Beta Lyrae as seen by BRITE in 2016

TL;DR

This study presents continuous photometric observations of Beta Lyrae by BRITE satellites in 2016, analyzing light-curve instabilities and instrumental issues to improve understanding of the star's variability.

Contribution

First detailed space-based light-curve analysis of Beta Lyrae with BRITE, identifying instrumental problems and establishing data calibration methods.

Findings

Detected light-curve instabilities with 100-minute resolution

Identified instrumental CCD issues affecting data quality

Established calibration techniques for precise light-curve analysis

Abstract

The BTr and UBr satellites observed $\beta$ Lyrae from May to October 2016 to continuously monitor light-curve instabilities with the time resolution of about 100 mins. An instrumental problem affecting localized patches on the BTr CCD detector has been discovered by comparison with partly simultaneous UBr observations; the origin of the problem is being investigated. A zero-point offset permits utilization of the BTr data for a time-series characterization of deviations from the mean light curve defined to $\simeq 0.0025$ mag.