STANDARD STAR NEWSLETTER No 36

An electronic publication of the Working Group on Standard Stars} 
IAU Commissions 25, 29, 30, 45)
No. 36 editor: Richard O. Gray
April 2004 grayro@appstate.edu


CONTENTS:

Editorial p. 1
Note from the Working Group Chair, Chris Corbally p. 1
Abstracts of Papers: Valdes et al. p. 2 
Meetings: A-star Puzzle p. 5 
Announcements p. 5 

From the editor

The website for the Standard Star Newsletter 
(http://stellar.phys.appstate.edu/ssn) summarizes the purpose of this
newsletter and includes the following statement:

The Newsletter's editor, Richard Gray (Appalachian State Univ., Boone, NC), 
welcomes requests from astronomers to be put on the e-mailing list and 
suitable contributions. These contributions, which may be sent at 
any time, can be abstracts of accepted papers, comments, reports of work in 
hand, news of conferences, and book reviews.

This newsletter regularly publishes abstracts of accepted papers (such as
the paper on the Coude Feed Stellar Spectral Library -- see below),
announcements and reports of meetings and even an occasional book review,
but rarely comments on current developments in the field of standard
stars, or reports of work in hand.  And yet the primary purpose of this
newsletter is to act as a forum for the standard star ``community'' to
discuss current developments, preferably before they are set in stone! 

I therefore encourage the readership of this newsletter to send in such
comments and reports of work in hand and thus help to make this newsletter
a more vital organ for the standard star community.  Read on for specific
suggestions from the Chair, below.


A Note From the Chair
International Astronomical Union
Working Group on Standard Stars (WGSS)

How do you feel about the techniques of standards as applied currently
to mass surveys?  The emphasis in surveys is generally on photometric
classification types.  So is there a danger of surveys spawning
irreconcilable filter sets and multiple classifications systems with
respect to previously established systems, like UBVRI, Stromgren,
Geneva, etc.?  The ``new" Stromvil system (see SSN \#35, p.3) is a
felicitous marriage of two well established systems, but the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey's $u^\prime g'r'i'z'$ 
filter set is quite new.  On the other
hand the SDSS system has been crafted to take advantage of the large
sensitivity range of CCD detectors, and the system's standards have been
carefully established.  Do you think the SDSS system will succeed the
UBVRI system now that we all use CCDs?

Then there is the matter of matching photometry done above the earth's
atmosphere from that done under it.  How has the HST set of new filters
impacted astronomy?  What set of filters will be used for SNAP, the
proposed Supernova / Acceleration Probe Mission, which with its large, 1
square degree field will take in a bunch of stars as it surveys
primarily for supernovae?

Perhaps all these projects are going just splendidly, and the science is
being optimized.  But if you think any of this needs more reflection and
refinement and coordination, particularly from the aspect of standards,
then I would invite you to e-mail and let me and the other readers of
this SSN know.  We might even think of having a meeting on this kind of
topic.

What is clear from these projects is that the ideas for doing even
better astronomy abound.  This is always a delight to me.  I trust that
your own projects, including those involving standards, are bearing
good science and bringing you joy.

With my best wishes,

Chris Corbally
corbally@as.arizona.edu


Abstracts


The INDO-US Coude Feed Stellar Spectral Library
F. Valdes$^1$, R. Gupta$^2$, J. Rose$^3$, H. P. Singh$^4$ and D. Bell$^1$
$^1$   National Optical Astronomy Observatory, P. O. Box 26732, 
       Tucson, AZ 85726
$^2$   IUCAA, Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411 007, India
$^3$   Department of Physics & Astronomy, CB#3255,
       University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
$^4$   Department of Physics & Astrophysics, University
       of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India

We have obtained spectra for 1273 stars using the 0.9m Coud\'e Feed telescope
at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The database provides spectral coverage
from 3460A  to 9464A, at a resolution of ~ 1A  FWHM and at an
original dispersion of 0.44A/pixel.  For 885 stars we have complete spectra
over the entire 3460A  to 9464A  wavelength region (neglecting small
gaps of < 50A), and partial spectral
coverage for the remaining stars.  The 1273 stars have been selected to
provide broad coverage of the atmospheric parameters Teff, log g,
and [Fe/H], as well as spectral type (Fig. 1).  The goal of the project is
to provide a comprehensive library of stellar spectra for use in the
automated classification of stellar and galaxy spectra and in galaxy
population synthesis. In a recent paper (to appear in ApJS), we discuss the
characteristics of
the spectral library, viz., details of the observations, data reduction
procedures, and selection of stars.  Fig. 2 gives an illustration of
the quality and information available in the spectra.  The first version of
the complete spectral library is now publicly available at the National
Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) website (www.noao.edu/cflib).
Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal (Supplement)
Preprints available online at}
                          http://www.noao.edu/cflib

\begin{figure}
\plotone{valdes1.eps}
\caption{The Teff, [Fe/H], and log g coverage of the Coud\'e Feed spectral 
library.

\begin{figure}
valdes2.eps
\caption{The spectrum of the K0III HD4128 is plotted, with expanded regions
to show the large information content of the spectrum. Given that the S/N ratio
exceeds 100:1 per pixel, essentially all features discernible in the spectrum
are real.

Meetings 

IAU Symposium 224: The A-star Puzzle

[Dates:] 8 - 13 July, 2004
[Location:] Poprad, Slovak Republic
[Program:] The conference will cover theoretical, observational and
instrumental aspects of the special problems presented by the A-type
stars, such as convection, diffusion, magnetic fields and chemical
peculiarities. 
[Contact email:]  IAUS224LOC@ta3.sk 

See http://www.ta3.sk/IAUS224/ for more information.

Announcements

IAU WG PDPP: New Issue of Newsletter SCAN-IT

The IAU Working Group for the Preservation and Digitization of Photographic
Plates (PDPP) has recently issued a new version of its Newsletter, SCAN-IT.  
The document can be accessed as zipped PDF or PS at

http://www.lizardhollow.net/

This issue carries updates on plate digitizing and archiving activities
completed or underway, and discussions on the merits of different types of
scanning equipment, both custom-built and commercial.  It also invites
suggestions for research which will become possible when data spanning 70-100
years become widely available, and asks for references to similar archival
research already reported in the literature.

Your interest and your support are invaluable to the groups who are currently
attempting to bring this heritage of unrepeatable data back into the modern
world.

Elizabeth Griffin (Elizabeth.Griffin@nrc.gc.ca)
Chair, PDPP


Contributions to the next Newsletter, due out in 
October 2004, will be welcomed at any time by grayro@appstate.edu.

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\\{\it For preprints, contact}
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