A Preliminary Visual Orbit of BY Draconis

Abstract

We report on the preliminary determination of the visual orbit of the double-lined spectroscopic binary system BY Draconis with data obtained by the Palomar Testbed Interferometer in 1999. BY Dra is a nearly equal-mass double-lined binary system whose spectroscopic orbit is well known. We have estimated the visual orbit of BY Dra from our interferometric visibility data fit both separately and in conjunction with archival radial velocity data. Our BY Dra orbit is in good agreement with the spectroscopic results. Due to the orbit's face-on orientation, the physical parameters implied by a combined fit to our visibility data and radial velocity data do not yet result in precise component masses and a system distance, but with continued interferometric monitoring we hope to improve the mass estimates to better than 10% determinations.

13 pages, 4 figures, ApJL submitted

References in corpus (4)

• The Palomar Testbed Interferometer
• The Visual Orbit of iota Pegasi
• The Visual Orbit and Evolutionary State of 12 Bootes
• The Visual Orbit of 64 Piscum

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Asteroseismology and Interferometry
• The Palomar Testbed Interferometer Calibrator Catalog
• Testing Stellar Models With An Improved Physical Orbit for 12 Bootis
• The visual orbits of the spectroscopic binaries HD 6118 and HD 27483 from the Palomar Testbed Interferometer
• New high precision orbital and physical parameters of the double-lined low-mass spectroscopic binary BY Draconis