Tennessee State University
Center of Excellence in Information Systems
Nashville, Tennessee 37209

This report covers the interval July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022.

The TSU Automated Astronomy Group within the TSU Center of Excellence in Information Systems concentrates on stellar astrophysics using photometric, spectroscopic, and imaging techniques to study cool giants, chromospherically active stars, solar-type stars, planetary-candidate host stars, binary and multiple stars, and pulsating variables. Data for these programs have been acquired with robotic telescopes and instrumentation developed in coordination with Louis Boyd, the Director of Fairborn Observatory in southern Arizona. Astronomy staff at the Center during this interval were Gregory W. Henry, Michael H. Williamson, and Francis C. Fekel. Fekel continues as emeritus research associate.

OBSERVING FACILITIES

Center of Excellence astronomers continue to develop and operate automated telescopes and instrumentation at Fairborn Observatory in the Patagonia mountains of southern Arizona. Fairborn Observatory is a non-profit Educational Corporation directed by Louis J. Boyd and dedicated to the design, construction, and operation of automated telescopes at an isolated, dark-sky observing site. 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 with 2-channel photometers, the T13 2.0 m automatic spectroscopic telescope (AST) for high-resolution echelle spectroscopy, and the Celestron 14-inch (C14) automated imaging telescope (AIT). Williamson brought the new T15 0.80 m APT into operation last year. It has a 2-channel by photometer and is being dedicated to observing planetary-host candidates. The table below gives the number of years each telescope has been operational and their current observing program(s). T8, T10, T11, and T12 have been down awaiting needed upgrades.

PUBLICATIONS 2021-22

Dana R. Louie, Drake Deming, David Sing, Thomas Mikal-Evans, Munazza K. Alam, Nikolay Nikolov, Gregory W. Henry, and the PanCET Collaboration, "The Hubble Space Telescope PanCET Program: An Optical to Infrared Transmission Spectrum of the hot Jupiter KELT-7b," Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 54, Issue 5, 2022. (abstract)

Dana R. Louie, Drake Deming, David Sing, Thomas Mikal-Evans, Munazza K. Alam, Nikolay Nikolov, Gregory W. Henry, and the PanCET Collaboration, "The Hubble Space Telescope PanCET Program: An Optical to Infrared Transmission Spectrum of the hot Jupiter KELT-7b," ExoPlanets IV Conference, Las Vegas, NV, May 1-6, 2022. (poster)

J. J. Lehtinen, M. J. Käpylä, T. Hackman, O. Kochukhov, T. Willamo, S. C. Marsden, S. V. Jeffers, G. W. Henry, and L. Jetsu, "Topological Changes in the Magnetic Field of LQ Hya During an Activity Minimum," Astronomy & Astrophysics, 660, A141, 2022. (paper)

Gregory W. Henry, Francis C. Fekel, and Michael H. Williamson, "Nine Bright gamma Doradus Variables Discovered with Ground-based Photometry," Astronomical Journal, 163, 180, 2022. (paper)

Lily L. Zhao, Debra A. Fischer, Eric B. Ford, Alex Wise, Michaël Cretignier, Suzanne Aigrain, Oscar Barragan, Megan Bedell, Lars A. Buchhave, João D. Camacho, Heather M. Cegla, Jessi Cisewski-Kehe, Andrew Collier Cameron, Zoe L. de Beurs, Sally Dodson-Robinson, Xavier Dumusque, João P. Faria, Christian Gilbertson, Charlotte Haley, Justin Harrell, David W. Hogg, Parker Holzer, Ancy Anna John, Baptiste Klein, Marina Lafarga, Florian Lienhard, Vinesh Maguire-Rajpaul, Annelies Mortier, Belinda Nicholson, Michael L. Palumbo, III, Victor Ramirez Delgado, Christopher J. Shallue, Andrew Vanderburg, Pedro T. P. Viana, Jinglin Zhao, Norbert Zicher, Samuel H. C. Cabot, Gregory W. Henry, Rachael M. Roettenbacher, John M. Brewer, Joe Llama, Ryan R. Petersburg, and Andrew E. Szymkowiak, "The EXPRES Stellar Signals Project II. State of the Field in Disentangling Photospheric Velocities," Astronomical Journal, 163, 171, 2022. (paper)

Michael Zhang, Heather A. Knutson, Lile Wang, Fei Dai, Leonardo A. dos Santos, Luca Fossati, Gregory W. Henry, David Ehrenreich, Yann Alibert, Sergio Hoyer, Thomas G. Wilson, and Andrea Bonfanti, "Detection of Ongoing Mass Loss from HD 63433c, a Young Mini-Neptune," Astronomical Journal, 163, 68, 2022. (paper)

Rachael M. Roettenbacher, Samuel H. C. Cabot, Debra A. Fischer, John D. Monnier, Gregory W. Henry, Robert O. Harmon, Heidi Korhonen, John M. Brewer, Joe Llama, Ryan R. Petersburg, Lily L. Zhao, Stefan Kraus, Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin, Narsireddy Anugu, Claire L. Davies, Tyler Gardner, Cyprien Lanthermann, Gail Schaefer, Benjamin Setterholm, Catherine A. Clark, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Kyler Kuehn, and Stephen Levine, "EXPRES. III. Revealing the Stellar Activity Radial Velocity Signature of epsilon Eridani with Photometry and Interferometry," Astronomical Journal, 163, 19, 2022. (paper)

Trevor O. Foote, Nikole K. Lewis, Brian M. Kilpatrick, Jayesh M. Goyal, Giovanni Bruno, Hannah R. Wakeford, Nina Robbins-Blanch, Tiffany Kataria, Ryan J. MacDonald, Mercedes López-Morales, David K. Sing, Thomas Mikal-Evans, Vincent Bourrier, Gregory Henry, and Lars A. Buchhave, "The Emission Spectrum of the Hot Jupiter WASP-79b from HST/WFC3," Astronomical Journal, 163, 7, 2022. (paper)

Lotfi Ben-Jaffel, Gilda E. Ballester, Antonio García Muñoz, Panayotis Lavvas, David K. Sing, Jorge Sanz-Forcada, Ofer Cohen, Tiffany Kataria, Gregory W. Henry, Lars Buchhave, Thomas Mikal-Evans, Hannah R. Wakeford, and Mercedes López-Morales, "Signatures of Strong Magnetization and a Metal-Poor Atmosphere for a Neptune-Sized Exoplanet," Nature Astronomy, 6, 141, 2022. (paper)

Fu, G., Deming, D., May, E., Stevenson, K., Sing, D. K., Lothringer, D. J., Wakeford, H. R., Nikolov, N., Mikal-Evans, T., Bourrier, V., dos Santos, L. A., Alam, M. K., Henry, G. W., Muñoz, A. G., and López-Morales, "The Hubble PanCET Program: Transit and Eclipse Spectroscopy of the Hot-Jupiter WASP-74b," Astronomical Journal, 162, 271, 2021. (paper)

Tyler Gardner, John D. Monnier, Francis C. Fekel, Michael Williamson, Fabien Baron, Sasha Hinkley, Michael Ireland, Adam L. Kraus, Stefan Kraus, Rachael M. Roettenbacher, Gail Schaefer, Judit Sturmann, Laszlo Sturmann, and Theo ten Brummelaar, "Establishing α Oph as a Prototype Rotator: Precision Orbit with New Keck, CHARA, and RV Observations," Astrophysical Journal, 921, 41, 2021. (paper)

Alexander D. Rathcke, Ryan J. MacDonald, Joanna K. Barstow, Jayesh M. Goyal, Mercedes Lopez-Morales, João M. Mendonça, Jorge Sanz-Forcada, Gregory W. Henry, David K. Sing, Munazza K. Alam, Nikole K. Lewis, Katy L. Chubb, Jake Taylor, Nikolay Nikolov, and Lars A. Buchhave, "HST PanCET Program: A Complete Near-UV to Infrared Transmission Spectrum for the Hot Jupiter WASP-79b," Astronomical Journal, 162, 138, 2021. (paper)

Guangwei Fu, Drake Deming, Joshua Lothringer, Nikolay Nikolov, David K. Sing, Eliza M.-R. Kempton, Jegug Ih, Thomas M. Evans, Kevin Stevenson, H. R. Wakeford, Joseph E. Rodriguez, Jason D. Eastman, Keivan Stassun, Gregory W. Henry, Mercedes López-Morales, Monika Lendl, Dennis M. Conti, Chris Stockdale, Karen Collins, John Kielkopf, Joanna K. Barstow, Jorge Sanz-Forcada, David Ehrenreich, Vincent Bourrier, and Leonardo A. dos Santos, "The Hubble PanCet Program: Transit and Eclipse Spectroscopy of the Strongly Irradiated Giant Exoplanet WASP-76b," Astronomical Journal, 162, 108, 2021. (paper)