A Practical Guide to Lightcurve Photometry and Analysis (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series)
A Practical Guide to Lightcurve Photometry and Analysis provides, forthose with access to even a modest telescope and CCD camera, all theinformation needed to take part in the scientific study of asteroids andvariable stars.Using commercially available equipment, amateur astronomers candetermine the rotation rate, size, and shape of asteroids. Similarly, itis possible to discover the size, temperature, and orbits of stars inbinary systems by using this powerful technique.A Practical Guide to Lightcurve Photometry and Analysis contains all thematerial needed for readers to understand the theory, and avoid thepractical pitfalls of lightcurve photometry. Detailed examples aregiven for obtaining data, and of course for the exciting and rewardingtask of analyzing the data to determine the physical properties of theobject.Any college student or amateur astronomer who wants to go beyond mereimaging with a CCD camera and enter the challenging world of "realscience" via the lightcurves of asteroids and binary stars will findeverything necessary in this book.