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Dear colleagues,
<br>
<br>
I would like to invite you to the following seminar:<br>
<br>
Rainer Kuschnig<br>
(BRITE <span style=" color:#000000;">Instrument Scientist,
Institute for Astrophysics</span><span style=" color:#800000;"></span><span
style=" color:#000000;"></span>, University of Vienna, Austria)<br>
<br>
"BRITE-Constellation 'Shoebox Sized' Satellites for Variable-Star
Research"<br>
<br>
Friday, 10th of July, 11:00h, F-201<br>
<br>
BRITE-Constellation (BRight Target Explorer) consists of six
nano-satellites aiming to study of variability of the brightest
stars in the sky. Austria, Poland, and Canada contribute two
spacecraft each all launched into low earth orbits. The satellites
have the same structure: they are 20 cm cubes, 7kg mass, with a CCD
photometer fed by 3 cm aperture telescopes. The main difference
between pairs of satellites is the instrument passband which set to
blue (400-450nm) or red (550-700nm). The main scientific objective
is to obtain high precision two color photometry, with a time base
of up to 160 days, of stars brighter than 4.5 mag in order to study
stellar pulsations, spots, and granulation, eclipsing binaries,
search for planets and also to enlarge the base of proven constant
photometric standard stars. The main characteristics of the
mission, the scientific goals and some first results will be
presented.<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
<br>
Ivica Smolić<br>
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