Abstract
IT has been suggested that the variable star X Per may be the X-ray source 2ASE 0352 + 30 (refs. 1 and 2, and R. J. Brucato and J. Kristian, personal communication). Nikulin et al.3 report strong and variable circular polarization of Sco X-1 and HD 226868 (the possible optical counterpart of Cyg X-1), so the polarization of X Per (and its variation) is of interest. One of us (J. T., unpublished thesis) has recently developed a wideband polarization modulator of the Dollfus type4,5. A prototype using plastic retarders was used on a 30-cm Cassegrain reflector to observe the polarization of nearby bright stars, and of ζ Per and X Per. The observations on bright stars and on ζ Per show that instrumental polarization (linear or circular) is certainly less than 0.02% of the total intensity, even in the presence of several % of total intensity in polarization forms other than that being measured. Our bandwidth of approximately 1000 Å is centred between 5000 Å and 5500 Å.
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References
Braes, L. L. E., and Miley, G. K., Nature, 235, 273 (1972).
Van Den Bergh, S., Nature, 235, 273 (1972).
Nikulin, N. S., Kuvshinov, V. M., and Severny, A. B., Astrophys. J. Lett., 170, L53 (1971).
Dollfus, A., Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, 256, 1920 (1963).
Marin, M., Revue d'Optique, 44, 115 (1965).
Behr, A., Veröff. Univ. Sternwarte Göttingen, No. 126 (1959).
Hiltner, W. A., Astrophys. J. Suppl., 2, 389 (1956).
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BAUD, B., TINBERGEN, J. Optical Polarization of X Per. Nature 237, 29–30 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/237029b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/237029b0
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