Related papers: Ground-based variability surveys towards Centaurus…
The Difference Image Analysis (DIA) of the images obtained by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE-II) revealed a peculiar artifact in the sample of stars proposed as variable by Wozniak (2000) in one of the Galactic bulge…
We present a $\approx 11.5$ year adaptive optics (AO) study of stellar variability and search for eclipsing binaries in the central $\sim 0.4$ pc ($\sim 10''$) of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster. We measure the photometry of 563 stars…
We present the results of an adaptive optics survey for faint companions among Galactic O-type star systems (V < 8) using the Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) 3.6-meter telescope on Haleakala. We surveyed these O star systems in…
We report on the methodology and first results from the Deep Lens Survey transient search. We utilize image subtraction on survey data to yield all sources of optical variability down to 24th magnitude. Images are analyzed immediately after…
We extend the work developed in previous papers on microlensing with a selection of variable stars. We use the Pixel Method to select variable stars on a set of 2.5 x 10**6 pixel light curves in the LMC Bar presented elsewhere. The previous…
We report results from intensive monitoring of two fields on either side of M31,emphasizing microlensing involving stars and masses in M31. These results stem from the three-year VATT/Columbia survey of variability on 3d to 2m timescales.…
The POINT-AGAPE collaboration has been monitoring M31 for three seasons with the Wide Field Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope. In each season, data are taken for one hour per night for roughly sixty nights during the six months that M31…
Among various techniques to search for extra-solar planets, microlensing has some unique characteristics. Contrary to all other methods which favour nearby objects, microlensing is sensitive to planets around stars at distances of several…
In the context of extrasolar planet direct detection, we evaluated the performance of differential imaging with ground-based telescopes. This study was carried out in the framework of the VLT-Planet Finder project and is further extended to…
High-contrast imaging observations of large angular diameter stars enable complementary science questions to be addressed compared to the baseline goals of proposed missions like the Terrestrial Planet Finder-Coronagraph, New World's…
We use data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to search for, and set limits on, optical to near-infrared photometric variability of the well-vetted, candidate James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spectrophotometric…
Betelgeuse is an important variable star with many observations in the AAVSO database, but there is an annual gap of about four months where Betelgeuse is close to the sun and not observable at night. This gap could be filled with daylight…
Based on archival Chandra observations, we present a systematic timing survey of several hundred X-ray sources in M31, M81, and Centaurus A, mostly low-mass X-ray binaries (LXMBs), focusing on searching and characterizing aperiodic and…
We undertook a long term project, DIRECT, to obtain the direct distances to two important galaxies in the cosmological distance ladder -- M31 and M33 -- using detached eclipsing binaries (DEBs) and Cepheids. While rare and difficult to…
The second data release of ESA's Gaia satellite (Gaia DR2) revolutionised astronomy by providing accurate distances, proper motions, apparent magnitudes, and in many cases temperatures and radial velocities for an unprecedented number of…
For application to surveys of interstellar matter and Galactic structure, we compute new spectrophotometric distances to 139 OB stars frequently used as background targets for UV spectroscopy. Many of these stars have updated spectral types…
The 2MASS photometric calibration observations cover ~6 square degrees on the sky in 35 "calibration fields" each sampled in nominal photometric conditions between 562 and 3692 times during the four years of the 2MASS mission. We compile a…
Observations of low-mass companions for which the dynamical masses are well constrained help to improve the calibration of evolutionary models. Such observations thereby provide more confidence in the estimation of the mass of a companion…
Many planet candidates have been detected by radial velocity variations of the primary star; they are planet candidates, because of the unknown orbit inclination. Detection of the wobble in the two other dimensions, to be measured by…
Due to the choice of very dense star fields for a higher event rate, the current microlensing searches suffer from large uncertainties caused by blending effect. To measure light variations of microlensing events free from the effect of…