[Previous] | [Session 43] | [Next]
P. Young, W. F. Welsh, E. L. Robinson (Univ. of Texas)
We have obtained 7 nights of R and I band CCD photometry of the soft X--ray transient Aql X-1. The data were obtained in 1998 June with the 2.1m telescope at McDonald Observatory under good conditions (dark time, 1--2 arcsec seeing). Aql X-1 was in a quiescent state throughout the observations. The images clearly show that a nearby, faint star is blended with Aql X-1. The data were therefore reduced with the point--spread function fitting routines in IRAF/DAOPHOT. We find the amplitude of the variations to be very small. The small amplitude of the ellipsoidal variations places a tight constraint on the inclination of the binary system.