Y. Ravi Kiron,1 K. Sriram,2 and P. Vivekananda Rao1
Abstract.
CCD photometric observations of the eclipsing contact binaries
(EW type) V3 and V4 of the cluster NGC 2539 were made in the
B and V bands using the 2m telescope at the IUCAA-Girawali
Observatory in India. The light curves have been obtained and
using the Wilson-Devinney code, the combined photometric solutions
have been presented here.
The photometric solutions have revealed that both V3 and V4 are W-type contact binary systems
with mass ratios of 0.806 and 1.001 respectively. Revised orbital periods, absolute masses
and radii of the components have been obtained. New ephemerides indicate that the orbital periods of
the variables have not changed much during the time span of the observations from 2003 to 2009. The
estimated absolute parameters for the two variables V3 and V4 are in close agreement with the field
EW-type binaries (Gazeas & Stepien 2008). The distance estimate for V3 is 1712±48$pc indicating
that this could be a field star in the background of the cluster, while that for V4 is
1183±32$pc, suggesting it to be a possible member of the cluster. No third light is found in the
systems.
Keywords: stars: binaries: eclipsing -- stars: binaries: general -- stars: distances --
open clusters and associations: general
1Department of Astronomy, Osmania University, Hyderabad 500 007, India
2Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Hwaam 61-1, Yuseong, Daejeon, 305-348, Republic of Korea