A Photometric Study of Eclipsing Binary Stars

The changing brightness of an eclipsing binary star can reveal stellar properties such as mass, temperature, and luminosity. The targets of our research were the binary star systems V1073 Hercules and V0384 Serpentis. Multiband photometric observations were acquired in June 2016 and June 2017 using the 14-inch robotic Ritchey-Chretien telescope at the Waffelow Creek Observatory. Calibration of the images and ensemble photometry were performed using Mira software. The observations resulted in complete light curves for each star in three passbands: Sloan g', r' and i'. The light curves indicate both stars are W-type contact eclipsing binaries. New times of minima were determined and a period study performed.