In the late 1940s, Professor emeritus, James Karle, and the college machinist at the time, Robert Perry, constructed a 10-inch Newtonian reflector (shown above). Between 1955 and 1975, Karle and his assistants observed a multitude of different short period eclipsing binary star systems. Karle's observations were meticulously aimed at determining the binary system's time of minimum brightness, or primary eclipse (when the hotter star, with a higher surface brightness, is covered by the cooler star). More than twenty years later, the observations began again, in 1996, by Colby Jurgenson and Matt Price. Equipment was restored and additional data points were collated with Karle's reports, the goal to compare observations with Karle's data to detect changes that may have occurred in the interim.

Program Introduction

Created by: MelissaPereira 4/2000

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