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C. Shih (Haverford), W. Herbst (Wesleyan)
A 10 arc-min square field (containing the Cone Nebula) in the southern portion of the extremely young cluster NGC 2264 has been monitored between December, 1998, and March, 2000, with the 0.6 m telescope at Van Vleck Observatory (VVO) on the campus of Wesleyan University. Photometry in Cousins I of approximately 250 stars on 112 images spanning the two seasons was obtained using standard IRAF tasks. A periodogram analysis has revealed 44 periodic variables in this field, the large majority of which are undoubtedly T Tauri star members of the cluster. Eleven of these are confirmations of previously reported periods and 33 are newly reported here. Including stars in other portions of the cluster, this brings to 63 the number of periodic variables now known in NGC 2264 based on work at VVO. Most are rotating spotted stars, but one is definitely an eclipsing system and another may be. The expanded sample of periodic variables allows us to define the frequency distribution of rotation periods with greater precision than heretofore possible. We also display light curves for and discuss the eclipsing systems, one of which must be undergoing eclipse by a disk.
This work was supported by the W. M. Keck Foundation and by NASA, through its Origins program.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: cshih@haverford.edu