Abstract
We present the results of spectroscopic observations in the range of 4280-6800 Å of AB Aur, a Herbig Ae/Be type star. These observations were carried out at the Observatory of the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá - Colombia in 2015. We select the 4280-6000 Å spectral window for fitting our data to a black-body model of the star. In this range, the effects due to circumstellar disk emission are negligible and the nighborhood of the prominent accretion Hα emission line is neglected. In this window the dominant lines due atomic processes are the Balmer series lines Hβ and Hγ. We remove data around 3σ for each of these lines in order to ignore quantum effects. We model the stellar continuum by doing a Monte Carlo bootstrap-sampled fitting of three parameters: (i) a bolometric correction factor due to atmospheric absorption and/or defect electronics, (ii) measured (relative) continuum flux, and (iii) stellar temperature Teff. We obtain a value for the stellar temperature of 9400K-9700K, in agreement with the temperature reported by Tannirkulam et al. 2008. We also successfully fitted the H lines using a two-component gaussian fit, which shows the effects of stellar wind on top of the gas accretion onto the star. Our measurements strongly suggest that even in the harsh observational conditions present in Colombia, it is possible to obtain quality astronomical data for teaching astrophysics at an undergraduate level.
