Optical Variability of the T Tauri Star Hh30

We report results of V RI photometric monitoring of the T Tauri star plus disk system HH30. We find that HH30 is highly variable over timescales of a few days with ∆V ∼ 1.5 mag, ∆I ∼ 1.1 mag. Furthermore we find hints of periodicity with periodograms indicating possible periods of 11.6 and 19.8 days. The V RI photometry is available through the anonymous ftp service. We model the variability with Monte Carlo radiation transfer simulations for a spotted star plus disk system and find that the large variability is best reproduced with a single hot spot and circumstellar grains that are larger than typical interstellar grains. The apparent existence of a single hot spot and the need for larger, more forward throwing grains is consistent with previous modeling of HST imagery. Subject headings: stars: pre-main-sequence — stars: rotation — stars: spots — stars: individual (HH30) — accretion, accretion disks — radiative transfer