This week we look at the young star TX Ori, in the sigma-Ori HOYS field. We have investigated this star in detail before, in our paper: A survey for variable young stars with small telescopes – V. Analysis of TX Ori, V505 Ori, and V510 Ori, the HST ULLYSES targets in the σ Ori cluster.
This field is lately one of the best observed, with over 10,000 images in the last 4 years alone. Thus, not much of the variability of sources in this field goes unnoticed in our data :-). It is hence ideal to study objects in the region as all timescales from 1d to years can be covered. We only miss out on about 80d each year, when this field is too close to the Sun for any observations.
In the above plot we show the behaviour of the star during the last winter. We show the B, V, R, and I-band data. Note that the legend on the right shows by how much some of the data have been shifted to fainter magnitudes for better visibility of the features. One can see that the source is constantly changing. In most cases we see dimming events of different duration and depth. In most cases, what looks like ‘noise’ on very short timescales, is also real variations, as these small changes occur in all filters at the same time.
Happy Easter Everyone!