The Confirmation of Three Faint Variable Stars and the Observation of Eleven Others in the Vicinity of Kepler-8b by the Lookout Observatory

TL;DR

This study confirms three faint variable stars near Kepler-8b and observes eleven others, validating the effectiveness of the Lookout Observatory and supporting the reliability of the ATLAS variable star catalog.

Contribution

The paper reports the confirmation of three ATLAS-identified variable stars and the observation of eleven additional variables, demonstrating the observatory's capability for variable star detection.

Findings

Confirmed three faint variable stars from ATLAS catalog

Observed eleven additional variable stars in the region

Validated the use of Lookout Observatory for variable star research

Abstract

A commissioning survey of the Lookout Observatory has observed fourteen faint (V ~ 13 to 17) variables in the region of the exoplanet Kepler-8b. Three of these are variable star candidates discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) and confirmed here. The ATLAS survey identified 315,000 probable variables within its wide-field survey in 2018. The faintness (down to r ~ 18) and small amplitudes (down to 0.02 mag) included in these candidates makes external validation difficult. The confirmation of this handful of variable stars lends credibility to the ATLAS catalog. Lastly, the agreement between various surveys and this new one validates the use of this instrument for variable star and exoplanet research.