BVRI photometric monitoring of Eta Carinae

E. FERNÁNDEZ LAJÚS; M. SCHWARTZ; A. TORRES; N. SALERNO; C. FARIÑA; C. LLINARES; L. SIMONTACCHI; R. GAMEN; V.S. NIEMELA

Pucón, Chile

Congreso; XI IAU Regional Latin American Meeting of Astronomy; 2005

Internatinal Astronomical Union, Sociedad Chilena de Astronomia

We present here the most recent results, obtained up to August, 2005, of our monitoring program of the Luminous Blue Variable Eta Carinae. After the observing campaign to register the ``eclipse-like´´ event, which ocurred in 2003.5 (Fernández Lajús et al. 2003, IBVS, 5477, 1), we have continued the monitoring of this amazing object, aiming to complete the orbital period of 5.5 years of the proposed binary. Our observations consist of CCD photometry in the Johnson-Cousins optical bands BVRI, using the 0.8-m Reflector telescope at La Plata Observatory, Argentina. The light curves in the four bands, show a similar behavior. Fluctuations were present in every band and their amplitudes were not greater than 0.1 mag. Two notorius minima were registered in February 2004 and December 2004, and one maximum during January 2005. Eta Car has slowly brightened reaching V ~ 4.85 during August 2005. All our data are permanently updated and can be seen in our web-page: http://lilen.fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar/EtaCar.