Periodic variable stars in CoRoT field LRa02 observed with BEST II

TL;DR

This study used the BEST II telescope to observe the CoRoT LRa02 field, identifying 350 new periodic variable stars from over 104,000 stars, aiding future CoRoT data analysis.

Contribution

First wide-field ground-based survey of CoRoT LRa02 field identifying new periodic variable stars to support space mission data analysis.

Findings

Detected variability in 3726 stars

Identified 350 new periodic variables

Light curves for over 104,000 stars

Abstract

The Berlin Exoplanet Search Telescope II (BEST II) is a small wide field-of-view photometric survey telescope system located at the Observatorio Cerro Armazones, Chile. The high duty cycle combined with excellent observing conditions and millimagnitude photometric precision makes this instrument suitable for ground based support observations for the CoRoT space mission. Photometric data of the CoRoT LRa02 target field collected between November 2008 and March 2009 were analysed for stellar variability. The presented results will help in the future analysis of the CoRoT data, particularly in additional science programs related to variable stars. BEST II observes selected CoRoT target fields ahead of the space mission. The photometric data acquired are searched for stellar variability, periodic variable stars are identified with time series analysis of the obtained stellar light curves. We obtained the light curves of 104335 stars in the CoRoT LRa02 field over 41 nights. Variability was detected in light curves of 3726 stars of which 350 showed a regular period. These stars are, with the exception of 5 previously known variable stars, new discoveries.