Author(s): Stryder Wiese
Mentor(s): Cameron Pace
Institution SUU
Double stars are useful for determining stellar masses. Often, stars that appear to be in a binary system are not physically associated, but due to line of sight, they appear to be from our perspective. For this project, we observed the system WDS 05205+3654, which was selected from the Washington Double Star Catalog (WDS) because of its large number of potential systems. A total of 7 potential double star systems are found in WDS 05205+3654, and they were observed using the Great Basin Observatory. Ten images were taken to improve statistics. The position angle and separation of each of the systems were measured using AstroImageJ. These measurements were then compared to historical observations retrieved from the Washington Double Star Catalog. Plots were made of all measurements, and we found that all of the secondary stars were moving in a linear fashion relative to their primary stars. This indicates that none of the systems are true binaries. Parallax and proper motion data from the Gaia database was retrieved to further investigate the nature of these systems. The results confirm that none of the pairs are physically bound.