Measurements of visual binaries with PISCO2 at the Nice 76‐cm refractor in 2011–2012

Abstract

We present relative astrometric and photometric measurements of visual binaries made in 2011–2012, with PISCO2 installed at the 76‐cm refractor of Côte d'Azur Observatory in Nice (France). Our observing list contains orbital couples as well as binaries whose motion is still uncertain. Three different techniques have been used for obtaining those measurements: Lucky imaging, speckle interferometry, and the direct vector autocorrelation method. From our observations of 3,136 multiple stars, we obtained 3,568 new measurements with angular separations in the range of 0″.1–10″ and an average accuracy of 0″.016. The mean error on the position angles is 1°.7. Most of the position angles were determined without the usual 180° ambiguity with the application of the direct vector autocorrelation technique and/or by inspection of the Lucky images or the long integration files. We managed to routinely monitor faint systems (mV ≈ 9–11) with large magnitude difference (up to ΔmV ≈ 5). We have thus been able to measure many systems containing red dwarf stars that had been poorly monitored since their discovery. We also measured the magnitude difference of the two components of 326 binaries with an estimated error of 0.2 mag. Except for a few objects that have been discussed, our measurements are in a good agreement with the ephemerides computed with published orbital elements, even for the binaries closer than the diffraction limit. Thanks to good seeing images and with the use of high‐contrast numerical filters, we have also been able to obtain 196 measurements with an angular separation smaller than the diffraction limit of our instrumentation, and consistent with those obtained with larger telescopes. We also obtained new measurements of the 15th magnitude multiple system CON37, and discovered a faint new double star in its vicinity. Finally, we report 47 measurements of 28 new binaries found during our observations.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jul 01, 2021
Source ID
10.1002/asna.202113985

Entities

People

  • Daniel Bonneau
  • Eric Aristidi
  • Farrokh Vakili
  • Jean‐louis Prieur
  • Jean‐pierre Rivet
  • Jocelyn Serot
  • Josefina F. Ling
  • Laurent Koechlin
  • Luca Maccarini
  • Luca Piccotti
  • Luigi Pansecchi
  • Marco Scardia
  • René Gili
  • Robert W. Argyle

Organizations

  • Institut Pascal
  • Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge
  • National Institute for Astrophysics
  • Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology
  • United States Naval Observatory
  • University of Côte d'Azur
  • University of Santiago de Compostela
  • University of Toulouse (1896-1968)

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Radar Systems Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Space