplanets Forum 2008," in Pathways Towards Habitable Planets, ASP Conf. Series 430, eds. V. Foresto, I. Ribas, and D. Gelino (San Francisco: ASP), p. 21, 2010.
Vogt, S. S., Butler, R. P., Rivera, E. J., Haghighipour, N., Henry, G. W., and Williamson, M. H., "The Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey: A 3.1 Earth-Mass Planet in the Habitable Zone of the Nearby M3V Star Gliese 581," Astrophysical Journal, 723, 954, 2010. (press release) (paper)
Vogt, S. S., Wittenmyer, R. A., Butler, R. P., O'Toole, S., Henry, G. W., Rivera, E. J., Meschiari, S., Laughlin, G., Tinney, C. G., Jones, H. R. A., Bailey, J., Carter, B. D., and Batygin, K., "A Super-Earth and Two Neptunes Orbiting the Nearby Sun-like Star 61 Virginis," Astrophysical Journal, 708, 1366, 2010. (press release) (paper)