BRIGHT VARIABLE STARS IN NGC 6819: AN OPEN CLUSTER IN THE KEPLER FIELD

We describe a variability study of the moderately old open cluster NGC 6819. We have detected four new detached eclipsing binaries near the cluster turnoff (one of which may be in a triple system). Several of these systems should be able to provide mass and radius information, and can therefore constrain the age of the cluster. We have also newly detected one possible detached binary member about 3.5 mag below the turnoff. One EW-type binary (probably not a cluster member) shows unusually strong night-to-night light curve variations in sets of observations separated by eight years. According to the best current information, the three brightest variables we detected (two of them new) are cluster members, making them blue stragglers. The first one is a delta Scu pulsating variable, the second one is a close but detached binary, and the third one contains a detached short-period binary that shows total eclipses. In each case, however, there is evidence hinting that the system may have been produced through the interaction of more than two stars.