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Up: New variable stars

1. Introduction

This contribution continues a series of papers presenting results of an ongoing photometric survey for faint variables in southern globular clusters. Our main objective is the identification of detached eclipsing binaries suitable for accurate determination of turnoff masses and distances to the clusters (e.g. Paczyński 1996). As expected, the survey provides a rich harvest of contact binaries and SX Phe stars. Recently we reported discovery of a few dozen variables in tex2html_wrap_inline865 Cen (Kaluzny et al. 1996, 1997), NGC 6397 (Kaluzny 1997) and M4 (Kaluzny, et al. 1997).

NGC 288 (l=149 deg, b=-89.4 deg) is one of the closest globular clusters. Low central concentration, very small reddening and a high galactic latitude make it a very attractive object for all sort of studies. The cluster harbors a large number of blue stragglers (Bolte 1992). Recently Kaluzny (1996; Paper I) reported on a pilot survey which resulted in the discovery of 4 SX Phe stars and 1 RR Lyr variable in the cluster. That data set consisted of 81 V-band images collected with the CTIO 0.9-m telescope over a 13 day period in July 1995. Below we present results of a more extended survey of NGC 288 which was conducted at Las Campanas Observatory.


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