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Session 7 - Molecular Clouds.
Display session, Wednesday, January 07
Exhibit Hall,
We have initiated a program of repeated R and I photometry of three fields in the Orion Nebula Cluster. Our observations were performed at the Lowell Observatory 31-inch telescope which, under an agreement with Northern Arizona University and the NURO Consortium, is operated 60% of the time as the National Undergraduate Research Observatory. These three fields and several others covering the entire cluster have been studied by Herbst and his coworkers (Choi and Herbst, 1996, AJ, 111, 283; Eaton et al., 1995, AJ, 110, 1735; Herbst et al., 1994, AJ, 108,1906; Edwards et al., 1993, ApJ, 106, 372; Mandel and Herbst, 1991, ApJ, 383, L75; Attridge and Herbst, 1992, ApJ, 398, L61) who carried out Cousins I photometry, observing each field once per night over several seasons. They have found that each field contains many T-Tauri like variable stars. Choi and Herbst (1996, AJ, 111, 283) have proposed that a variety of mechanisms are responsible for these variations. By obtaining color information and higher t ime resolution, we hope to shed further light on the nature of these stars. We provide a preliminary report on this project.
