Photometry of 20 eclipsing and ellipsoidal binary systems

Abstract

ERRATUM: In the published paper the phase diagrams of pi Sco and AL Scl were ommitted. The version reproduced in JAD11, 7 is the complete version. A total of almost 2000 V observations of 20 eclipsing and ellipsoidal bright binary stars was collected between 1991 and 2001 for the purpose of determining more recent epoch ephemerides for the light curves than are available in the literature. The original purpose was to provide the Sydney University Stellar Interferometer (SUSI) with orbital periods and particularly the accurate times of minimum separation (light curve minima), so that the SUSI observations need not be used to determine them.

This paper provides the periods, the times of primary minima and the phases of secondary minima for the 20 stars at an epoch as near as possible to the year 2000. No attempt has been made in this report to determine other parameters such as {apsidal motion} or stellar radii.

Since the program was started in 1991, data for these stars taken in the period from late 1989 to early 1993 has also been available from the Hipparcos satellite; the light curves shown here include both sets of observations.