Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Mon, 09/11/2023 - 01:34

     If anyone needs inspiration to observe (or continue observing) Polaris, a new paper by Willy Torres (Harvard) that appeared on astro-ph late last week may provide it:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.03257

Though this deals mainly with the radial velocities, it is clear that high-quality photometry remains useful, and is analyzed here in context with the rv's.  The introduction of the paper provides a comprehensive overview of the observational history of the star.  The writing, data analysis etc in this paper are fabulous, and characteristic of Torres' work.

Since the pulsational amplitude is only a few hundredths of a magnitude, it seems to me that there is no need for photometry in many filters since colors are not changing.  I would recommend just B and V, mainly to convince oneself that whatever variation appears in one filter must appear in the other in a consistent manner (i.e. almost identically).

     I note also in the Torres paper that the longest recent series of rv's has come from the German amateur Roland Buche using a backyard telescope.  Another high-quality series was published, by the way, by Joel Eaton in the JAAVSO in 2020.  Since Joel has since died, it is lucky we have those data available,

\Brian

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Polaris

Thanks for the heads-up, Brian.  It appears that Polaris still has its surprises for us! \Horace