2008/07/17 by J. L. Hopkins, Hopkins, J. L., L. Schanne +3
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0807.2855
Comments: 10 pages, PDF. See also Proceedings of the May 2008 Society for Astronomical Sciences annual symposium
arxiv created 2008/07/17 · openalex publication_date 2008/07/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The mysterious 3rd magnitude long period eclipsing binary star system epsilon Aurigae is predicted to be starting its 2 year eclipse in the late summer of 2009. While this is when the real excitement starts, much is to be learned before first contact. This paper discusses current observational results that have accumulated thus far, using photometric monitoring, H-alpha spectroscopy and with other data sources. Key among the findings are that (1) the low amplitude light variation quasi-period has decreased significantly over the past 20 years, and (2) that the duration of egress, eclipse-to-eclipse has been decreasing, while the duration of total eclipse has been increasing. The website for the observing campaign is: www.du.edu/~rstencel/epsaur.htm .