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Solon Bailey and the Period-Luminosity Relation

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Horace A. Smith

Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI 48824

Presented at the 85th AAVSO Annual Meeting, November 2, 1996

Abstract

Data in Solon Bailey's 1902 paper on variable stars in the globular cluster Omega Centauri showed, in crude form, the existence of a Cepheid period-luminosity relation several years before Henrietta Leavitt's discovery of period-luminosity relation amoung the Cepheid's of the Small Magnellanic Cloud. Bailey's pioneering observations remain useful in studies of changes in the pulsation periods of variable stars within globular clusters. The study of period changes amoung globular cluster variablse stars is a field in which amateur astronomers may be able to make a significant contribution.