Dear CBAer,                                       Dec. 3, 1997.

TT Ari's dancin' to its old tune again!  After extremely sluggish
performance for the last 20 years, the star seems to have become
aroused again and is humping away at 0.2 mag full amplitude.  Have a
look at the enclosed data, a splice of Lasse's and Dave East's runs
from two nights ago.

Yessir, definitely back, it's official.  O joy!  A few other runs over
the last few weeks show it too.

This rockets TT Ari up to the top of the priority list.  We want to
stomp on it really hard throughout December, to take advantage of its
present humping state.  For another reason too.  If you get out the ol'
ruler, you may see that the period appears to be longer than the 0.1330
d period that prevailed throughout the 60s (and in the late 80s as
well).  Pow'f'l interestin', if true.

I see that we don't have a CBA chart posted on the website; we'll try
to get one there in a few days.  Pick yourself some comp star that you
like and we'll sort it out later.  The star is in all the standard CV
catalogues, Downes and Shara for example.  At mag 11, it's a great
choice for small scopes.  Watch out for saturation though.

V592 Cas has been a good show but is extremely stable, and will also be
in the sky a bit longer due to its far northern location.  So we can
lower that star to "occasional coverage".

After TT Ari has slumped into a tree on the western horizon, won't you
consider some morning targets.  We offer two specials for your viewing
pleasure:

(1) V1062 Tau = H0459+248.  A 16th mag star, with alleged signals at 1
hr and 10 hr.  Probably too tough for the small scopes.

(2) Lyn 1 = PG0859+415.  Another "SW Sex star", eclipsing, humping, and
probably superhumping (practically all the others do).  It's at
V=14.5.

There's a V1062 Tau chart on the website.  Lyn 1 not there yet but
soon.  Both stars in Downes and Shara.  For interested non-owners of
this atlas, I'll send it to you on request, and could FAX to you the
relevant pages on short notice.

Many new upgrades to the web page.  Jonathan grumbles that our CBA
friends don't come calling much.  Make him a liar.  www.astro.columbia.
edu/~cba

               joe

  
 JD          Comp-Var
 
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