Could you be passionate about exploring the mysteries of red dwarf stars and their dynamic flare activity? The Red Dwarf Group is calling on both amateur and professional astronomers to join us in an exciting, multi-year observing campaign focused on flare stars. In 2024, we submitted over 100,000 observations on Ev Lac to the AID. Now, we’re turning our attention to AD Leo and other targets.
I’m coordinating high-cadence, multi-wavelength photometric and spectroscopic observations to capture flare events. Our goal is to produce peer-reviewed publications from our collaborative data.
By joining the Red Dwarf Group, you’ll have the opportunity to contribute to meaningful scientific research, collaborate with a dedicated network of astronomers, and gain experience in coordinated observational campaigns.
We hold bi-weekly meetings on Tuesdays at 10 AM PST to discuss progress. If you join the group you’ll get invites to these Zoom calls.
Whether you are experienced in photometry or just starting out, your contributions are valuable to advancing our understanding of these fascinating stars. Let’s make an impact together!
For more information or to join, please contact Gary Hawkins, Coordinator of Red Dwarf Group, at astrogary8@gmail.com or reply to this message.
This sounds good to me. What would a typical session look like for a CMOS observer?
Would this be one star, all night at 5 minute intervals, using a V filter?
I’ve been interested in flare stars for years, but not equipped until recently. Michael Poxon tells me many are also considered YSOs as well, so I’m definitely interested in your program.
The ideal type of run is all night on the target star running at a 30-sec measurement cadence. So, for me, currently, that’s about six hours on AD Leo, resulting in 720 images per night. I image every night it is clear. Now, some of our members are working on multiple projects, so they can’t spend as much imaging time.
If our project sounds of interest, send me an email at astrogary8@gmail.com, and I’ll let you know the next steps.
It’s been wonderful seeing the spectra produced by the Red Dwarf Group & uploaded to AVSpec. As you know well, it’s hard to obtain quality spectroscopic time series of these extremely brief events. If the Red Dwarf Group produces any more spectroscopic time series showing flares, I would encourage the observers to submit those to AVSpec.
Out of curiosity… I have not done much photometry, but I know that in spectroscopy, the amount of effort required to accurately process the data can increase significantly with the length of the observation. When doing photometry, is an all-night time series harder to reduce than a 30-minute time series? Do you need to worry about atmospheric effects?
Great to hear from you. Thanks for your best wishes. Our second campaign is gathering some momentum.
I will have someone from the group contact you to talk about AVSpec submissions.
On the photometry side, the time required for data reduction is relatively short if you have your workflow established. It takes me 15 - 30 minutes to process a full night’s worth of data and submit the AAVSO report. Atmospheric effects are handled with the appropriate selection of comp stars (similar color index) and the differential photometry process.
Wow, 15 - 30 minutes from start to submission is excellent! That’s much faster than time series spectroscopy (at least, my own attempts at the task). Choosing comp stars with a similar color index makes sense, and would alleviate the atmospheric effects which I was wondering about. Thanks for the explanation!
Having someone from the group contact us to discuss AVSpec submissions is a great idea. When you ask, would you please direct them to use the email address avspec@aavso.org? I’m stepping down from the staff in a few days, so my own email address will stop working soon.