cataclysmic variables
An observational research project to study cataclysmic variables at the City College of San Francisco.
Cataclysmic variables are pairs of stars in which one is slowly dumping material onto a white dwarf, making the system flicker and flare. Watching how their brightness and color change over time tells us how that transfer works.
With Professor Claia Bryja’s group at City College of San Francisco, I helped observe a list of these systems, including AY Piscium, with the 1 m Nickel Telescope at Lick Observatory. My part was writing the code that cleans up the raw camera images so that brightness can be measured.