KL Dra and WZ Sge

From: Joe Patterson <*jop_at_astro.columbia.edu*> Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 17:36:27 -0400 (EDT) · jop_at_astro.columbia.edu

Dear CBAers,

I'm sure you saw Matt Wood's announcement a few hours ago - a large
periodic signal in KL Dra, an obscure star once mistaken for a supernova.
We know only a little about KL Dra - that the spectrum is dominated by
helium when bright, that it rises only to about mag 16.7, that its
quiescent magnitude is >20.  Many times I've wondered how we were ever
going to learn more.

And this is how!  It would be great to follow it for a few days now, to
take advantage of this bright state (which is probably short-lived).  Send
the data to Matt, and also to the archive.

Very tough star to do, with its brightness and the Moon getting kind of
annoying.  But I thought there might be some show-offs out there!

19 24 38.0  +59 41 46 (2000) Chart in the Downes catalog, living edition.
http://icarus.stsci.edu/~downes/cvcat

The main event is still WZ Sge.  We've gotten excellent data sets lately
from Tim Hager, Michael Richmond, Dan Kaiser, and Rudolf Novak, in
addition to the regulars.  Plus Gianluca Masi of course!  Keep up the
pressure on ol' WZ.

                    joe