Monitoring LMXBs with the Faulkes Telescopes

Fraser Lewis, Paul Roche, David M. Russell, Rob P. Fender, J Simon Clark

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The Faulkes Telescope Project is an educational and research arm of the Las CumbresObservatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGTN). It has two 2-metre robotic telescopes,located at Haleakala on Maui (FT North) and Siding Spring in Australia (FT South). It isplanned for these telescopes to be complemented by a research network of eighteen 1-metre telescopes, along with an educational network of twenty-eight 0.4-metre telescopes, providing 24 hour coverage of both northern and southern hemispheres.We have been conducting a monitoring project of 13 low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) using FT North since early 2006. The introduction of FT South has allowed us to extend this to monitor a total of 30 LMXBs (see target list, Section 4). New instrumentation will allow us to expand this project to include both infrared wavelengths (z and y band) and spectroscopy. Brighter targets (~ 16 - 18 mag.) are imaged weekly in V, R and i' bands (SNR ~ 50), while fainter ones (andgt; 18 mag.) are observed only in i' band (SNR ~ 20). We alter this cadence in response to our own analysis or Astronomers Telegrams (ATels)
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationN/A
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 1 Sept 2008
Event VII Microquasar Workshop : Microquasars and Beyond, Foca - Izmir, Turkey
Duration: 1 Sept 20085 Sept 2008

Conference

Conference VII Microquasar Workshop : Microquasars and Beyond, Foca
Period1/09/085/09/08

Keywords

  • telescopes
  • x-ray binaries

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