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On the Applicability of Fibre-Fed Multi-Object Spectrographs in Flare Star Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Gábor Szécsényi-Nagy*
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, Eötvös Loránd UniversityH-1083 Budapest VIII. Ludovika tér 2.Hungary

Abstract

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The use of optical fibres has recently allowed the full field of some Schmidt telescopes to be accessed for multi-object spectroscopy. The new device: the MOS (multi-object spectrograph) is to revolutionize the field of astronomical spectroscopy. Cosmic objects grouped into aggregates having apparent angular diameters of 1 to 6 degrees and similar apparent brightness in the visual or near infrared spectral range are to be the most probable future targets of MOSs. Flare stars — as it has been demonstrated convincingly by various authors (see Szecsenyi-Nagy 1986, and references therein) — are the most abundant type of variable stars but because of their low luminosity and relatively late discovery we have only very limited amount of spectroscopic data about most of these objects. It is a real bonanza that most of the catalogued flare stars are associated with young open clusters and this fact of course suggests them as really promising targets for wide-field Schmidt cameras equipped with MOSs. In an average open cluster scrutinized for its flare star members some dozen or some hundred representatives of this species are known which are distributed over a sky field of 10–20 square degrees. Fortunately, they are never packed into unresolvable concentrations and even short focal length cameras are able to produce separate images of all cluster member flare stars for an accurate photographic photometry of the objects. The apparent visual brightness of these stars most often fits a 5–7 magnitude range. This seems to be profitable also for the effectiveness of using fibre-fed MOSs in flare star spectroscopy. The first steps of such a program should be the study of radial velocities and the comparison of the measured values with the accepted radial velocity of the cluster. These measurements could provide new and independent arguments for (or against?) the cluster membership of the flare stars observed in the fields of catalogued open clusters. Later, more detailed spectral studies should collect information about the time dependent features of the spectra of flare stars.

Type
IV. Other Technical Developments
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1995

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