  PG 1159-035, a pre-white dwarf with T=140000 K, is the prototype of the
PG1159 spectroscopic class and the DOV pulsating class. Changes in the star
cause variations in its oscillation periods. The measurement of temporal change
in the oscillation periods, dP/dt, allows us to estimate directly rates of
stellar evolutionary changes, such as the cooling rate and the envelope
contraction rate, providing a way to test and refine evolutionary models for
pre-white dwarf pulsating stars.
  We measured 27 pulsation modes period changes. The periods varied at rates of
between 1 and 100 ms/yr, and several can be directly measured with a relative
standard uncertainty below 10%. For the 516.0 s mode (the highest in amplitude)
in particular, not only the value of dP/dt can be measured directly with a
relative standard uncertainty of 2%, but the second order period change,
d(dP/dt)/dt, can also be calculated reliably. By using the (O-C) method we
refined the dP/dt and estimated the d(dP/dt)/dt for six other pulsation
periods. As a first application, we calculated the change in the PG 1559-035
rotation period, dP_rot/dt = -2.13*10^{-6} s/s, the envelope contraction rate
dR/dt = -2.2*10^{-13} solar radius/s, and the cooling rante dT/dt =
-1.42*10^{-3} K/s.

Astrophysics