november stars

From: Joe Patterson <*jop_at_astro.columbia.edu*> Date: Fri, 15 Nov 96 15:40:55 EST · jop_at_astro.columbia.edu

Hi CBAers,                                             15 Nov 1996

About to leave for the weekend.  More accurately, about to go lead a
group to Harriman Observatory in 15-degree (F) weather.  Lasse will not
be impressed but the night will be awfully raw I'm sure.

Anyway, I wanted to make a few comments about target selection these
days.  RW Tri and FY Per are good choices for the smaller telescopes.
We still don't have any good streak going, but they'll be around for a
while, and see if you can service these most friendly stars.  Long runs
best of course, as (nearly) always.

PX And = And 1 = PG0027+26 will remain our top priority object for
several weeks.  We've gotten a little bit of high-quality data, which
showed nice eclipses, and good promise (no guarantees though) of
permanent superhumps.  We love the eclipsers because if these stars do
superhump, we can use the eclipse shape to decipher the light
distribution of the superhumping source (at least measure how centrally
condensed it is).

For the terminal australites, the two stars to watch closely are AH Eri
(if it ever erupts) and RR Pic.  We expect to be studying RR Pic for
months starting now - get us off to a rousing start!  Nice and bright,
a star for everyone who can cope with the impressive -60 degree
declination.

I'll put together a full newsletter over the next 10 d or so, before
Jonathan leaves for Chile on a long run.

joe