In search of a way to study Beta Perseus, I have tried a few things.
First, I decided to use comparison stars to attempt to correct for image deviations due to clouds, low altitudes, and any other weird occurences in the data. I collected photometry for Bet Per from 10/09/04 to 10/14/04. I also collected all the available files for the Alp, Gam, Eps, and Zet stars of Perseus. For each of the comparison stars I took an average C5-B using all available data. I then took C5-B for each image and divided it by the average for the star. After doing this for each of the comparison stars I took an average of the results and divided C5-B for Bet Per by this number.
This is the graph
Bet Per is known to eclipse at
JD = 2452500.150 + E x 2.867328
The eclipse for E = 275
Occured at 2453288.6652
E = 276 at 2453291.5325
These points are marked on the above graph in red.
The eclipse is supposed to last for "several hours" (anyone have a number for me?)
For epoch 276 the HL CONCAM did not see Bet Per until more than six hours after the minimum.
For 275 the CONCAM first picked up Bet Per a little over three hours after the minimum, I suspect the show was mostly over except for maybe the very end.
So, as seen in the graph, my correction attempts failed to bring low altitude data to a standard level.
Next, I decided to use the data to calculate an expected value for Bet Per (C5-B) for each integer of altitude, and use this for comparison on future nights.
When compared to these values, October 15th looks like this
![Image](http://www.geocities.com/aceofspace03/BetPerAltCor.jpg)
For reference, the starting altitude was 21 degrees, the max was 70 and it ended at 41.
This graph did not come out as smooth as I had hoped, however this method may be useful in spotting an eclipse. I believe after a couple more cycles Bet Per will eclipse while seen by the HL CONCAM.
In the meantime I am looking to see if any of the other CONCAMS saw the most recent eclipses.