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Monitoring the Evolution of Cepheid Variables

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David G. Turner

Saint Mary's University

Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3C3

Canada

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the AAVSO, October 25, 1997

Abstract

Described here are preliminary results of a pilot project to monitor changes in the ephemerides of northern hemisphere Cepheid's using an SBIG camera attached to the 0.4-m telescope of the campus obversatory at Saint Mary's University. Epochs of maximum light for fifteen Cepheid's have been derived using published light curves for each variable as templates, and the results are being used to update the O-C ephemerides for the program stars. Results for BB Her are presented here. Period changes for Cepheid variables are demonstrated to be an excellent means of pinpointing their evolutionary status, as well as for investigating other peculiarities of the class.