2019 data update (7/n)

[Orig: August 13, 2019]

Hi everyone,

The TESS satellite has been staring at our star (along with millions of other stars) for nearly a month now. The TESS data will be available in a few months, and will provide us with the first uninterrupted view of the star for an extended period of time since the Kepler mission (2009-2013). The TESS data will allow us to look for any short term variability that would otherwise go undetected in our observations from the ground.

TESS data do not make the ground based observations obsolete though. Data from TESS are downloaded ~monthly, so we would not know if anything happened until well after it happened. As such, the ground based observations are critical for triggering alerts for more sensitive observations if any large events are detected (like the Elsie family of dips). Ground based observations also provide us with the dip depth at different colors of light (TESS, like Kepler, only observes in one color of light), and the different color allow us to study the details of what kind of material is passing in front of the star. Now the big questions is what will we see during this time, if anything??

Below I present the ground based data taken with the LCO 0.4m network this year; we have yet to witness anything remarkable. Many observers at the AAVSO are also tracking the star with their own equipment - you can view those data here: https://www.aavso.org/LCGv2/ by typing in "KIC 8462852" in the "star name" box.

All the best,

Tabby and team

PS: These observations are happening because of the wonderful backers of our 2016 Kickstarter project. The Kickstarter campaign has ended, but we are still accepting donations to purchase additional observing time on the LCO 0.4m network. Thanks in advance for your support!