The History of the Mysterious Eclipses of KH 15D II. Asiago, Kiso, Kitt Peak, Mt. Wilson, Palomar, Tautenburg and Rozhen Observatories, 1954-97

Abstract

The unusual pre-main-sequence binary star named KH 15D undergoes remarkably deep and long-lasting periodic eclipses. Some clues about the reason for these eclipses have come from the observed evolution of the system's light curve over the last century. Here we present UBVRI photometry of KH 15D based on photographic plates from various observatories, ranging in time from 1954 to 1997. The system has been variable at the ~1 mag level since at least 1965. There is no evidence for color variations, with a typical limit of Delta(B-V) < 0.2 mag. We confirm some previously published results that were based on a smaller sample of plates: from approximately 1965 to 1990, the total flux was modulated with the 48-day orbital period of the binary, but the maximum flux was larger, the fractional variations were smaller, and the phase of minimum flux was shifted by almost a half-cycle relative to the modern light curve. All these results are consistent with the recently proposed theory that KH 15D is being occulted by an inclined, precessing, circumbinary ring.

10 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal

References in corpus (10)

• The Circumbinary Ring of KH 15D
• KH 15D: Gradual Occultation of a Pre-Main-Sequence Binary
• Fine Structure in the Circumstellar Environment of a Young, Solar-like Star: the Unique Eclipses of KH 15D
• KH 15D: A Spectroscopic Binary
• The History of the Mysterious Eclipses of KH 15D: Asiago Observatory, 1967-1982
• Spectropolarimetry and Modeling of the Eclipsing T Tauri Star KH 15D
• Limits on eclipses of the pre-main-sequence star KH 15D in the first half of the 20th century
• KH15D: a star eclipsed by a large scale dusty vortex?
• Spectroscopy of Molecular Hydrogen Emission from KH 15D
• H${}_2$ Emission Nebulosity Associated with KH 15D

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