Uploaded November 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Originally broadcast on November 19, 2023.
In our recent AAVSO Alert Notice #842, we announced the continuation of an ambitious, year-long effort to investigate what appears to be an actively accreting protoplanet within AB Aur's circumstellar disk. By combining observations from the Hubble Space Telescope with ground-based photometry and spectroscopy, Dr. Lauren Biddle hopes to use accretion light echoes to confirm or refute the existence of the protoplanet. To do this, she needs the support of the AAVSO, and our talented photometrists and spectroscopists.
During this special webinar, Dr. Lauren Biddle and Walt Cooney presented their initial findings of AB Aur's variability from the first observing season, pitched their requests for photometry and spectroscopy, and answered a large number of practical questions, such as "What bandwidth of filter is best for H-alpha photometry?" and "Which comp stars should I use, and why?".
If you are at all interested in observing AB Aur, we encourage you to watch this video to ensure that your observations are effective in achieving the goals of the campaign.
You can view the associated AAVSO Alert Notice #842 here:
aavso.org/aavso-alert-notice-842
Originally broadcast on November 19, 2023.
In our recent AAVSO Alert Notice #842, we announced the continuation of an ambitious, year-long effort to investigate what appears to be an actively accreting protoplanet within AB Aur's circumstellar disk. By combining observations from the Hubble Space Telescope with ground-based photometry and spectroscopy, Dr. Lauren Biddle hopes to use accretion light echoes to confirm or refute the existence of the protoplanet. To do this, she needs the support of the AAVSO, and our talented photometrists and spectroscopists.
During this special webinar, Dr. Lauren Biddle and Walt Cooney presented their initial findings of AB Aur's variability from the first observing season, pitched their requests for photometry and spectroscopy, and answered a large number of practical questions, such as "What bandwidth of filter is best for H-alpha photometry?" and "Which comp stars should I use, and why?".
If you are at all interested in observing AB Aur, we encourage you to watch this video to ensure that your observations are effective in achieving the goals of the campaign.
You can view the associated AAVSO Alert Notice #842 here:
aavso.org/aavso-alert-notice-842
