The Taiwan-American occultation survey project stellar variability. I: Detection of low-amplitude δ Scuti stars

We analyzed data accumulated during 2005 and 2006 by the Taiwan-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) in order to detect short-period variable stars (periods of ≲1 hr) such as δ Scuti. TAOS is designed for the detection of stellar occultation by small-size Kuiper Belt Objects and is operating four 50 cm telescopes at an effective cadence of 5 Hz. The four telescopes simultaneously monitor the same patch of the sky in order to reduce false positives. To detect short-period variables, we used the fast Fourier transform algorithm (FFT) in as much as the data points in TAOS light curves are evenly spaced. Using FFT, we found 41 short-period variables with amplitudes smaller than a few hundredths of a magnitude and periods of about an hour, which suggest that they are low-amplitude δ Scuti stars. The light curves of TAOS δ Scuti stars are accessible online at the Time Series Center Web site (http://timemachine.iic.harvard.edu).