La Plata optical monitoring of Eta Carinae

Eduardo Fernández Lajús


Updated: Mar 26, 2024

Instructions for HSH observers

Introduction: Eta Carinae is one of the most massive and luminous stars in our galaxy, and is suspected to be a binary system with a period of 5.54 years. In 2003.5 it was expected to undergo an X-ray eclipse. In the framework of an international campaign to obtain multi-wavelength observations of this event we began an optical CCD monitoring of Eta Carinae. This event was detected with our photometry as a kind of "eclipse" (Fernández-Lajús et al., 2003, IBVS, 5477, 1). The complete and most recent BVRI and Halpha light curves of Eta Car are presented in this page.


News
  • 2023 Season has started!!
  • February 2022: After almost a year, we are back!!!!
  • CASLEO Observatory will be closed since March 21, 2020 because of COVID-19.
  • New observations since 2019 are being made using the 0.6m "Helen-Sawyer Hogg" Telescope at Complejo Astronómico El Leoncito (CASLEO).
  • Video on the most recent paper by A. Damineli

    BVRI Halpha differential photometry of Eta Carinae






    Individual measurements


    V-relative brigthness increasing of the central region, relative to the complete Homunculus just after events


    Observations

    CCD observations are made using the 0.8 m "Virpi Niemela" telescope, at La Plata Observatory.
    Differential photometry of Eta Car is determined using HDE303308 as comparison star. Approximate standard magnitudes of Eta Car are estimated using the UBVRI (Johnson-Kron-Cousins) photometry data (Feinstein, 1982) as zero-points.

    Right: color composite of B, V and R images adquired on May 08-09, 2006 (Seeing ~ 1.5").

    1- Eta Car,
    2- HDE 303308 (Tr16-7),
    3- CPD -59 2628 (Tr16-1),
    4- CPD -59 2627 (Tr16-3)

    VSN Frame
    HSH Frame

    Observing Seasons
    Year: From: To: + 2003 20/01/03 29/08/03 + 2004 14/11/03 30/08/04 + 2005 17/11/04 30/08/05 + 2006 16/11/05 29/08/06 + 2007 13/11/06 31/08/07 + 2008 23/11/07 31/08/08 + 2009 12/11/08 25/08/09 + 2010 01/12/09 05/09/10 + 2011 15/11/10 14/09/11 + 2012 11/11/11 14/09/12 + 2013 04/01/13 11/06/13 + 2014 30/11/13 24/09/14 + 2017 15/01/17 11/06/17 + 2019 30/03/19 27/08/19 + 2020 08/10/19 20/03/20 + 2021 22/02/21 11/08/21 + 2022 08/11/21 23/08/22 + 2023 20/10/22 14/08/23


    Historical light curve of Eta Carinae


    This light curve depicts the visual apparent brightness of Eta Car since 1600 up to date. It is originally based on the references given by Fernández-Lajús et al. (2009, A&A, 493, 1093), and upgraded by Damineli, Ferández-Lajús, Almeida et al. (2019, MNRAS, 484, 1325). It contains visual estimates (big circles), photographic (squares), photoelectric (triangles) and CCD (small squares) observations through different visual filters and photometric systems. All of them have been fitted for consistency of the whole data. Red points are observations from La Plata (Feinstein 1967; Fernández-Lajús et al. 2009a, 2009b, 2010).


    Publications
    Other interesting sites related:


    A. Damineli's page


    AAVSO Light curves


    HST Treasury Project.


    Chandra album.


    Related works:

    Observations of the eclipsing binary CPD-59 2628 (Tr16#1).
    Observations of check star CPD-59 2627 (Tr16#3).
    Plots of individual image data.


    Eta Car working group

    Contact: Eduardo Fernández Lajús: eflajus@fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar


  • Web-page: Eduardo Fernández-Lajús
    Last page update: 16/05/2019