Massive Variability Surveys from Venezuela

Abstract

At the Venezuela National Astronomical Observatory we are carrying out variability surveys spanning many hundreds of square degrees near the celestial equator, using an 8k x 8k CCD Mosaic Camera optimized for drift-scanning on a 1m Schmidt telescope. Among the initial efforts was a project to obtain the first moderately deep, homogeneous sample of young stars over an area of ~180sqr.deg. encompassing the entire Orion OB1 association, one of the nearest and most active regions of star formation. The results show that variability is a powerful technique to identify pre-main sequence populations, specially in sparse areas devoid of gas and dust. We are currently developing a massive database, equipped with web-based data mining tools, that will make our data and results available to the astronomical community.

4 pages, 3 postscript figures, to appear in the proceedings of the International Symposium on Astrophysics Research and on the Dialogue between Science and Religion, Vatican Observatory 2002, C.D. Impey & C.E. Petry, editors