The goal of this paper is to present an optical variability study of the comparatively faint carbon (C) stars which have been discovered by searching the First Byurakan Survey (FBS) low-resolution (lr) spectral plates at high Galactic latitudes using recent wide-area variability databases. The light curves from the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) and Northern Sky Variability Survey (NSVS) databases were exploited to study theit variability nature. In this paper, first in this series, the variability classes are presented for 54 N-type Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) C stars. One finds that 9 stars belongs to the group of Mira-type, 43 are Semi-Regular (SR), and 2 stars are Irregular (Irr)-type variables. The variability types of 27 objects has been established for the first time. K-band absolute magnitudes, distances, and height from the Galactic plane were estimated for all of them. We aim to better understand the nature of the selected C stars through spectroscopy, 2MASS photometric colors, and variability data. Most of the tools used in this study are developed within the framework of the Astronomical Virtual Observatory.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
B. Sesar, Z. Ivezic, R. H. Lupton et al., Astron. J., 134, 2236, 2007.
G. A. Tammann, A. Sandadge, and B. Reindl, Astron. Astrophys., 404, 423, 2003.
G. A. Tammann, A. Sandadge, and B. Reindl, Astrophys. J., 679, 52, 2008.
P. A. Whitelock, M. W. Feast, and F. van Leeuwen, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 386, 313, 2008.
Z. K. Alksne, A. K. Alksnis, and U. K. Dzervitis, "Properties Of Galactic Carbon Stars", Orbit Book Company, Malabar, Florida, 1991.
E. J. Totten and M. J. Irwin, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 294, 1, 1998.
N. Mauron, Astron. Astrophys., 482, 843, 2008.
P. Green, Astrophys. J., 765, 12, 2013.
N. Mauron, K. S. Gigoyan, P. Berlioz-Arthaud, and A. Klotz, Astron. Astrophys., 562, A24, 2014.
E. Lagadec, A. A. Zijlstra, M. Matsuura et al., Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 383, 399, 2008.
J. Menzies, M. Feast, P. Whitelock et al., Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 385, 1045, 2008.
E. Lagadec, A. A. Zijlstra, G. C. Sloan et al., Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 396, 598, 2009.
J. W. Menzies, P. Whitelock, M. W. Feast, and N. Matsunaga, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 406, 86, 2010.
B. E. Markarian, V. A. Lipovetski, J. A. Stepanian et. al., Commun. Special. Astrophys. Obs., 62, 5, 1989.
K. S. Gigoyan, N. Mauron, M. Azzopardi et al., Astron. Astrophys., 371, 560, 2001.
K. S. Gigoyan, A. M. Mickaelian, and N. Mauron, Astrofizika, 49, 197, 2006.
K. S. Gigoyan, D. Engels, N. Mauron et al., Astrophysics, 51, 209, 2008.
K. S. Gigoyan, P. K. Sinamyan, D. Engels, and A. M. Mickaelian, Astrophysics, 53, 123, 2010.
K. S. Gigoyan and A. M. Mickaelian, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 419, 3346, 2012. (CDS Vizier catalogue at http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR?-source=III/266).
A. M. Mickaelian, R. Nesci, C.Rossi et al., Astron. Astrophys., 464, 1177, 2007.
K. S. Gigoyan, D. Russeil, A. M. Mickaelian, A. Sarkissian, and M. G. Avtandilyan, Astron. Astrophys., 544, A95.
K. S. Gigoyan, C. Rossi, A. Sarkissian et al., (in preparation) (Astron. Astrophys.).
C. Akerlof, S. Amrose, R. Balsano et al., Astron. J., 119, 1901, 2000.
P. R.Wozniak, W. T. Westrand, C. W.Akerlof et al., Astron. J., 127, 2436, 2004.
P. R. Wozniak, S. J. Williams, W. T. Westrand et al., Astron. J., 128, 2965, 2004. (available at http://vizier.ustrasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR?-source=J/AJ/128/2965/).
D. I. Hoffman, T. E. Harrison, and B. J. McNamara, Astron. J., 138, 466, 2009.
A. J. Drake, S. D. Djorgovski, A. Mahabal et al., Astrophys. J., 696, 870, 2009.
B. Sesar, J. S. Stuart, Z. Ivezic et al., Astron. J., 142, 190, 2011.
S. Ferraz-Mello, Astron. J., 86, 619, 1981.
A. Alksnis, A. Balklavs, U. Dzervitis et al., General Catalog Of Galactic Carbon Stars by C.Stephenson. Third Edition, Baltic Astronomy, 10, 1, 2001.
R. M. Cutri, M. F. Skrutskie, S. Van Dyk et al., The 2MASS ALL-Sky Catalogue of Point Sources, Univ. of Massachusetts and Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, CDS Catalogue II/246, 2003.
M. A. T. Groenewegen and P. A. Whitelock, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 281, 1347, 1996.
G. R. Knapp, D. Pourbaix, I. Platais, and A.Jorissen, Astron. Astrophys., 403, 993, 2003.
G. Wallerstein and G. R. Knapp, An. Rev. Astron. Astrophys., 36, 369, 1998.
K. S. Gigoyan, G. Kostandyan, A. Sarkissian, and D. Russeil, Astrophysics, 56, 267, 2013.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Published in Astrofizika, Vol. 57, No. 4, pp. 553–562 (November 2014).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gigoyan, K.S., Sarkissian, A., Russeil, D. et al. Investigation of Faint Galactic Carbon Stars from the First Byurakan Spectral sky Survey. Optical Variability. I. N-Type AGB Carbon Stars. K-band Absolute Magnitudes and Distances. Astrophysics 57, 510–519 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10511-014-9354-5
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10511-014-9354-5