ARCSAT ID NUMBER: AS03

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE: Stellar Environments of the Nearest Red Dwarfs

PI: Michele Silverstein (GSU)

OBSERVER(S): Michele Silverstein (GSU), Todd Henry (RECONS Institute)
and Tiffany Clements(Pewett) (GSU)

UNCERTIFIED/UNTRAINED OBSERVERS:

COLLABORATORS: Wei-Chun Jao (GSU), Jen Winters (RECONS Institute)

CONTACT INFORMATION: (PI/OBSERVER email/phone)
silverstein@astro.gsu.edu (404-413-6024), thenry@astro.gsu.edu
(404-413-6054)

TIME REQUESTED: 7 nights during any of the following weeks

1. APR 18-24
2. MAY 02-08
3. MAY 16-22

7 nights are requested to observe ~100 stars, some of which will be
observed more than once to measure consistency between nights, and
eventually, observing runs.  Photometric standard stars will be
interspersed between science stars.  Any Moon phase is ok.

Note: PI Silverstein and CoI Clements (also requesting a week of
ARCSAT time) will coordinate observing to take advantage of weather
conditions in order to maximize the science.

INSTRUMENT: SurveyCam

FILTERS: VRI

COMMENTS: Here is the status of nights so far for this project:

                  program nts    backup nts    total wipeouts

2014-JUL/AUG/SEP        2              3                12
2014-OCT/NOV/DEC        2              1                 4
2015-JAN/FEB/MAR        -              -                 -
2015-APR/MAY/JUN        4              7                 3
2015-JUL/AUG/SEP        -              -                 -
2015-OCT/NOV/DEC        3              2                 2
2016-JAN/FEB/MAR        2              5                 -

TOTAL                  13             18                21

program nts    = used for primary photometric program
backup nts     = used for backup program(s)
total wipeouts = no useful data acquired

BRIEF SCIENCE JUSTIFICATION:  (restrict yourself to 1-2 paragraphs)

As part of the PI's thesis, we wish to gather high-quality VRI
photometry of red dwarf stars within 25 pc.  These data will be part
of a comprehensive search for substellar companions and circumstellar
disks around roughly 3000 red dwarfs within 25 pc. Fundamental
properties of the red dwarfs will also be determined using SED fitting
models --- for the subset of stars with parallaxes, radii will be
derived, thereby allowing us to pick out young/old stars via their
correspondingly large/small radii. The optical data from this program
are needed to evaluate the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the
stars, and will be used in tandem with 2MASS and WISE photometry to
extend the SEDs to mid-infrared wavelengths.  

In a 7-night run, we will target ~100 stars with magnitudes 6-18 to
continue our survey of red dwarfs in the solar neighborhood.  Stars
will be observed twice each to test repeatability and to look for
variability.  Non-photometric conditions will be used to (1) survey
individual stars for flaring activity (a portion of Pewett's PhD
thesis), (2) measure magnitude differences for multiples resolved in
VRI, and (3) check separations and position angles of binaries,
astrometry that is useful for the RECONS 25 Parsec Database currently
being built as part of our survey of the solar neighborhood
(www.recons.org).