The 24-Hour Night Shift: Astronomy from Microlensing Monitoring Networks

Abstract

Scores of on-going microlensing events are now announced yearly by the microlensing discovery teams OGLE, MACHO and EROS. These early warning systems have allowed other international microlensing networks to focus considerable resources on intense photometric - and occasionally spectroscopic - monitoring of microlensing events. Early results include: metallicity measurements of main sequence Galactic bulge stars; limb darkening determinations for stars in the Bulge and Small Magellanic Cloud; proper motion measurements that constrain microlens identity; and constraints on Jovian-mass planets orbiting (presumably stellar) lenses. These results and auxiliary science such as variable star studies and optical identification of gamma ray bursts are reviewed.