The Isaac Newton Telescope monitoring survey of Local Group dwarf
  galaxies. I. Survey overview and first results for Andromeda I
  An optical monitoring survey in the nearby dwarf galaxies was carried out
with the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT). 55 dwarf galaxies and four
isolated globular clusters in the Local Group (LG) were observed with the Wide
Field Camera (WFC). The main aims of this survey are to identify the most
evolved asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and red supergiants at the
end-point of their evolution based on their pulsational instability, use their
distribution over luminosity to reconstruct the star formation history,
quantify the dust production and mass loss from modelling the multi-wavelength
spectral energy distributions, and relate this to luminosity and radius
variations. In this first of a series of papers, we present the methodology of
the variability survey and describe the photometric catalogue of Andromeda I
(And I) dwarf galaxy as an example of the survey, and discuss the identified
long period variable (LPV) stars. We detected 5581 stars and identified 59 LPV
candidates within two half-light radii of the centre of And I. The amplitudes
of these candidates range from 0.2 to 3 mag in the $i$-band. 75 % of detected
sources and 98 % of LPV candidates are detected at mid-infrared wavelengths. We
show evidence for the presence of dust-producing AGB stars in this galaxy
including five extreme AGB (x-AGB) stars, and model some of their spectral
energy distributions. A distance modulus of 24.41 mag for And I was determined
based on the tip of the red giant branch (RGB). Also, a half-light radius of
3.2 arcmin is calculated.
