Full Eclipse Light Curve

We have a very high resolution of the epsilon Aurigae light curve that includes all of your data obtained in the campaign. Check out the impressive structure that can be seen thanks to your coverage.

Above is the current light curve of epsilon Aurigae. Click the image to see it at full 300dpi resolution. AAVSO Science Director Matt Templeton plotted this at the request of Sky & Telescope magazine, who plan to publish a feature article on epsilon Aurigae in their March, 2012 issue (including a Citizen Sky sidebar).

There are a number of amazing things about this light curve. First, 99% of this data comes from amateur observers. No professional astronomer has a light curve as good as this. Indeed, data on epsilon Aurigae is currently among the top 10 most requested from the AAVSO/CS by professional astronomers (out of over 16,000 stars), with an average data request coming in of once per week.  The light curve contains over 8,000 observations from over 450 participants who submitted data to the campaign. Of these, about 7,000 were visual observations (naked-eye, binoculars, or telescope); the others are photometric measurements taken at various wavelengths with digital detectors (CCDs, DSLRs, photoelectric photometers).

Another amazing aspect of the light curve is the structure that can be seen. The out-of-eclipse variation is very clearly on display here. A bump exists post mid-eclipse that looks similar to what was reported as mid-eclipse brightening in past eclipses (but is now believed to be a result of the out-of-eclipse variation).

One of my favorite parts of the ligth curve is the J- and H-band data. JH bands are near-infrared. The human eye cannot detect any energy at this wavelength. Up until the last decade, near-IR work has been exclusively the realm of professional astronomers. At the turn of the century, the AAVSO teamed up with Optec instruments to design a near-IR photoelectric detector for amateur astronomers. It can only see super bright stars, but variable stars tend to be brighter in the IR than in the optical wavelength. In fact, you can even take data on these stars during the daytime because they are so bright in IR. Only a handful of amateurs are doing near-IR photometry, and we know of no professional who is surveying the night sky in JH on a routine basis, so this data is very important to the field.  It is also a brand new contribution to the epsilon Aurigae light curve (since these detectors did not exist during past eclipses). And it's a project only you all (AAVSO/Citizen Sky) are doing.

This is raw data that has not been "cleaned up". As a result, there are some data points that fall outside of what is expected (example: there are some R-band observations that are faint and appear where V-band typically appear). This is expected from a large, heterogenous dataset from hundreds of observers. Researchers will have to look at the data carefully, and sometimes individually, to decide what to keep and what to toss out. This is why we ask for such much information in your reports. The more info you give, the better informed the researchers are when quality checking the data.

Please keep observing! We need to keep monitoring the out-of-eclipse brightening, which is still an outstanding mystery about this star. Over the next few months we'll keep posting updates to the analysis of the data and keep you informed of what is discovered. For now, just enjoy the light curve you helped assemble. It's a big achievement from the light curve at the start of the project 2.5 years ago!